general-chat

[raw jasper]

Smoking and using a shady self-made device to do it.. Talk about tempting the ferryman :P

[rapid geode]

i designed another thing i need to power with a feather 🙂 https://youtu.be/ENOEzjZFVKs

spinning 2 motors in predefined ways

one motor spins 180 degrees on a high pin, an then back on low. the other motor has to spin 2.25 revolutions at a time in a set direction. not sure yet how to do that. i think maybe a fwd and a reverse pin. as long as its high, it spins, and when it goes low it finishes its cycle of 2.25 revolutions and stops.

Hmmm. i wonder if the first one can just be an RC servo.

[rigid whale]

It was mentioned that he Fruit Jam was going to get a new name. Is this no longer the case? Am happy they stuck with it for the launch.

[hard estuary]

That's probably a good question for Ask an Engineer on Wednesdays, I forgot about that

[sturdy dawn]

Yeah I don't use these anymore

Something about putting dual 18650's to your face on a homemade device 😳

I just could never get into the disposable ones. Waste management issues and the juice isn't always made in usa

[raw jasper]

Fun fact: Even though you might not be getting tar into your lungs when using e-cigs, nicotine by itself still is a major driver of cardiovascular events. So, although vaping is quite possibly less bad than cigarettes, it's a good idea to quit all nicotine if you can.

[stone nimbus]

so im looking into the pre soldered breakout version, do the pins come presoldered?

also is there any documentation on using this? i cant find any

[raw jasper]

(Apologies for the unsolicited moralizing, it's just something people tend not to know)

[raw jasper]

However, I don't have an actuary on speed-dial to have them check the relative risks of putting a homemade LiPo circuit into your mouth compared to regular ecigs 😂

[hard estuary]

I don't work for Adafruit, but the pins usually do not come soldered

[hard estuary]

And there are a couple examples here, including a simpletest: https://github.com/adafruit/Adafruit_CircuitPython_seesaw/tree/main/examples

[ornate thistle]

need some help. i need to control a button of an device using arduino..
on the device the button short 3.3 line on gnd..

[sturdy dawn]

Yeah it would be good to quit entirely

It's supposed to be used to get off cigarettes. There was a short window when I had no craving for either but I got into the whole culture of vape mods

Sometimes I wish my parents were more strict... I started smoking at like 13 and they pretty much enabled it

Not blaming them cuz it was my decision but I know if I had kids I would definitely not let them smoke

[raw jasper]

To be fair to you, I doubt one is morally culpable of their own decisions at 13...

[raw jasper]

Ha! It's supposed to indeed! And yet I see more and more young people being introduced to the habit through vaping, and then moving to smoking traditional cigarettes to get their nicotine fix if the battery is flat or if the vape juice proves too expensive

[twilit onyx]

Hey @idle lion - I'm catching up on the stream from yesterday and wanted to share regarding early school computers. My elementary school had these ( https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/EduQuest ) and I wondered whether they were similar to what you had used

[midnight willow]

Does anyone have experience with wiring a Raspberry Pi to another microcontroller like a Feather ESP32-S3 or a QT PY?

I’d like to send commands to a microcontroller directly over a wire versus using WiFi or Bluetooth, but unsure where to start.

Thank you!

[rigid whale]

@midnight willow USB is often the norm but I am assuming you mean soldered wire. If you mean the former then I use a pi500 to upload files to a QTpy using a USB A to C data cable.

[hollow flint]

https://learn.adafruit.com/circuitpython-libraries-on-any-computer-with-raspberry-pi-pico

[idle lion]

Yeah, these definitely look familiar. A version of these might be what we had too!

[twilit onyx]

Cathode Ray Dude has a pretty detailed video about the line: https://youtu.be/ip32N476eaw?si=vCO9WJ3H7QdTD5YG
(He's got a few videos on old tech - I especially like his series on 'little guys')

[rocky talon]

Hey hey! I am looking for a .lib for a DRV2605L to import into Fusion 360 for use with my schematic. I am not very good with creating the footprints and I am hoping that someone might have already done so. I am setting out on a project for my autistic daughter. I expect that I will be asking a copious amount of questions. Thanks in advance.

[hollow flint]

Maybe one of these: https://learn.adafruit.com/adafruit-drv2605-haptic-controller-breakout/downloads#files-2934409

[midnight willow]

I’m fine with using USB and a QT Py but I’d have to disable the QT PY from editing since the USB port is publicly exposed

[midnight willow]

Thanks! That sounds close to what I want to do. Can’t I just send serial commands over USB to my QT PY, thought? Or Feather?

[tight tulip]

Does this look correct getting the LoRa module to use a quite powerful antenna?

https://learn.adafruit.com/adafruit-rfm69hcw-and-rfm96-rfm95-rfm98-lora-packet-padio-breakouts/assembly

I am trying to showcase LoRaWaN of one of the courses I am being a faclilitator in, and the company I am working with does not have the money to bring their own modules, but would help groups I am supervising to get their ideas actually working in practice.

[hollow flint]

1. Are you sure you need a fiberglass antenna?
2. Look at the diagram above for guidance on what amount of antenna gain you want.

[tight tulip]

Fibreglass antenna, or antenna with strong IP rating was strongly suggested as company (SenArch) and the topic was outdoor related. They usually deploy them in mountainous areas or seismically active.

[tight tulip]

I love this diagram, that confirmed my thinking. But still unsure.

Does -1dB gain asssume better hilly/mountainous coverage to connect to the gateway, which is likely up or side of the mountain?

[hollow flint]

That diagram was posted on the Meshtastic Discord server. Meshtastic and LoRaWAN both use LoRa internally, so I'd assume that antenna advice for one should be applicable for the other.

[tight tulip]

(I was thinking of buying them for the course and after the course taking them back to do Meshtastic (as this is on my dime) - so double thanks 😛 )

I am unsure if I understood connectors correctly. Like antenna is N-type male, which is then connected to N-type female-to-SMA-male, which is later connected to SMA-female

[hollow flint]

For Meshtastic specifically, I wouldn't recommend any of Adafruit's current LoRa modules due to this:

We strongly recommend choosing devices equipped with the newer Semtech SX126x or LR11xx series, as they offer improved performance and better compatibility than the SX127x series.
– https://meshtastic.org/docs/hardware/devices/

[tight tulip]

I guess that goes to future shopping list.

I got a plain simple SMA-male connected 3db antenna as well if I mupped up the connectors.

[fair summit]

Which LoRa frequency band are you using, and what frequency band is listed in the Mouser listing?

they should match

433 MHz antenna and 915 MHz radio or vice versa are not what you want

[tight tulip]

868 MHz for both

Including the LoRa module

[fair summit]

i have no opinion on the actual antenna, just wanted to make sure you're considering the compatibility

[tight tulip]

No need to be sorry about, I appreciate the makings of surety from these questions

[stuck moth]

They didn't think of something better and Fruit Jam grew on us.

[limber pike]

I'm unreasonably excited for the Fruit Jam. I got my daughter a pico-56 but I think the fruit jam will be a lot more usable given the support from Adafruit.

[hollow flint]

Even with Adafruit's support, somehow the Fruit Jam is less expensive than the fully assembled version of that product.

[limber pike]

They're hand-assembled by Troy in small batches and he probably isn't making much on top of the BOM. The fruit jam looks like it's assembled with pick'n'place machines at scale so I'm not sure you can compare the two.

the hbc-56 dev environment is windows-based too which is kind of crappy to work with if you're not in the visual studio ecosystem. I did finally get examples to compile using vscode but it took a frickin' long time to sort out.

[bitter badge]

I have a question for someone from Adafruit involved in shipping policy. I haven't been able to get an answer from support aside from sidestepping and then ghosting.

I live in Alaska. I need some Lithium Ion/Lithium Polymer batteries. Getting them shipped up here is difficult, due to Federal postal regulations restricting the mailing of such batteries through air mail. Now, I've read through the relevant laws on this several times now, and it's very clear that this applies to shipping through air but it is explicitly fine to ship Lithium based batteries over USPS Ground. I ordered a couple of motors a few weeks ago, and one of the shipping options listed was USPS Ground (which I believe is what I selected and used), so I know Adafruit does ship through USPS Ground, but every time I've attempted to order Lithium based batteries, it has rejected my order on the grounds that the batteries cannot be legally shipped to Alaska with any of the options available.

Is this just an accidental oversight, an abundance of caution at the expense of customers, or is there something else I don't know that is going on here? I'm trying to use Adafruit products for educational uses and for prototyping potentially commercial products, but without the ability to get Lithium Ion batteries that are explicitly tested with Adafruit's charger boards, this is proving extremely difficult.

(Yes, I'm aware that mail forwarding services exist. How would you feel if you had to pay shipping an extra time, and at a much higher rate, to get something, merely because a company won't ship it directly themselves despite them offering shipping for other products using the same service that could legally and easily ship it directly? Also, like many Americans, we are on a very tight budget right now, so it's just not an option, though it shouldn't have to be, as the regulations do explicitly allow shipping these batteries through USPS Ground.)

[thick wind]

Disclaimer: not an actual adafruit rep, just someone with some experience with battery shipment regulations.

USPS ground, to my understanding, isn’t truly ground to Alaska or Hawaii. I believe by default they do travel partly by air, hence the restriction. Some vendors will have very specialized negotiations with shipping companies to ship by sea, but in the context of Adafruit I don’t believe such an option is provided.

Motors are not restricted from air transport so it wouldn’t have been an issue, but batteries are restricted under UN3480 which is very strict about shipping methods. In very specialized situations, the batteries can be shipped by air, but because of the additional documentation and packaging requirements it’s typically very expensive.

As for ups ground, see image taken https://www.ups.com/us/en/support/shipping-support/shipping-special-care-regulated-items/hazardous-materials-guide/hazardous-material-service-definition#:~:text=Ground Service level for Hazardous,applicability of the respective regulations.

[bitter badge]

So what the law describes as ground service is not the same as what the USPS describes as ground service? Unfortunately inconsistency in government terminology makes more sense than it should.

Assuming this is the reason Adafruit doesn't ship Lithium Ion with USPS Ground, I do know that USPS has another option. I don't know what it is called, but my mom and others have asked the Post Office to ship things by "slow boat", which does not use air at all. It's also cheaper but officially can take months to get to or from Alaska. (In practice, it's generally not much slower than USPS Ground, taking at most an extra week or two. In my case though, months would still be better than never.)

In that case, I wonder if Adafruit would be willing to add "slow boat" USPS service (by whatever it's official name is), for Lithium Ion shipments to Alaska.

[lapis anchor]

I'm not sure any of the carriers take stuff into Alaska via barge unless it's a freight order? (I cover Alaska for work doing network & tech support for printers/copiers, lots of shipping of random parts, no lithium batteries - unless they're inside a product, and rules are different then)

[tribal stirrup]

Having fun with our new Fruit Jam!

[hasty wedge]

Just got a cool news

RoHS will become mandatory in China

[bitter badge]

Well USPS at least used to. Not sure when the last time my mom sent something "slow boat" (I'm middle aged now and my parents moved out of Alaska around a decade ago). I don't know if "slow boat" was literally by boat or if it was by truck up the AlCan. I do know the USPS has had financial issues over the last decade though, so maybe they terminated that service? It feels like civilization is backsliding when a whole state ends up cut out of tech development because a combination of laws and postal service financial problems.

I am fully aware that Lithium based batteries can be shipped in finished products, but if the product was finished, I wouldn't need the batteries to develop it!

It would be absolutely tragic if my only recourse with this was to lobby my Federal reps to adjust Federal law to allow an incredibly common product to be shipped to my state. I mean, how pathetic is a country...? I'll wait and see if Adafruit has any comments on this, but if Alaska really is cut out of a whole economic sector because of this, that really is completely pathetic governance.

[lapis anchor]

Yeah anymore "slow boat" to Alaska (for normal package shipping) is just a low priority shipment, still generally gets flown into the state... the "slow" aspect is the movements in the lower 48 (via trucks as opposed to flights) 😄 I don't think trucking up the Alcan has been a thing for couriers? (for "normal" shipments, I mean - since you're having to cross the border into/out of Canada) Potentially on the barges for sure - there are a few shipping companies that send barges up from the Seattle area a couple times a week, but I'm not sure they do courier services. (have never looked honestly - we often use them for shipping pallets or containers)

I don't get that heavily involved in shipping into the state, it's generally from our locations in Alaska out to remote locations. USPS is pretty much the only last mile carrier in the state, and even then they're outsourcing to a lot of small aircraft pilots for the bush locations. (a lot of shipments via UPS get handed to USPS, who then hands them to a 3rd party - the amount of lost packages we run into is... frustrating, to say the least :D)

Might be work checking to see if there's a local company that does resell batteries? Or if your design has some flexibility - should be able to pick up the rechargable vapes for super cheap and scrap the batteries? (not ideal, but an idea :D)

[bitter badge]

There are some companies in Seattle that will do "forward shipping" by barge (or on ferries) to Alaska. The problem is that you'll spend several times the initial shipping (in addition to the shipping to get it to them). They also typically only do very small shipments, that can fill in space between the big stuff. It's just not a viable business model to have stuff shipped that way. Anyone in the lower-48 could make the same product and ship it to Alaska with the battery in the product for a fraction of the price. So even if I only wanted to make products to sell locally, people outside of the state would be able to make it, ship it to Alaska, and sell it in the state for much less.

I've looked for local companies. I can't find any. There's even a battery store near my house that sells almost only batteries, but they don't have them and say they can't get them. On top of that though, at least for development, I'd rather use Adafruit's batteries, because they are guaranteed to work with Adafruit's chargers. If I end up with making consumer products, I could develop my own charger to work with a battery from some mass manufacturer, but for prototyping that's far too expensive.

I have considered buying USB cell phone chargers and scrapping them for the batteries, but that's also cost prohibitive. As a short term option just for prototyping it could work, but that comes back around to whether or not they'll work with Adafruit's chargers or if I'm going to randomly start a toxic fire in my house just by trying. The batteries in vapes almost certainly don't have sufficient capacity for most of my requirements, and I don't want to try charging those in parallel, as doing that is fraught with peril! (And I do need to use Adafruit's chargers, because most USB cell phone chargers don't have pass-through charging, which some of Adafruit's chargers do have.)

[lapis anchor]

Yep - very fair and valid points. Shipping is one of the biggest costs of doing business in Alaska... well, logistics as a whole really. One of the big reasons dairy products aren't very common outside of the large cities.

The Adafruit chargers are going to be fairly universal as far as LiPo batteries go - especially if you're using a larger capacity battery, the concerns of having too high of a charge current basically go out the window. The cutoff voltage for charging LiPo batteries is standard due to the chemistry of the batteries, as well. (noting the exception that LiFePO battery is not the same as a LiPo battery, and that not all batteries have their positive/negative leads installed in adapters in the same orientation - but that's easily identifiable with a multimeter)

[bitter badge]

There are also two common voltages used with lithium rechargables, and Adafruit's chargers only support one. (I forget which, but I can look that up easily.)

[lapis anchor]

Yeah, theirs will support LiPo. Cutoff voltage is generally 4.2V but kept lower in a lot of cases to extend the life of the battery. LiFePO is the more recent to the DIY world and is where a lot of the confusion comes from as it's technically lithium based - the "lithium" seems to cause the confusion. LiPo seems to be the most common in DIY currently/still. LiFePO is a much safer battery chemistry - but doesn't have as high of an energy density. (it's LiFePO4 I know, just mobile typing and laziness thing :D)

*Worth noting: I'm just a hobbyist and not an expert - as with everything else, trust but verify. Lol just speaking from my understanding, which very well may not be correct or up to date.

[bitter badge]

I just priced out 5Ah USB batteries at the local Walmart. They are between $8 and $9 right now (which is actually cheaper than most of the Adafruit batteries...), and that's enough capacity for most of my projects. Adafruit's Power Boost 1000 should work well with it. (Also, I just read the description, and it says it should work fine for 3.7v and 4.2v. So I guess I don't need to worry about that.) Most of my projects don't need to draw a lot of power, so it should keep up perfectly fine as backup power during outages. In fact, it might even work with another project I've been working on that would really work best with a 10Ah or 20Ah battery (so that it can run 4 to 8 days without a recharge).

So yeah, for short term prototyping, I can probably get away with scrapping off-the-shelf USB batteries and using the actual battery with Adafruit's charger. I may still have to deal with shipping issues once I get to commercial designs, but I wouldn't be going through Adafruit for large battery orders at that point anyway, so it wouldn't matter.

As annoying as the whole shipping situation is, it looks like it's not something I actually need to worry about yet. At least that's nice to know.

[rigid whale]

I need something like https://www.adafruit.com/product/6183 but able to hold a stack. I had to mod one with a file just to get a single device with headers to fit. A variant that is a bit more robust would be ideal.

[hollow flint]

If you can switch to the Feather or Pico ecosystems, they have these: https://www.adafruit.com/product/3417 or https://www.adafruit.com/product/5967

[rigid whale]

Here is what I am working with. It fits sorta.

not much room to fit that audio BFF

it holds in place but it will move when the USB is plugged in or removed

just need a version where the cradle arms are twice as tall

[hollow flint]

If you have access to a 3D printer, they have the .stl file linked on the product page. You could try modifying it to suit your needs.

[fair summit]

You might see about ordering the same things from Digi-Key, which is very experienced in shipping things, and maybe they have arrangements or permissions that we do not, since they are a very large shipper. They stock a lot of our products.

[rigid whale]

@hollow flint I am trying in earnest to not fall into that rabbit hole until I can afford it. But yes I am eyeballing that file to mod it for future opportunities. 😛

[hollow flint]

Check if a local public library or makerspace/hackerspace has a 3D printer you could use.

[rigid whale]

Great idea I would love it if my local library had a setup.

[cloud tulip]

@rigid whale if you're planning on having that stack be permanent you could try soldering it all together using just a set of extra long pin headers, no sockets. I use 21mm long ones for a 3-board QtPy/Xiao stack. The fiddly bit is holding the correct spacing while soldering - I used temporary shims and silicon-tipped alligator clips (covered so they wouldn't harm the board).

The long pin headers aren't common but can be obtained from Samtec and Harwin (direct or via DigiKey, etc), or a few suppliers on AliExpress (the E-Simpo store on AE supplies good quality connectors; https://a.aliexpress.com/_mLvrtZF).

[rigid whale]

I thought about using long headers/pins. What you see is two short female with a normal male for the lipo BFF. I had some Arduino pins and headers I was thinking of using but curiosity won me over and I went with short females. Short male pins would not give the mechanical connection I was after. Next size up worked out well though.

[thick wind]

If all else fails, you could consider using a zip tie to secure the stack to the qtpy mount?

You could also replace the bottom set of female headers if you’re not using those connections on the bottom board.

[rigid whale]

Zip ties would be interesting if used like a bumper. I should find some tiny ones. Thank you for the suggestions. Not sure what the replacement would be. Right now not sure how many pins I want to use so I plan on using all of them. /shrug

[bitter badge]

Yeah, I was thinking about doing that. It's probably a good idea.

[hasty wedge]

@raw jasper

my only trusted fuse brand

[sturdy dawn]

Finally found a working source code for a weather display. So now I at least have an example of how to write it

It was shared on YouTube and then forked and posted to GitHub with no license

I had to roll back the Arduino json library in order to make it work, after googling it

Apparently the arduonojsondocument class is deprecated now

[teal pier]

Anyone know if either of these esp32 boards (one is a ESP32-WROOM and the other is a ESP32-WROOM 32D) has a 3v to 5v stepup converter?

[hollow flint]

The schematic can be found on this webpage: https://docs.espressif.com/projects/esp-dev-kits/en/latest/esp32/esp32-devkitc/user_guide.html
Looking at the schematic, it has a LDO regulator as an on-board power supply. IIUC, those can only reduce the voltage level, not boost it.

[teal pier]

so, if i feed it 7.4v and it will reduce it to 5, correct?

[hollow flint]

I mean, it's designed to bring the 5V from the USB down to 3.3 V for the ESP32. My guess is you'll fry the board with any higher of a voltage.

[teal pier]

ok, will 1 3.7v battery be able to power both the esp 32 and abt 30cm LED strip lights?

[hollow flint]

From my understanding, no. You'd need a dev board with a Lithium-Ion battery connection, which neither of your dev boards have.

[hollow flint]

Are those NeoPixels or analog LED strips?

[teal pier]

basic ones, like room decor ones, i forgot to mention im also connecting 3 dfrobot gravity rgb led modules aswell (they run with the neopixel libary)

[hollow flint]

If that "room decor" LED strip operates on mains voltage, I'd strongly advise against doing anything DIY with it.

[teal pier]

it runs off of usb

Off topic but, could I charge this Nokia battery with this lipo charger module? the micro USB on the phone is dead so yeah

[sharp yoke]

is that a Tp4056

if so, yes, you can charge a 3.7v lipo with it

anyone have any server suggestions for raspberry pi ai projects? looking for CV stuff mostly atm

[hollow flint]

Assuming the USB LED strip is dumb in that it turns on immediately upon receiving power, you could probably combine https://www.adafruit.com/product/5648 and https://www.adafruit.com/product/4449 and some other accessories to turn the LED strip on/off with a GPIO pin. However, you'd need a 5V power supply.

[teal pier]

i just 3D printed this :p

[hollow flint]

Like this? https://learn.adafruit.com/raspberry-pi-face-recognition-treasure-box

[sharp yoke]

Yeah, stuff like that

getting a pi5 to experiment with CV/robotics projects and was looking for somewhere to read/discuss those types of projects more

[hollow flint]

There's the Raspberry Pi Forums: https://forums.raspberrypi.com/

[terse lava]

The "Adafruit bq25185 USB / DC / Solar Lithium Ion/Polymer charger" can support LiFePO4 batteries after a couple jumper changes on the board. https://www.adafruit.com/product/6091 for anyone looking to charge LiFePO4 batteries.

[sturdy dawn]

Now I want to make an air quality display with the wildfire smoke

Finally got a break where I'm at but heart goes out to the Canadians

We only got like yellow zone but up in Canada. It's just pure smokey

These an interesting method for time on this one. It's not just UTC -4. It's actually done by offset of seconds

[sturdy dawn]

This API actually does it too, with compete info on ozone, coarse and fine particulate matter

Busted out the British mask yesterday

Lined with charcoal and silver (nitrate?) to filter pm2.5 and kill microbes

[rigid whale]

air quality index

it's bad right now

[bitter badge]

That is almost perfect. The problem is that I'm mostly powering over USB, and that outputs a max of 4.5V but I need a stable 5V. I would have to add a boost converter in addition to that, which would increase the price by quite a lot (and require more space in enclosures).

That said, I'll still have to look into LiFePO4 batteries now. Some of the chips I'm using are 3.3v with a regulator, and I might be able to use this for them.

[hollow flint]

Depending on the power consumption of your project, you might be able to do something similar to https://meshtastic.org/docs/community/enclosures/rak/harbor-breeze-solar-hack/

[raw jasper]

Hey, you actually went through and took the picture! Appreciated!

[night crescent]

WE ARE LIVE in BROOKLYN! SHOW AND TELL! https://youtu.be/8uVOu88tLBU

[bitter badge]

First, cool project!

Second, it still requires a lithium ion battery, which is nigh on impossible to get shipped to Alaska.

Also, I need to be able to charge over USB, and it looks like the charge controller board is exclusively solar. Solar in Alaska is hard, because the angle of the Sun through the atmosphere significantly reduces usable solar radiation, and in the winter it's dark for more than half the day and often cloudy the other half. I do want to mess with solar, but small panels like that won't cut it for winter use. I'll keep that in mind though. If I can get decent lithium ion batteries (and it looks like Walmart's ONN brand 5,000mAh phone charger batteries would be a good option for taking apart to get batteries at a reasonable consumer price), it could be a really good option for ultra low power applications. (In the long run I do want to do a lot of solar, but one step at a time.)

[hollow flint]

Assuming Lowe's will ship to Alaska, then AFAIK the Lithium-Ion battery would be already installed.

[bitter badge]

We have Lowe's stores up here (though that is online only, they do ship to Alaska). If it comes with the battery already installed, that's another matter.

Ok, I found the links. It's $10, and it does look like the battery is preinstalled. That's not bad, especially with the solar panel. I just wish the specs included the optimum power rating for the solar panel, but based on the size it should be at least 3 or 4 watts and maybe as high as 10. The battery is only 1,500mAh (compared to Walmart's 5,000mAh for $9), but if I want the solar panel as well, that's actually a really good deal! (And there's the 0.6 watt LED too.) I'd have to order several to get the free shipping, but that might be in the budget in a couple of months, and I'd need several of the solar panels for them to be useful anyway.

That's officially (according to me, anyhow) a good idea! I don't think those batteries will run most of my "eventually commercial" projects for as long as is necessary, but I've got some projects I'm doing with my kids that they would probably work really well for, and I have some personal projects that could use the solar panels.

Thanks! That doesn't solve all of the problems, but it solves part and has broader usefulness on top of that.

[sturdy dawn]

That's why I mentioned those masks. Cambridge is the company. They sell n-99 ones here too but the British ones just sounded cool with the silver and charcoal

Unless you go with like a full-on respirator. Probably need it up in canada

I gotta go stare at that code for a while and see if I can make an air pollution index display. Most important is probably fine particulate and o-zone

I know in science class they said that ozone smells like very fresh air and the other day after all the smoke was starting to clear it smelled extremely fresh. Maybe ozone forming in the smoke??

Or just me being used to smokey air

Anywho, when it's really bad I just run the air purifier and shut all the windows

That was one of the perks of being a basement dweller before I had to leave that place. Smoke usually stays higher

[raw jasper]

Yeah, cloth masks, no matter how fancy, will only get you so far. Best to get proper (K)N95 and above

(KN95 is the Chinese variant. My understanding is that the filter spec is largely equivalent to that of the American standard, but it may be more accessible to some people, with the main downside being that the use of earloops may limit the quality of the fit)

[somber spindle]

I know there's a LOT of discussion on the meshtastic discord about batteries, and I've definitely seen people talk about using lithium titanate (LTO) batteries with solar in the Alaskan winter

maybe because they do better at lower temperatures? Maybe it was some other less-common chemistry?

[bitter badge]

LiFePO4 batteries also work really well in the cold, but Amazon has nearly all of the smaller once listed as "Currently Unavailable". The LTO battery situation appears to be even worse on Amazon. Maybe I can find another seller, but first I would have to find something that can do passthrough charging for LTO batteries that isn't too expensive.

It doesn't look like LTO batteries are practical for my uses right now, but I'll keep an eye on them. Maybe electronics sized ones will start to become more readily available with time.

[dusty citrus]

Any viable way to do a cheap surge protection for AC?
fuses are likely too slow and would not work
GDTs, are supposedly faster, but I don't quite get how should I use em?
I mean on spikes they get conductive, otherwise they're insulators
so you put em between 1/2 live and gnd, but during a surge, it won't just flow to the gdt
it will also go throgh the mains and burn everything else

[tight tulip]

Looks like it is all matching

[hasty wedge]

making datasheet with LaTeX

[hollow flint]

IMO, https://orgmode.org/ with LaTeX fragments is easier than using LaTeX directly.

[hasty wedge]

Emacs?

😨

I prefer GUI

My embedded dev computer is also on Windows

[hollow flint]

Emacs is a GUI tool. It just happens to be primarily keyboard driven, though I believe there is a way to use drop-down menus for actions instead of keyboard shortcuts.

[hasty wedge]

It's like GUI but not really GUI

That's the worst type of GUI

[hollow flint]

Another good alternative to LaTeX is https://typst.app/

[hasty wedge]

LaTeX suits my need for now

It's gonna be a pain in the arse to port the template I am using to the new platform

[woeful moss]

why does "i'm doing thing in Y!" always seem to invite "you should use Z instead" responses

makes me never want to show how i'm doing things

[hasty wedge]

Yeah

LaTeX works fine for me

[woeful moss]

LaTeX is great, used it a lot during university

texworks was my go-to GUI for it

[raw jasper]

I did not know about texworks, will give it a try next time I have to write a bunch of latex

[hasty wedge]

@raw jasper not sure if you saw it

but here's one of the LittelFuse sign around the market

[hollow flint]

They did see it: #general-chat message

[raw jasper]

Indeed I saw it and responded. Thanks!

[hasty wedge]

[hasty wedge]

Here's the English datasheet

I personally think this is quite a nice chip for ice cream truck music boxes

[woeful moss]

i love the name "megahits" for that type of chip

[raw jasper]

Is the MHS862, by any chance, a pre-flashed cmsemicon 0.?? cent micon? :>

Ah well, the numbers are already filed off anyway ;>

Now you need to write a verilog implementation though

[hasty wedge]

Exactly

[hasty wedge]

I am learning FPGA

This is definitely a stretch goal

[raw jasper]

That's cool! I love FPGAs!

[hasty wedge]

Verilog is probably not the way for this kind of chip

You need to manually layout the chip to get maximum silicon saving

[raw jasper]

You can describe any digital circuit... So you probably should be outputting i2s in the FPGA impl ;)

[hasty wedge]

There goes a 1 dollar i2s DAC

[raw jasper]

Ugh, that is a headache for another person to endure :P

[hasty wedge]

Btw I am pricing this chip for incredibly cheap

[raw jasper]

Wait, you are actually opening a stall in Shenzhen?

[hasty wedge]

You can put together a functional equivalent to Nichols Electronics music box for less than 5 bucks

[hasty wedge]

Nah, just online

[hasty wedge]

Which the actual music box costs a few hundred dollars

Those modern music box they produce (and sell for sky high prices) are no more than an atmega328 and a mp3 chip with an SD card.

And mine is actually synthesizing music from scratch

[raw jasper]

Are you targeting the music box/orugooru enthusiast market segment?

(I have no idea if that actually exists)

Something like "roll your own music box, MIDI goes in, box intrusion switch connects here, speaker there, and presto!"

[hasty wedge]

Nah

But those enthusiasts do exist, often kids

And they want music boxes so badly but they are often too expensive

If Nichols can't make those kids happy maybe I can

[raw jasper]

I am guessing the costs mostly come from the materials (wood, etc) and assembly thereof, rather than the electronics?

[hasty wedge]

That's still insanity expensive

I bet 90% of the sales are profits

I am not competing with Nichols btw

In some way I am reducing their headaches of receiving kids email asking for free boxes lol

Currently I have 2 demo songs re-created from their Digital II music box. Turkey in a straw and the Entertainer

They sounded 95% identical to the actual box

But actually synthesized instead of a mp3 recording

Oh also, understand rare conditions they also glitch and screw notes up. Which is kinda fun.

[raw jasper]

I'm curious, how are you going to sell them? TaoBao/Aliexpress store?

[hasty wedge]

I have no idea

For now I am just gonna give away free samples

They are not for sale for now

[sturdy dawn]

I just made the connection of programming the Mario clock to also have animated weather, now that I know how to use the weather API

Just confused how the icon bits work. It's a bit different in this app

It's 32x32 icon but there's only 128 values here

[raw jasper]

perhaps it's compressed?

[raw jasper]

Best of luck!

[sturdy dawn]

I'm not sure, the draw method is complicated

I think it looks like this method is decompressing the bits, but I'm not sure

Incredibly clean code

[woeful moss]

32 * 32 = 1024, 128 * 8 = 1024

1bpp no compression

[raw jasper]

Format is https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/X_BitMap

[sturdy dawn]

Wow old school

[sturdy dawn]

Trying to wrap my head around this 😳 but thank you for the link

[raw jasper]

I think you can export those with the GNU Image Manipulation Program. I found a tutorial:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ac5CYQ3OJ7c

[sturdy dawn]

Testing my binary knowledge

[sturdy dawn]

I also found this cool tool
https://xbm.jazzychad.net/

Trying to adjust colors so the sun is yellow and the moon is white, rain is blue, etc.

But it's just bits for pixel data, color is done in the draw function

Making it animate would be really cool. Then you don't have to rely on storage of image files

Like .gif

Oh DUDE you can just click on the thing and it changes your code

[raw jasper]

I think your program's icons are monochrome

(See also @woeful moss's post above)

[woeful moss]

correct

[sturdy dawn]

Yes

That's what the xbm wiki said

But the display library can change the color

[raw jasper]

The color appears to be a constant passed as an argument to the function you posted

[woeful moss]

if bit is 1, draw color the function is called with. if bit is 0, there is no draw.

not exactly rocket science

ctrl-f "drawXbm565"

to find where in the code it is called

to make an icon have multiple color you will have to either use a different format for icon, or draw two separate icons

[sturdy dawn]

There was actually an error in this when I found it and it was swapping night and day icons

Fixed it though

[woeful moss]

those calls do not pass color argument therefore the default in the function definition is used

(which is 0xffe0)

[sturdy dawn]

That's yellow, I haven't uploaded the new code yet

That's why you see blue

I figured go with a constant of yellow for now until I can figure out how to make that a variable

[woeful moss]

it already is an argument

simply add the color to your drawXbm565 call

etc

[sturdy dawn]

Just in that 16-bit hex format?

[woeful moss]

565 rgb format

https://rgbcolorpicker.com/565

[sturdy dawn]

Oh just 0 to 255 for RGBs

[woeful moss]

no

31 for red 63 for green 31 for blue

565

use the picker if you don't know

255 is 24bit rgb

[sturdy dawn]

Ahh I gotchoa

That's how I tried writing it before with the RGB values and it didn't work

Now I have to wait for clear skies to see if it worked lol

Is it bad to like keep changing the code and re-uploading it because every time it sends an API call. I don't want to hammer the server

[woeful moss]

that is a question for the person who owns the server

[sturdy dawn]

Ha

It's programmed for 10 minutes intervals so I'll just wait a bit

Ty for the help, I was close before but I wrote out the whole color->444 thing and confused it

One good sign is it's actually drawing the white that I gave the cloud option. It didn't dry anything when I used the RGB values

But I did change the original integer back to white

Interesting how it works though. Basically just old programming methods applied to newer LED types

[sturdy dawn]

It did work, ty again. Only problem is I have to color the whole icon when I want to do the clouds white and the sun yellow on partly cloudy but now I'm just getting nitpicky

[woeful moss]

#general-chat message

since the drawing function ignores empty bits you can overlay two icons of different colours together

[brittle condor]

does anyone have any suggestions other than just a rpi for an sbc to use to run a webcam? i need to display it over hdmi and also re-encode it from mjpeg to h264/h265 for streaming, I'm trying to save a little

[sturdy dawn]

I'm just getting nothing but help today 🙏

[sturdy dawn]

It causes flicker to overlap the icons but lowering bit depth to 5 fixes it

I got most of the icons reworked into halves, since theres more icons than there is weather types

You need to use 'description' to find HOW cloudy to show just a cloud vs cloud and moon

So i just cut the icon in half with the browser editor and pasted values, draw both with color values

[hasty wedge]

Bootleg alarmo

"Smart AI time manager"

[raw jasper]

I really hope it does not actually contain any kind of "AI".. The last thing I need in my life is an LLM in my alarm clock 🥴

Out of curiosity, how much does it go for?

[hasty wedge]

Didn't check

It's definetely LLM inside

Because it requires network connection

[raw jasper]

W---what would an alarm clock need an LLM for?

[hasty wedge]

Who knows

I don't need one

[raw jasper]

I do not think anybody does ;)

[tight tulip]

It works!

[terse lava]

Requiring a network doesn't mean "definitely LLM inside". It probably simply means it connects to a time service to get the time. Perhaps weather, stock prices, crud like that. I am sure there is nothing AI or LLM about that product. Just like these that have a simple ESP32 inside I believe.

[raw jasper]

I am not as sure about that... I have seen a bunch of "LLM AI companion[sic]" gadgets sold on aliexpress...

Examples:
https://www.aliexpress.com/item/1005008821384965.html
https://www.aliexpress.com/item/1005009407374789.html

(The above links are not endorsements. In fact, I would strongly discourage anyone from buying devices like the ones linked above)

Actually, I found a design that is very similar and does hook to an LLM API:

https://www.aliexpress.com/item/1005008286975542.html

[terse lava]

There is nothing actual AI in any of those products despite what the Aliexpress listings say. Everything is labeled "AI" these days but 99% of everything labeled as "AI" is NOT. It is an overuse of a term that is now misused constantly. All any of these devices do is fetch data.

[raw jasper]

I understand that, hence the phrasing "hooks to an LLM API". Still, regardless of the method of implementation, I genuinely believe that these devices represent, at the very least, a liability to those who purchase them

Actually, in light of the method of implementation, they represent an even increased liability because of the privacy concerns born by sending everything to the LLM vendor

[woeful moss]

funny how we can tag all matters of helpers but not admins or moderators

nvm found the right tag <@&327289013561982976>

[stuck moth]

thanks! banned

[hasty wedge]

Well, it's a Huaqiangbei product

They really do try to put generative AI to everything

[stiff solar]

No, they really CLAIM to put Gen-AI in everything as a false advertising strategy

[hasty wedge]

exactly

Let me tell ya

Our traditional electronic engineers really have beefs with those so-called trendy sellers

They took away storefronts of traditional electronic sellers

And turned Huaqiangbei upsidedown

Like Huaqiangbei is not crammed enough already with sky high rents

[raw jasper]

As in, the region?! You are telling me The Slop has taken over an entire region?!

[hasty wedge]

Most part of the first floor huaqiangbei

fortunately the second floor and up are still the old classy look (for now)

[dusty citrus]

hm apparently mediatek has an history of "weid phones" also called as feature phones...
mediatek pretty much provides everything besides the chiplets, users just need to add their extra function in

said that, is there any viable protection for AC for lighting surges to be embedded in a pcb?

[tight tulip]

I broke for the first time, a microcontroller with the magic smoke \

(https://esp32s3.com/feathers3d.html - Using the 5V rail made a pop sound and magic smoke was smelled)

Not sure what to do with this any more with this being broken and all.

[hasty wedge]

my IDE just flashbanged me

I was in the dark, all my windows are dark

and then I opened my IDE

bang

well, the 1 cent price of the MCU makes it all up

[hasty wedge]

That's scary

[raw jasper]

...and inaccurate! Porygon cannot learn wake-up slap, you cannot attack trainers, and it was not a move in gen1

:P

...but I figured that the best representation of a computer program as a pokemon would be porygon

[hasty wedge]

yeah

[raw jasper]

Though, honestly, If it was truly scary or unpleasant to you, please tell me so that I can delete it

[hasty wedge]

Nah, it was a joke

[raw jasper]

OK!

[night crescent]

Desk of Ladyada - Drivers, Tachyons & Heat Sinks – Oh Boy!

Fresh drivers for Bosch BMP5xx sensors & LiPoly chargers, plus Particle Tachyon fun with web-console shell + Blinka support! 🚀 Also, heat sink tips for TO-220s - https://youtu.be/ek0IEFQZsVo

[rigid whale]

I have no idea what that last device is. Looks interesting though.

[rigid whale]

"GitHub is now moving to Microsoft's AI engineering team, CoreAI, with a new structure for GitHub's leadership team."

[jovial zinc]

Do you guys can tell me where I can learn Arduino and robotics from basic:(

[rigid whale]

I started my journey with just buying the arduino starter kit, reading the book and doing the projects in the book. Then moving to online resources. Robotics seems like a broad term so narrowing it down to what inerests you might help.

[terse lava]

While the subject line of this Reddit post states it is an ESP, it in fact looks like an nRF52 Bluefruit Feather board...
https://www.reddit.com/r/esp32/comments/1mmsswy/esp32_is_featured_as_the_plot_device_in_naked_gun/

[sturdy dawn]

Thunderstorms in a few days so I get to test the weather displays icons for that

If you asked me at 20 if I would be impressed with 32x32 pixel images...😅

[raw jasper]

Things feel different if you are the one making them!

[sturdy dawn]

Well I just edited somebody else's code but yes

How impressed I am with saving image data in the programming logic and that was designed in the '80s

I'm sure the complexity of AI code would make my head spin

Can't do any work right now, too hot. Unless I break out the laptop and hit the arcade lol

Bring green 💚 just use public AC or a beach. Our energy prices are going up

Every time I go there I want to get a beer but then I'm like nah. It's 90° out 😅

[limpid stag]

Heyo. Could use some help w my first ever purchase, 1m of dotstar 1apa102, 60 led.

I tried using the pigtails jst it came w and some others I bought. How many amps are those connections good for?

[rigid whale]

@limpid stag Just in case you haven't seen this yet. There is this page that goes into calculating power requirements. https://learn.adafruit.com/adafruit-dotstar-leds/power-and-connections

[limpid stag]

Thannks! ive got hte power requirements down by simple multiplication. I'm just not sure about the connectors and awg. For longer strips, when you need more than 1 Amp of current, you should power with an external 5V power adapter like so.

Connect the strip 5V pin to the power adapter 5V
Connect the strip GND pin to board GND and power adapter GND
Connect the strip CI (Clock input) and DI (Data input) to two digital or SPI pins as explained above.
Important: three points are connected to ground: power supply, microcontroller and DotStar strip. If there’s no common ground between the microcontroller and strip, the LED’s won’t function properly.

[rigid whale]

1 meter seems like it wouldn't burden any connection.

[limpid stag]

3.6a fully on

i think those jsts are pretty small, small enough my smallest setting on my wire strippers wouldnt strip properly

it worked, dont get me wrong

[vale oxide]

Where can I get a mems mirror module or similar?
I want to control a laser beam.

[hollow flint]

Have you considered mounting the laser on a slip ring (https://www.adafruit.com/category/230)?

[night crescent]

ASK AN ENGINEER 8/13/2025 LIVE! https://youtu.be/C-6sr1VylhU

[robust swallow]

does anyone know of a list of RP2350 boards
I know there's a list on the CircuitPython website but that list is pretty incomplete since not all boards support CircuitPython

[umbral phoenix]

@robust swallow when a board manufacturer requests a PID for their board for some USB service, it goes in this list: https://github.com/raspberrypi/usb-pid

(some manufacturers may not request a PID, some boards may not even have USB exposed)

[hollow flint]

Another (incomplete) list would be https://octopart.com/search?q=RP2350

[plush echo]

hey does anyone know what charger ic the feather v2 uses

or where I could find the information? is the schematics for the feathers open source?

[fair summit]

See https://learn.adafruit.com/adafruit-esp32-feather-v2/downloads. All the hardware we make is open source

[plush echo]

sweet thanks!

[night crescent]

we prototype an e ink bonnet for raspberry pi and friends, drive displays over spi and i2c, and try a particle tachyon board to push cellular updates with zero wires. image dithering tests, a local solar powered llm that turns daily news into art so you can glance instead of doomscroll, and early ideas for portable e ink graffiti boxes. spi and i2c bring-up, dithering workflow, cellular update loop, and next steps to get the board into the shop. the particle tachyon uses a qualcomm dragonwing... (editor's note: "dracarys" )

[rigid whale]

MagTag back on the menu. Several in stock at the moment.

[hasty quarry]

I feel like I finally have somewhat decent mental models about what convolution is actually doing in contexts that have mattered to me (most recently, the response of a Linear Time-Invariant system to any input, and the probability density of two random variables added together, given THEIR probability densities)

What a crazy operation

I can't stand "plug and chug" thinking. I finally see it in my head

[burnt tendon]

It's ... convoluted, isn't it?

[sturdy dawn]

E-ink is cool

[hollow rose]

@night crescent Hi! 👋 Love Adafruit gear! We’ve been using your hardware in our builds and it’s been fantastic. I’d love to share what we’re working on and to discuss possible collaboration (partnership or integration feedback). Could someone point me to the right person? 🙏

[rigid whale]

@hollow rose I recommend the show and tell channel to start.

[hollow rose]

Thank you and will do!

[hollow flint]

Also, keep in mind that according to https://www.adafruit.com/contact_us,

While we answer all questions in the customer support forums, we do not provide one-on-one email or telephone consulting.

[hollow rose]

Thanks for pointing me in the right direction 🙏 I did notice in the Code of Conduct that Adafruit values collaboration and supporting others in the community which really resonates with what we’re working on. I’ll go ahead and use the contact page and also check out Show & Tell to share more. Appreciate the guidance!

[hollow flint]

FYI, the show & tell channel is #show-and-tell.

[hollow rose]

Thank you!

[hasty quarry]

I saw this coming

[haughty solstice]

https://www.adafruit.com/product/3992
Is there a default-extended version of this?

It's 5V, longer than 6mm stroke, and fairly small, but I need to be closed by default

[warped moon]

Scientifically speaking that’s not possible to have a “normally compressed” solenoid without power. But what you could do is have an inversion where you send a signal and it would decompress the spring.

[haughty solstice]

I want to use as little power as possible since this is off a battery

[haughty solstice]

I've also seen some locking ones, or ones that have a spring and power makes the shaft go inwards and the spring brings it back out

Oh wait I'm stupid and didn't see the video. Though this doesn't look like a very long stroke. Perhaps my eyeballing of 10mm just sucks though

Oh wait, this is 25mm wide. Much too thick. Shooting for no more than 18mm

[warped moon]

No worries. Quiescent current for FETs are fractions of nanoamps and even when it’s “on”, the resistance is quite large from drain to source.

[haughty solstice]

Sorry, I'm not following

What does that mean?

Does size correlate to current consumption to hold it open?

IDK how to find a solenoid with the stroke, voltage, and size limits I have

[broken plover]

Does everything look ok for this

[broken plover]

for SPI mode which do i solder/blank out

oh i guess i see it but whats the number thing in between the solders? and do i just put solder on top of the square

[vivid rapids]

Hey can anyone send me like a kind of basic circuit project on breadboard with jumper wires and button and led, and resistor
Pls send pic i need it for my project don't make it too advance
Pls anyone?

[fair summit]

https://racheldebarros.com/how-to-use-a-breadboard-to-build-circuits-fast-and-easy/

[vivid rapids]

Thanks danh

[hasty wedge]

the theme song of Keil 礦ision
If you heard this song before, you are incrediatble
(recorded from source music file. no sketchy exe involved)

[night crescent]

Advent via its indirect subsidiary ZI Zenith S.à r.l. announces its intention to take over u-blox, we interview people in our kitchen... https://blog.adafruit.com/2025/08/17/advent-via-its-indirect-subsidiary-zi-zenith-s-a-r-l-announces-its-intention-to-take-over-u-blox/

[lapis anchor]

did send an email to support, but what the heck 🙂 might be worth throwing the value in the description / specs for the new clear shaft NeoPixel potentiometer, I did see it's 10K in the pictures but that was after scrolling up and down the page a couple times. https://www.adafruit.com/product/6387

[fair summit]

I think it's an error there's no text description. support@ should be able to get this fixed up.

[rigid whale]

"announced its intention to acquire all shares of u-blox and take over the company". This always makes me uneasy. No matter how it's spun. Increasing valuation and growth != good for customers.

[night crescent]

Desk of Ladyada - Blinka x Tachyon, BMP585, VEML6046, e-Ink bonnet 🧪📟🖥️
Testing the BMP585, VEML6046, e-Ink bonnet, Particle Tachyon, plus updates on Blinka + CircuitPython support. Also on The Great Search: hunting a 24-bit I2C ADC for RTD sensors. Watch 👉 https://youtu.be/Gx2dj6lK-w8

[quick eagle]

Hi everyone, I wanted to know if there was a high refresh rate or frame rate LED array or matrix available, > 2-3 kHz/fps

[long lynx]

Hello everyone.
I have a question bcs I want to install eye tracking to a furrsuit and don’t know wich cam I should use. I have hardware for the eyes(Adafruit monster m4sk) but I can’t find a good cam for it.

[rigid whale]

If your not looking for stemma/qt specific cams I recommend the Adafruit OV5640 Camera Breakout - 160 Degree Wide Angle.

[long lynx]

Thx 🙏

[quick eagle]

any help?

[rigid whale]

Check out the Dotstar LED's.

[jagged citrus]

Im just starting my next project and someone has already made exactly what i wanted to make

https://tenor.com/view/brain-dog-brian-dog-cooked-wallahi-im-finished-cooked-dog-gif-1849480349705279416

[raw jasper]

<@&327289013561982976> spam

[idle lion]

@raw jasper thank you.

[hasty wedge]

tried to drive a speaker without the h bridge

It really depends on the type of speaker and the voltage of the power source. The IO current of this chip is surprisingly large. According to the datasheet it's 35mA pull and 16mA push. That's 0.07W total. Sufficient enough to be audible in a quiet room.

Hifi: 0/10

Lyrics: about the hopelessness of life and the wish of "restart"
Music:🔥🔥🔊🕺💃🔊🔥🔥

[hasty wedge]

One more interesting fact about this song: for some reason it basically became the anthem of electronics repair shops on bilibili

[quick eagle]

https://www.adafruit.com/product/2329

32 MHz? 🤨

Is that right? Connected with what? Raspberry pi 4?

[raw jasper]

crunchy! What is the song's name?

[hasty wedge]

天真的橡皮

But people just call that song "coupler, 10 yuan"

Because the repair shop that uses this song the most in their videos charges 10 yuan for each electric kettle with a broken coupler.

[raw jasper]

lol true, 2nd yt comment

[spare basalt]

fruit jam sbc restock when?

[night crescent]

WE ARE LIVE in BROOKLYN! ASK AN ENGINEER! https://youtu.be/uNOWcs0czhs

[broken plover]

Whats the 102 on the solder? Do i need it when I remove it because I need to solder the bottom for SPI

[hollow flint]

All out-of-stock products on Adafruit's website will say this on the product webpage:

Please enter your details below and we will send you an email when this item is back in stock! You will only be emailed about this product!

[ancient rivet]

did this get answered? the 102 is the resistor value. that looks like one of those OLEDs that configure mode via those resistors. is it a 2.42" OLED (PID 2719)? see here for info on resistor setting:
< https://learn.adafruit.com/1-5-and-2-4-monochrome-128x64-oled-display-module/assembly>

[hasty wedge]

What can you do with an SOT23-6 MCU that has no ADC, 4 io ports, and one of the ports can output PWM?

I got a reel of 3000 SOT23-6 packaged OTP MCUs today

[quick eagle]

this is also high frame rate ??

[ancient rivet]

depends on what "high" means. the dotstar guide has some info on dotstar speeds:
https://learn.adafruit.com/adafruit-dotstar-leds/overview

[hollow flint]

Probably just a worse version of this: https://www.analog.com/en/products/ds2408.html

[broken plover]

The link you sent didnt work

[ancient rivet]

weird. discord put an extra > at the end the URL for some reason. trying again:
https://learn.adafruit.com/1-5-and-2-4-monochrome-128x64-oled-display-module/assembly

oh, i had a leading space in the original msg

[broken plover]

Oh okay! Yes its that one, but Imm saying do I need to keep that tiny 102 resistor thing when I desolder it and solder the other pieces for the SPI mode

[ancient rivet]

yes. idea is you need to de-solder and then re-solder as needed to configure for the mode desired.

^^ so ends up looking like that for SPI mode

[broken plover]

Even adding the 102 resistor? How does one do that?

[ancient rivet]

move the ones that are already there

it will require soldering

[broken plover]

Ok i just move it to the middle and then solder it like normal? And it should rise and stick?

[ancient rivet]

desolder first to remove from current location

and make sure no residual solder bridge are left

then solder to the lower position

same procedure for both resistors

[broken plover]

Okay, I never done it before but Ill be sure to try soon

[ancient rivet]

it's mildly tricky soldering unfortunately

[jaunty crown]

hello everyone im new here where can i post a question about RGB LED MATRIX PANELS

???

[rigid whale]

@jaunty crown Here or gernal-tech

[jaunty crown]

hi everyone sorry for my bad English ,i need your help .I'm using a RGB LED MATRIX P3 64X64 PANEL WHITH HUB75 Driver i would like to know how we control the column and rows like using bit wise operations shift registers and all this stuff I'm not looking for code control .I'm looking for hardware control so i understand how it really work because when i use Arduino i use <ESP32-HUB75-MatrixPanel-I2S-DMA.h> library and i just display things on the panel without understanding how they work. and i tried to look for information online and i didn't find helpful information and i didn't find the manufacture datasheet .thank u very much.

i added pictures i took from the internet for more detailed or a clear description i hope they help.

[fair summit]

How is this? https://learn.adafruit.com/32x16-32x32-rgb-led-matrix/how-the-matrix-works (and also the rest of that guide?

[hasty wedge]

switched to a different H-bridge

MX113H by Mixic

SOP23-6 6W H-bridge with overheat auto shutdown

This thing is an absolute monster when driving motors though

[timid karma]

Hello community. I have a 12 year old who is interested in learning how to solder and I would like to find a good starter kit for him. Are there any suggestions? I did a search on the Adafruit site, but didn't find many kits that really fit the bill. Thanks for any help in advance!

[winged raptor]

how big of a kit are you looking for? ex. this takes 30min ish https://sparkfun.com/sparkfun-simon-says-through-hole-soldering-kit.html

[hard estuary]

Alpenglow Industries has some neat kits: https://www.alpenglowindustries.com/products/thru-hole-soldering-kits-v2

[timid karma]

Thanks! this is about the level I am hoping for. I would love for something that has some practice pads as well to help learn how to apply without the component.

[timid karma]

Thanks! Any experience with these? They look like great little starter kits, but I didn't see any reviews on the site.

[hard estuary]

Not personally, but everyone I know raves about Alpenglow's stuff

[normal forge]

hello i was trying to emulate this circuit from bigclive's video on EveryCircuit software https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N7LdNCi1J1U

i think im doing something cause its' not behaving like it's supposed to

im trying to replicate the first "phase" of the circuit

[night crescent]

Desk of Ladyada - Prototyping CAN FD Featherwing & BFFs 🚗⚡

Plus, we’re exploring USB Type C PD w/ PPS & wrapping up the STHS34PF80 driver! Check out our deep dive & upgrades on The Desk of Ladyada + The Great Search! 📺 Watch - https://youtu.be/ptht_t0JNZY

[rigid whale]

Question regarding the Adafruit 1.28" 240x240 Round TFT LCD Display. On the store page it's demoing some eye animation. The learning/guides section does not show how to set this up. Where does one acquire this demo? Is it the same as the uncanny eye guide?

[sick apex]

on a scale of fine to oh god no, how alright is it to solder to an 18650 battery's terminals

or do it gotta be spot welded

[low frigate]

does anybody know when Adafruit is making a (5 Ghz) ESP32-C5 version?

[fair summit]

We are working on getting CircuitPython to run on a C5. When we might make an actual board ourselves is unknown.

[low frigate]

excellent. is that the Dev-kit board from ESP itself then?
as in
https://www.mouser.se/ProductDetail/Espressif-Systems/ESP32-C5-DevKitC-1-N8R4?qs=sqEgtWRSLJ2%2Fdhsv380LjQ%3D%3D

[hollow flint]

#circuitpython-dev message

[fair summit]

Yes, I believe so

[rigid whale]

That feeling when the fruit jam is in stock before payday. 🙁

Congrats to those who snag one before they are out of stock again.

[limber pike]

I got some! Very excited.

[tall nexus]

Hi everyone! I finally finished my handmade Xilonen cosplay and I used a bunch of Adafruit products in the sword I 3D modelled for her. The sword features 2 hollow channels that have side-firing 60LED/m strips, and the windows themselves have the black adafruit acrylic mounted on top to diffuse the LEDs + to make the space look dark when the LEDs aren't on. The whole thing runs on a Propmaker RP2040 and is powered by a 3000mAh Lipo.

https://www.instagram.com/reel/DNmg9ZQsFHk/?igsh=anFsZ2gwNDNmNzhy

xglorifyingx

got a quick video of my completed Xilonen cosplay! The entire cosplay took almost a year to complete, and I spent months modelling the sword :D

The sword uses @adafruit LED strips, the Propmaker RP2040 and their black LED acrylic for the LED "windows".

Sword and accessories were printed on my @elegoo
Neptune 3 Max and Saturn 2!

@genshinimpac...

Likes

179

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[jaunty crown]

@fair summit thank u very mutch for ur help

[broken plover]

ive been trynna desolder this for 20 minutes now, do i have to pull out the resistor by force??? nothings working i keep using the desolder pump and not much progress to get it out

[night crescent]

Link to join to show and share your project! & watch it live or later! https://streamyard.com/2ts9zjftan & https://youtu.be/8kbF7KK0Nx0

[broken plover]

Anyone know where I can order 102 resistors bc the one i desoldered combusted

are these good

[hollow flint]

Double-check the size of the footprint (as in https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Footprint_(electronics)) against the PCB you have.

[broken plover]

How do I figure that out?

cuz its for this https://www.adafruit.com/product/2719
but idk how id figure that out

[hollow flint]

You would need to measure it with calipers. Or, you could get one (plus spares) of each size and try each one, until you find one that fits.

[night crescent]

WE ARE LIVE in BROOKLYN! ASK AN ENGINEER! https://youtu.be/TAIcYsAClq4

[hollow flint]

@faint fox's PyDOS is the top post on r/DOS in the past couple of weeks: https://www.reddit.com/r/DOS/comments/1n207tj/this_os_includes_a_doslike_shell_called_pydos/

[ancient rivet]

which pump are you using? you're heating the solder before attempting to use the desolder tool?
it may also work to not use a pump, but just heat the solder and lift the resistors off - that will require some tricky timing to get both sides of the resistor flowing and then lift it before the solder cools again

[plain tusk]

I saw that the Adafruit Thermal Printer Library "IS NO LONGER SUPPORTED OR MAINTAINED". I there a recommended alternative to this? Or just use it and hope for the best?

[hollow flint]

According to the Internet Archive, the product itself has ceased being stocked on Adafruit's store around the same timeframe that that repository was archived. 🤷

[plain tusk]

Yeah I was a bit surprised to see this blog post from March 18, 2025 saying "Adafruit sells thermal paper and thermal recept printers for just that purpose." despite them seemingly not anymore (and possibly not since long before that?)

[late fulcrum]

Artist Nanoraptor made this image of a resistor omelette, which reminds me of the Mho plush https://www.adafruit.com/product/1023

[fair summit]

I've removed that sentence from the blog post.

[silk gust]

Hello I have found a malicious/hijacked link on the Adafruit website how can I report this?

[fair summit]

you can send an email to [e-mail], but tell me now

[fair summit]

bad link was fixed

[broken ivy]

Hi, could someone help me increase the power output on a CH334F or recommend something? Thanks

[plain tusk]

There's a small typo too: "Here’s more fro Hackaday:"

[broken ivy]

Hoping this might work, any thoughts?

[sturdy dawn]

Hey fam, been on summer hiatus from working on anything

I just go use public AC instead of spending it at home 🤣 need to bring my laptop

[marble flax]

Surface Mount stuff is generally easier to remove with hot air kit as it heats both sides and you can pick up the part

[terse lava]

Don't double post (#help-with-projects message) Please see #welcome message

[broken plover]

I tried to heat it and what happened is the resistor chipped and broke into pieces

but now I'm unsure where to purchase a replacement

so I can put the screen into SPI mode

Where can I buy replacements for the 102 resistors if mine broke? I don't wnana buy a whole new OLED just cuz I messed up

I tried to buy replacements but theyre way too small

maybe these are good? lol

[hollow flint]

What size were the replacements? Just get every size in existence, except for the sizes less than or equal to the size you purchased previously.

[broken plover]

I got 0603, is this maybe ok?

[hollow flint]

That's the same size as described in #general-chat message

[broken plover]

yeah I see now 😭 but do they still look ok maybe? well i guess if not i can just desolder em lol

[broken plover]

okay well I did it but now the coding isnt working

how do i run it

can someone help me im trying to run this (https://learn.adafruit.com/circuitpython-oled-knob-sketcher/bigger-sketcher)
and its not workiong

Can someone help

[dusty citrus]

idk if I should post it here, but I'm "hiring" anyone who can use tinyusb stack and has a rp2350/2040 at hand
not us based, nor a company so my budget is limited

[ancient rivet]

@blup post a photo of the current state of the mode setting resistors on your OLED

[rigid whale]

small rant incoming

I really wish there was a standard approach to the learning space on adafruit. Every guide should start with testing the product to see if it works. Then build from there. Instead every learning guide I use is different with most not even testing the product. An example is the Mini PIR Motion Sensor with 3 Pin Header. There is no guide for testing it out. Yet there is an example on the product page. I tried to recreate the example and nothing happened outside of the PIR getting very very hot. Once I dug deeper I found inconsistent information stating that I needed a resistor. With some guides using images of a 220 in the circuit and other guides saying I need a 10k. The product being damaged or someone getting hurt should be avoided by providing clear information at the start. It is a learning space after all so expecting customers to "just get it" is unacceptable.

[icy needle]

All feedback is read and appreciated (use the contact us option in the footer, or feedback option in a guide).
Normally products have their own main learn guide, linked from the product page. That contains the nitty gritty details for the product, wiring/pinouts, and use with various platforms. Some products unfortunately don't have this main product guide, and some others use a shared one so you may not suspect it's worth reading at first glance. If there are inconsistencies or wrong information in guides then do feed that back too.

[rigid whale]

Will do. Thanks for the reply.

[gleaming sand]

Gooooood morning folks 🙂

Anyone know how they did this?
https://www.facebook.com/share/r/1B7WcCz2To/
(No need to sign in, can be watched on chrome incognito

[gleaming sand]

Nevermind I thought about it and I think I know :p

[dusty citrus]

May I ask you what do you do in your free time?

trying to get off a screen, cause my eyes and head hurt.
the stuff that my age group seems doing really bore me like eating out/travelling/seeing some buildings/plants and whatever, every place has those.
the most fun I had in a while was risking into being in a car in the highway during a strong rainfall, it was risky but excicting

[gleaming sand]

Besides the computer you mean? I like making things out of junk. Specialy light stuff... Mostly comes down to soldering. Just reusing garbage like empty plastic jerrycans and metal sodacans.

Like this flower box, flower stem and butterfly

[gleaming sand]

maybe go skydiving? sound like you got to the edge and enjoyed it 😛

you got an adrinaline rush xD

i guess you are pretty young?

[karmic atlas]

the new the naked gun movie has the adafruit logo in it 🙂

it shows in a couple of seconds on a dev board

[dusty citrus]

I once wanted to try... but the amount of money and time investment, in my country it doesn't seem feasible
I'm getting old, next year I'm 26 🥲

[rigid whale]

26 is not old

The human brain doesn't finish developing until 25.

A single tandem jump from a plane isn't all that expensive.

There are videos of folks in their elderly years jumping solo.

[granite forge]

this was in The Naked gun movie, lol

[fickle belfry]

Hype hype!

[hollow flint]

Agreed. My Adafruit Fruit Jam just arrived in mail! Though that was after taking a detour in Phoenix, AZ (both addresses on the shipping label are within NYC).

[limber pike]

I had to go to goodwill to get a USB mouse and a little old TV with HDMI but it's very slick

I'm excited to play around with them with my kids

[fickle belfry]

Niiiice!

[solemn isle]

https://www.adafruit.com/product/1143

are these genuine tower pro mg90d servos?

I am following a guide for a mask and have discovered that I got MG90S and need the digital ones that are genuine I guess to solve a problem they are having. Was curious if adafruit's are the same ones I see on tower pro's website

[fair summit]

They are made by TowerPro.

[solemn isle]

Awesome

Adafruit always comin in clutch 💯

[gleaming sand]

Gooood morning folks 🙂

[lapis anchor]

Thought these were too cool not to share 😄 (not mine, saw them come up in another discord, not sure on the original artist)

[hollow flint]

How about now?

[rigid whale]

@hollow flint I was able to order one and a Nano R4. Now I have option paralysis. 😛

The top plate doesn't fit very well so I need to find some spacers and longer screws.

[tribal stirrup]

Love the circuit board one! I think this might be the artist? But I'm not sure https://x.com/syego (https://www.pixiv.net/en/artworks/91199411)

🍀 (@syego) on X

サブ垢。リプ・引用には反応しません

X

[stable dove]

Does anyone know if the circuit playground will be coming back in stock?

I need to order somewhere between 12 and 20, for an elementary school

Express or bluefruit

[hollow flint]

DigiKey and Mouser have plenty of stock of the Circuit Playground Bluefruit: https://www.digikey.com/en/products/detail/adafruit-industries-llc/4333/11201431 and https://www.mouser.com/c/?q=4333&m=Adafruit

[fair summit]

Thanks, Supermath101, I was just looking there too. i was going to note that too. Also note that there's currently a problem with Circuit Playground Express and ChromeOS (or indeed any SAMD boards with the UF2 bootloader and ChromeOS). So Bluefruit is a safer bet

[hollow flint]

However, for some reason, neither of them show up when filtering "For education" on the list of Raspberry Pi Approved Resellers: https://www.raspberrypi.com/resellers/?forEducation=1
They only show up when filtering "For industry".

[fair summit]

this is not a raspberry pi

[hollow flint]

I don't know whether they handle school purchase orders.

[fair summit]

oh, i see what you're saying

[loud vault]

Is the chipset here a typo or is it purely a coincidence that the adafruit_uc8179 library also works? Or maybe the repo is a typo? https://www.adafruit.com/product/6396

The arudino library says uc8179 as well

[fair summit]

they may have to set up an account, but purchase orders are in general possible

[fair summit]

Thanks! "uc8197" is indeed a typo and will be fixed to "uc8179".

[jagged citrus]

"Can it r-" yes

[rigid whale]

why would you need any more than one radiator?

wouldn't it be better to manage the flow of coolant so that it's efficient for your heat source?

[rigid whale]

No passive cooling?

Not sure if an ITX is the case you need. Sounds like you need a custom rack unit.

Or you need to find someone who can make a custom steel chassis.

one rad for GPU one for CPU and one for northbridge

and the parts will be so close together ambient temps might skew things

[rigid whale]

What I meant by passive is heatpipe and heatsink.

[hasty wedge]

WARNING! FLASHING LIGHTS AND LOUD NOISES!

I got extremely bored today

So I wasted my time by implemented a stupid 2 wire sync protocol for syncing sounders and such

On that 0.9 cents microcontroller

[hasty wedge]

Also, I got this weird little thing from WaveShare

https://www.waveshare.com/rp2040-keyboard-3.htm?sku=26462

It got an RP2040 inside and comes with ctrl+c and ctrl+v keys

perfect for stack overflow (and now ChatGPT) oriented programming

[rigid whale]

I have a https://www.adafruit.com/product/6178 and I want to use the microSD. Are there any examples out there that use it?

[hasty wedge]

As long as you have one spare GPIO (for chip select) and have access to the SPI line you should be good

And you will be able to use any platform agnostic SD card library to read data from a card

[rigid whale]

I don't think a qtpy rp2040 has chip select.

then again maybe that is what the CSn is

woohoo got it working thank you!!!

was getting MOSI errors until I changed the pin

[fickle belfry]

Hi everyone! I bought this 5.79" e-paper display from GooDisplay that should be supported by both GxEPD2 and Adafruit_EPD, but I'm not able to get anything to display using either library. Has anyone else gotten this display to work?

This is how I have it wired up.

[lapis anchor]

Not at a place I can easily look stuff up atm, but at a quick glance looks like 3.3v from board is going to VIN on the e-ink friend? Immediate thought is voltage too low, usually VIN has a regulator to drop it down to operating voltage and there's always some minimum voltage requirement.

thinking 3.3v on VIN might be getting dropped down to 2.7 ish? If you have a multimeter, check the 3.3v on the display board to see what voltage you have while plugged in

[fickle belfry]

I'm not sure how I would check the voltage going to the display since the pins are so tiny, but I tried switching VIN to 5V and nothing changed.

I'm getting 0.6 volts out of the BUSY pin.

Once thing I find odd is that the contacts on the FPC cable are on the back side, instead of the front like the panels that Adafruit sells. (though the connectors match in the datasheets, so it shouldn't cause issues)

[lapis anchor]

and yeah looks like VIN does support 3-5v so that should be good there. not super critical for the scenario but I like to try color code ground/voltage with something like black for 0v/gnd and red for voltage, a great visual cue when I'm looking for problems (kept throwing me for a loop when jumping between pictures :D)

don't technically need the BUSY pin connected from the looks of the docs and the example up on the Adafruit site, although I'd be surprised if that's causing the issue.

don't have an e-ink friend to test with unfortunately, you might have better luck heading into #help-with-projects (not everyone watches the general channels :D)

[terse lava]

Link? Do you know what ePaper drive chip it is using?

[lapis anchor]

(looks like 1683 as well - https://www.good-display.com/product/439.html)

[terse lava]

The contacts of the flat ribbon cable into the Friend should be facing up. The latch is always on the "backing" side of the flex cable. Your picture looks like it is correct, but just mentioning it to confirm.

[terse lava]

Have they tried the Adafruit SSD1683 driver? Is this for CircuitPython or something else?

[fickle belfry]

Sorry, I was having dinner. This is the display: https://buyepaper.com/products/579-inch-color-e-paper-display-red-spi-e-ink-for-digital-price-tags-gdey0579z93-579

[terse lava]

"Sorry, I was having dinner." - We'll allow it... this time! 😆

[fickle belfry]

I tried Adafruit_EPD with the SSD1683 driver, and GxEPD2 with the driver specifically for my exact display model.

I'm going to try CircuitPython just in case.

[lapis anchor]

did you try their example code?

[fickle belfry]

I tried that as well.

[lapis anchor]

might have to tweak pinouts?

[fickle belfry]

I tweaked the pins, yeah.

I'm pretty sure at this point that it's not a software issue, but a hardware/connection one.

I've forwarded my messages to #help-with-projects

[terse lava]

It is hard to say without knowing what pins the sample program calls out (I can not open the rar on my Mac and I don't really feel like downloading a rar "unzipper") and what your code is using since you didn't share it.

[lapis anchor]

7zip my beloved 😄 lol

[fickle belfry]

...
#include <GxEPD2_BW.h>
#include <GxEPD2_3C.h>
// #include <Adafruit_EPD.h>

#define EPD_CS 17
#define EPD_DC 18
#define SRAM_CS -1   // Use the build in memory, we need 133KB!
#define EPD_RESET 14  // can set to -1 and share with microcontroller Reset!
#define EPD_BUSY 12   // can set to -1 to not use a pin (will wait a fixed delay)
#define EPD_SPI SPI

GxEPD2_3C<GxEPD2_579c_GDEY0579Z93, GxEPD2_579c_GDEY0579Z93::HEIGHT> display(GxEPD2_579c_GDEY0579Z93(/*CS=5*/ EPD_CS, /*DC=*/ EPD_DC, /*RST=*/ EPD_RESET, /*BUSY=*/ EPD_BUSY));

// Adafruit_SSD1683 display(792, 272, EPD_DC, EPD_RESET, EPD_CS, SRAM_CS, EPD_BUSY, EPD_SPI);

void halt(void) {
  while (true) {
    delay(1000);
  }
}

void setup() {
  Serial.begin(115200);

  while(!Serial){
    ; // wait for serial port to connect
  }

  // display.begin();
  // display.setRotation(0);
  // display.clearBuffer();
  // display.fillRect(0, 0, display.width(),
  //                   display.height(), EPD_RED);
  // display.display();

  display.init(115200);
  display.setRotation(0);
  display.fillScreen(GxEPD_RED);
  display.display();
...

[lapis anchor]

(not that I recommend downloading zips from strangers, but did grab it and extracted / put back into a ZIP https://spurious.dev/A32-GDEY0579T93.zip)

[fickle belfry]

I've verified multiple times that the pins in my code match the connections.

[terse lava]

Yeah looks good I think but the only thing I can not tell from your photos is that the 3V3 and the "12" wires look like the same color to me. So just to be sure, make sure they are not swapped, although I assume in real life in front of you they must look more distinguishable from each other.

[fickle belfry]

Mhm.

[terse lava]

OK how come you are including both

#include <GxEPD2_3C.h>```
Are you using a 3 color version of a Black and White version of the display?

[terse lava]

Never mind, I get it now. You need the 3C for panel definitions

[fickle belfry]

The display has partial refresh support in black and white.

[terse lava]

OK but is it a B&W display or does it have a third color, often red?

[fickle belfry]

It's tri-color.

I've been working on this for over 5 hours now, I think I'm going to take a break for a while. Thanks for the help, everyone.

[terse lava]

OK when you get back from your break, try this code and see if it fills your display with red...

#include <GxEPD2_BW.h>
#include <GxEPD2_3C.h>

// Pin configuration
#define EPD_CS    17
#define EPD_DC    18
#define SRAM_CS   -1
#define EPD_RESET 14
#define EPD_BUSY  12
#define EPD_SPI   SPI

// Create display instance
GxEPD2_3C<GxEPD2_579c_GDEY0579Z93, GxEPD2_579c_GDEY0579Z93::HEIGHT> display(
    GxEPD2_579c_GDEY0579Z93(EPD_CS, EPD_DC, EPD_RESET, EPD_BUSY));

void setup()
{
  Serial.begin(115200);
  while (!Serial) ; // wait for Serial monitor (USB boards)

  Serial.println("Init display...");

  // Initialize display
  display.init();
  display.setRotation(0);
  display.setFullWindow();

  // Draw red screen
  display.firstPage();
  do {
    display.fillScreen(GxEPD_RED);
  } while (display.nextPage());

  Serial.println("Done filling screen.");
}

void loop()
{
  // Nothing else to do
}

[lapis anchor]

XD lol split convos going on, probably worth heading to #help-with-projects and maybe starting a thread

[terse lava]

and also according to ChatGPT display.init(115200); might need to change to simply display.init(); I don't speak Arduino so I haven't any first hand knowledge.

[fickle belfry]

That was the first thing I tried.

I've already been back and forth with ChatGPT many times.

[terse lava]

Dang. OK take the night off. Sorry I couldn't be of more help.

[fickle belfry]

Thanks anyway.

[terse lava]

Mine is a SSD1680 driver and I use CircuitPython. If you had those I would be all over this. 😉

[fickle belfry]

Oddly enough, I tried to flash CircuitPython earlier but the drive never showed up after flashing it.

[fickle belfry]

Are you using the Adafruit E-Ink Friend?

[terse lava]

No. My ePaper display just has a pin header hooked up to a Qt Py S3 and happens to be sitting on my desk running a simple dashboard from some of my Adafruit IO feeds...

[fickle belfry]

Ah, nice.

[terse lava]

When I get around to it I will come up with a case and I want to switch it over to run off a lipo battery so will likely switch from the Qt Py to the Seeed XIAO ESP32S3 instead since it has built in charging in the same form factor. I give up the Stemma connector of the Qt Py but I am not using it here.

[fickle belfry]

Nice nice. That was one of the boards I looked at before settling on the FeatherS3.

[fickle belfry]

I realized that Waveshare sells the exact same display with a breakout built-in, so I've submitted a return request to AliExpress and I'll just buy the Waveshare one instead.

[craggy saddle]

hey, im assuming these units for the dimensions of the qt py are inches?

[fair summit]

yes, definitely not cm 🙂

[rigid whale]

Is there a way to translate this document? https://cdn-shop.adafruit.com/product-files/4871/4871_C15784.pdf

[rigid whale]

litterly just fried my PIR following this tut https://learn.adafruit.com/pir-passive-infrared-proximity-motion-sensor/using-a-pir-w-arduino there goes $ down the drain

So frustrating not having appropriate tutorials for products.

[terse lava]

Just Copy and paste the parts you need translating into Google Translate. For example:

[terse lava]

Did you plug it in wrong?

[rigid whale]

I plugged it in based on the example provided. That being said https://www.adafruit.com/product/4871 has no real guide for testing it.

All paths lead to the same example/guides page. The example clip on the store page leads to the same outcome. Smoke then fire.

I wanted to check the data sheet to make sure it was ok with the voltage the example gave. Maybe it can't handle 5v.

[terse lava]

Working voltage: DC 2.7-12V;

[rigid whale]

As for the translate I can't copy from PDF's. Won't even let me highlight text.

[terse lava]

Everything on the datasheet seems to be stated on the product page. And it is a pretty simply device electrically speaking. VCC and GND supply and then a 3.3V dataline. Only way you could "smoke then fire" anything is if you hooked things up wrong and even then I have my doubts about either smoke or fire. Usually something just fails internally and the device doesn't work anymore. In the case of you getting a defective product, you would have to post a request for assistance over in the Adafruit forums. They will want clear pictures of your setup to check your wiring.

[rigid whale]

Will post on forums. This is the setup though.

just starts melting and smoking when I power the arduino

the power is to + and the ground is to -

Honestly not thinking it's defective.

The last test it was folded over and the dome cap was starting to pop off the base.

ah well live and learn

[hasty wedge]

Two of my makimakis

Left is a more recent one from AliExpress, uses an ATMEGA32 and hackable via Arduino, costs 8 bucks

Right one is the official JoyLabz one, non hackable, uses a cheap Taiwanese non user programmable MCU, costs 50 bucks

[blissful wing]

Homto

[robust swallow]

If I ground the enable pin on Feather boards, does the microcontroller itself also no longer recieve power?
Or is it only the components powered by the 3.3V rail (not sure if the RP2040 is on the 3.3v rail as well)?

[ancient rivet]

generally both. the enable pin controls the 3.3V regulator. that powers the mcu, but could be other things as well. the "other things" will vary depending on feather. the schematic would have the details.

[lunar urchin]

Anyone here own a PMSA003I I2C AQI Sensor? If so, I was wondering if it's normal to have a little movement (wiggle) of the housing, I just received mine in the mail, and noticed it seems loose. Also having problems with it running for a few minutes, and then stops working.

[hollow flint]

I'm curious, is that Discord role just a cosmetic thing?
Edit: nevermind, this message explains it: #circuitpython-dev message

[hard estuary]

Do you want the role? You'll get Discord notifications on Mondays when there is a meeting, otherwise it's pretty quiet and also allows you to talk during the weekly meeting

[hollow flint]

🤷 I was mostly just curious.

[hard estuary]

I can do it if you want it, just let me know

[hollow flint]

Since AFAIK there's no downside/obligation, sure.

[hard estuary]

There you go. 🙂

[burnt tendon]

I am trying to imagine a situation where it is necessary to cause the entire population of Master Punners to appear and solve a problem.

[knotty bramble]

Can't decide on el wire or led nOOds (never used either before)

The project im working on was intended for 1.7m of el wire, even though led is better from what I've heard

[somber spindle]

EL wire is high voltage, requires an inverter. n00ds are a little more expensive, the light is a little less smooth, and don't come in lengths as long as EL. n00ds are also dimmable, I'm not sure EL is.

[knotty bramble]

ive heard overall led filaments are better, i just dont have any of the extra stuff and the el wire comes with its own power supply in a relatively neat package

its my understanding that for the 1.7m of filament i would need a boost converter and a battery pack right?

[whole jacinth]

from vague memory, EL wire is dimmable with the right inverter, but only in a narrow range

[tender plinth]

guys rate my schematics

(not a pcb)

[sturdy dawn]

Hmm, new weather type: mist

Time to make a new icon

[fickle prawn]

What AWG’s do you guys have?

[fair summit]

what do you mean? Are you asking what size wire to buy?

[dusty citrus]

this is pretty over theme, but I was regetting interested into biochemical stuff, but hardware stuff is so expensive.
does exist something like a lab where you can rent the place, and use their stuff in? just like a gym, but with stem stuff inside.
so far I've found nothing. schools and businesses are annoying because you cannot do anything unless specificly told so

[late fulcrum]

That's what hackerspaces are, basically, but I don't know if there's one near you

[fair summit]

search for "makerspace" or "hackerspace" locally

[arctic stirrup]

hello, i am using a Adafruit Feather RP2040 with USB Type A Host to manipulate my mouse inputs. First it works, but after manipulating for some seconds (30-60), my mouse just freezes in the middle of the screen, until I replug the Adafruit or restart my pc. Does anyone have an idea what could cause this?

[ornate pawn]

anyone wonder if its possible to run picotron on a fruit jam? seems like the kinda thing to run on it but i dont think the pi version would work lol https://www.lexaloffle.com/picotron.php

[ornate pawn]

maybe on a zero 2 w if anything but not the pico chips

[fickle prawn]

I meant Arbitrary Waveform Generator

[fair summit]

got it, so do you mean as test instruments or for audio synth purposes?

[whole gust]

Wait, we're not supposed to use our euroracks as test instruments?

[digital prawn]

hello all, im new here, been adafruit fan since idk, over a decade ago.

[night crescent]

ASK AN ENGINEER 9/17/2025 LIVE! https://youtu.be/_77_G4zgeiQ

[broken plover]

Isnt this supposed to plug in? It doesnt, nor can I get it to work… does anyone know a good mulitmeter to replace this with on Amazon? I got this from adafruit but it doesnt even tirn on

[whole jacinth]

please post to adafruit forums for support about possibly defective products

[broken plover]

May I have a link?

[whole jacinth]

https://forums.adafruit.com/

[broken plover]

Thank you

[weary fiber]

...man, assembly classes sure can be fun

(doing the classic "binary bomb" assignment right now)

[blissful wing]

There's a dust cover in the plug, remove that.

[weary fiber]

does it have batteries in it? Have you removed the plastic slip ususally put in the battery terminals?

[rigid whale]

@broken plover Both of my multimeters take batteries. One requires me to unscrew the entire back plate and the other has the standard compartment where it pops out.

[whole gust]

Did you take the black plug out of the end to plug it in?

[broken plover]

Ill try to

[broken plover]

I keept rying to unscrew the back but the screw doesnt move and just chips away

[terse lava]

Why is this posted here?

[mild glade]

bruh dammit wrong server -_-

so sleep deprived rn

[broken plover]

I tried too but it wont come out?

[rigid whale]

@broken plover Have any vice grips? If so clamp onto the plug, twist and pull. They should slide out without force normally.

[gleaming sand]

did you get it to work yet?

[broken plover]

I have grips but nope all it did was chip the plastic off

[broken plover]

nop

[gleaming sand]

Dude that sucks. Your first multimeter experience to end up like this. But yeah if you can not get the plug out without damage you might have just gotten a faulty product 😢

What is your budget?

I've not tested them my self but you can get some really cool stuff online now a days

[broken plover]

My budget is just I mean, I'm a beginner/noob at this stuff so Im not really too picky with budget Id assue a multimeter under $100 is good?

I havent used a multimeter since like physics 1 like 4 years ago XD

[gleaming sand]

Oh yeah sure they will do. More expensive is usely more sturdy so you can drop it a few times. But if you plan on doing more electronics in the future getting one with an oscilloscope build in is handy. That way you can also check data signals in the future. And electronics use a lot of data signals :p

[broken plover]

Hmmm alright Ill look on amazon and see, I also only ever used an oscilloscope once so itll be fun to learn ho to use that

[gleaming sand]

It's my favorite xD always thought it looked so cool/impressive. Like lab stuff.

In the end it is just a volt meter that does a lot of measurements per second/works real hard, and plots them out. :p

[rigid whale]

@broken plover https://www.adafruit.com/product/2034 not too expensive. If you want top of the line then look for anything under the FLUKE brand. Expect to spend several hundred dollars though.

Adafruit has a more compact multimeter but it's a bit more expensive than the one I posted. Amazon has lots of decent brands for under $20.

AstroAI and Klein For example.

[shadow siren]

I have this meter from Amazon, works great https://a.co/d/8K9tFSj

[gleaming sand]

This is to funny xD someone asked for advice on making a wearable with posture and heart rate monitor. I told them posture might be a PITA (pain in the bottom... For some reason this channel seems to be quite tight bottommed and I can not say the other word). They did not get it and googled it, guess what they found....

Some things just seem meant to be

[gleaming sand]

That will do but I'd say if you have the money and like electronics, get one with an oscilloscope

Just because scopes are awesome xD

[hollow flint]

Something similarly unrelated pops up when you search for derp.

[gleaming sand]

nah this was meant to be XD PITA ffs!

life is set anyways 🙂 but that is the topic of and other conv 😉

[broken plover]

Thats the exact one I have and I cant get the back screw to unscrew

[rigid whale]

I recommend starting a post in the forums so that you can get a replacement. Adafruit is really good about replacing defective items. The forum admins will ask you to contact support with the forum post linked. You will get an email form support with the steps to follow to get a replacement.

The fact that the plug cap would not come out is an issue. They should never be that stuck.

[broken plover]

Alright, and I think I got the cap to open after getting my dad to yank it really hard, I just can't get the back to unscrew for batteries? Im assuming it doesnt come with batteries inside

[dusty citrus]

a

[rigid whale]

It should show something on the display when placed in any position.

Just can't get an actual read on something until you can plug in the electr0des. 😛

Should at least say 0.00 or some version of that.

if not then bat is dead or not included

[hollow flint]

b

[violet fiber]

Maybe not the best place to ask, but, I'm starting here. I'm looking to create a smallish (about the same as a medium sized microwave, I think, still narrowing down the size) low temperature - 90-125F (26-50C) "oven"/incubator. A lot of the diy builds I'm seeing - most of them going for higher temperatures too, at least on the high end - use light bulbs (standard incandescent/reptile heat lamps) or heating pads, plus a microcontroller and a few other pieces to monitor and control the temperature, but, I'd like to use something a bit more purpose built for the heating element. Anyone know of some references for this?

[fair summit]

A simple heating element is just a resistor, whether it's a light bulb or something else. The adavantage of the light/heat bulbs or heating pads is that they are easily replacable and are enclosed don't expose line voltage. You could use some high-wattage resistors. I'm not sure what is more purpose-built than a heating pad or a heat lamp. You could add a fan to make the temperature more uniform.

Is this for living things or is it a food desiccator (that's another thing you could get pre-built)?

[violet fiber]

The main problem with the heating pads (unless I got a couple of the small ones adafruit sells) is the auto-off function - I haven't stripped a controller on those to see if it's something that could be bypassed. But also the possibility of hotspots, which you are correct, could be managed with a small fan

It's for heating oils an other ingredients/test agents for soapmaking - the idea is to gently heat (for the way I want to work) right up to the temperature I need stuff at and then hold it there for up to a few hours until it's time to work

[hollow flint]

I'm not sure what is more purpose-built than a heating pad or a heat lamp.
Yeah, all forms of resistive electric heaters technically have 100% efficiency (source: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V-jmSjy2ArM&t=471s). Heat pumps are a more energy efficient alternative. However, I'm not sure whether any have the necessary output temperature range. Except maybe heat pump water heaters, but most sizes on the market would be overkill, and it'd require a radiator.

[violet fiber]

I probably explained myself wrong - I meant more on the not repurposing stuff from thrift store/my "might find a use someday" pile and more of a thing actually sold to be a heating element

[fair summit]

Are you do this out of necessity or as a fun project?
I think you could use one of these out of the box:
https://www.thespruceeats.com/best-food-dehydrators-4077285
https://www.nytimes.com/wirecutter/reviews/best-food-dehydrator/

to achieve even heating, I think you would want a fan. The heat source doesn't matter a lot. A small wattage bulb is probably enough at low temperatures

[violet fiber]

Partially necessity, the out of box options I've found so far are either too small or way more than I want to spend

[fair summit]

some of those are pretty cheap. But could see that size might be an issue. I think the light bulb or small heat lamp + fan is the most practical arrangement

[violet fiber]

Ok. Yeah, there are a couple on that list that might work....

[violet fiber]

Would also need to bring in temperature control with the bulb and fan setup, but, I've got a few tutorials/writeups I found that I might be able to work from

[fair summit]

higher temp but same principle: https://learn.adafruit.com/ez-make-oven

you're going to need feedback temp control unless you luck out about heat in vs heat out

[violet fiber]

I'll take a look at this, thanks

Hmmmm, quick glance would take a lot of modification to make it work (but, I'm still in the benefits of this kit vs the other reflow kits, principle and basics of the temp control may still work out)

[fair summit]

I'm imagining something like a metal breadbox with a light socket mounted inside + a small 5v fan. Put a temp sensor on the other side and mount control circuitry outside.

[violet fiber]

Pretty much, yeah

[fair summit]

could use a dead toaster oven - do _not_use its heating elements

[violet fiber]

The "fun" is finding an incandescent light bulb still, and working out the correct wattage needed

More a dead microwave for the size I'm pretty sure I need (might be able to shrink that, but probably not), but, more dangerous to be putting holes in

[fair summit]

there are 25-40w incandescent appliance bulbs available

If it's microwave size, one of those $160 food dehydrators looks just about right, and it would just work, I think. You are going to spend $50 on the parts at least, I think

[violet fiber]

Oh, so, need lower than I thought I would then

Yeah, the $160 one was one of the 2 that looked like might work

[fair summit]

25-40w I think would work for a smaller box, 90 degrees-ish

[violet fiber]

I'm still trying to figure out the size of containers that would be going in, so, it's not something I'd be starting to build right now

[fair summit]

the dehydrators are basically purpose built for what you want, it seems to me

[stoic mesa]

you can also look at clothes heating pads like https://a.co/d/e7O1AB7

[fair summit]

whether they can maintain stable temp evenly inside is another q, but they are rated on that criterion

[fair summit]

https://www.reddit.com/r/soapmaking/comments/1693afa/can_i_use_my_dehydrator/
https://www.soapmakingforum.com/threads/food-dehydrator-for-curing-cp.54249/

this is describing something else in the soapmaking process, I think? but using these has been discussed. Sounds like it might be good to ask in either of those places

[violet fiber]

They are talking about a totally different step than I would be using this for

Those are last step, I'd be using for very first step. (Also, if I asked there, I'd get told to just heat in the microwave like everyone else - the actual suggested piece of equipment, from my source, is a laboratory think microbiology incubator, those are like $1000+)

[fair summit]

my local craigslist and facebook marketplace have multiple used dehydrators. Facebook particularly has a lot

[violet fiber]

My local has one large lot of the LEM stuff, includes that dehydrator, but they won't break the lot up, and, it's all new or almost new stuff

[fair summit]

https://www.facebook.com/marketplace/104146386288393/search?query=dehydrator

dozens!

[violet fiber]

I'd be better off going to the farm and ranch store and just buying one

[fair summit]

looks like a lot of people bought them and realized they awere not using them

Goodwill ...

[violet fiber]

None that will work here (wrong time of year, actually, hunting season just started - other than the one large lot that seems to have been bought by someone that realized they can't go out after all, they don't really go up until end of season, when people decide to upgrade or choose different processing method)

Only circular stacking trays at our local thrift stores (small town, middle of no where)

[violet fiber]

@fair summit if I had to build, and chose to (kind of) follow this https://www.instructables.com/Moisture-Test-Build-an-Arduino-Controlled-Low-Tem/ I could replace the solid state relay and gfci (and the regular outlet too, for that matter) with the power relay module from the EZ Make project, right?

(That set up, other than being higher temperatures, is closer to being what I'd need, fewer mods to do)

[violet fiber]

(Also, assuming I could understand the arduino sketch well enough, I'd probably change to the pyportal instead of a plain arduino board, just because I do like the idea of having a screen and being able to select different heat profiles runs arduino without mod, thought it was circuit python only)

[fair summit]

The circuit diagram in that instructables seems to be wrong in several ways (as noted in a comment).
Yes, PyPortal will run both Arduino and CircuitPython.

If you already have one, you could use it. There are many other boards with screens. The PyPortal has limited pins but it can support I2C. Note carefully in PyPortal the jumpers for controlling the voltage to the I2C jack: 3.3V vs 5v

The power relay module is the safest way to turn the light bulb (or whatever line-voltage heater you're using). If you are not comfortable with wiring line-voltage things, then use that or something like it. Otherwise you will have bare power-line wires somewhere and will need to protect them from accidental touching, etc.

you would probably want to use a temperature sensor other than a thermocouple because you're measuring lower temperatures. You could use the DS1820B mentioned, but using an I2C temp sensor is easier, and you can substitute them more easily. We sell many: https://www.adafruit.com/category/613

[violet fiber]

Yeah, I noticed problems in the diagram too, and was looking at other board/screen options already. Didn't see comments (didn't think there were any, actually, I'll go find them see what other people are saying, and maybe keep looking. I'm also going to keep trying on a used dehydrator)

[mint silo]

i want to use the crickit board from adafruit combined with a feather rp2040. Can I "power"/ use the USB interface from the feather when powering the CRICKIT board or will the 5V from cricket kill the 5V from USB or vice versa?

[ancient rivet]

it's ok to plug in both. more info here:
https://learn.adafruit.com/adafruit-crickit-creative-robotic-interactive-construction-kit/powering-crickit#how-to-power-your-crickit-2987972
specific to your question:

The Crickit power will also power the Circuit Playground Express, micro:bit, Raspberry Pi or Feather so you don't need separate power for your microcontroller board (however, if you want to plug it into USB for programming, that's totally OK too!)

[mint silo]

ah there you go! I was too blind to read the last sentence 🙂 Thanks - in this case it is ideal for what I want to do. Just a bummer that powering with 12v is not possible, but one can fix that with a step-up

[jaunty yarrow]

Hi all - just bought all the components to make the K-Pop demon hunters Rumi sword from the Adafruit Blog and realized the print file as is, is way too large for my printer. It only has a 240x240 bed, before I try to learn fusion and see if I can split this up badly myself, I don't suppose anyone has already made a version in smaller parts?

[hollow flint]

Another option would be to check whether any nearby public libraries and/or makerspaces/hackerspaces have a larger 3D printer available to use.

[fair summit]

can you print all the parts vertically, as in https://learn.adafruit.com/rumi-sword/3d-print
Never mind, I see largest dimension is just under 300mm 🙁

[jaunty yarrow]

Beat me to it! Yep, print bed 220x220x220 annoyingly, and parts are all around 300mm. Hadn't actually realized its a vertical print though!

[fair summit]

i brought it to the attention of the designer; not sure if they will be able to chop it; wait a bit

[jaunty yarrow]

Really appreciate it! Thank you!

[spare ether]

ok we added a zip file with all parts split for smaller printers - we just used the cutting option in the slicer https://cdn-learn.adafruit.com/assets/assets/000/139/832/original/Rumi_Cut_Parts.zip?1758575059 you’ll just have to glue the parts together

[jaunty yarrow]

Thank you so much, really apprecaite it! Such a cool project, will let you know how it turns out!

[twilit onyx]

Have you looked at sous vide as an option - essentially place your materials in canning jars, fill water high as you can for a water bath, and let the circulator run until it reaches temperature? The benefits would be: rather accurate temperature targeting plus little issue maintaining temperatures for extended periods. It's what such devices are specifically designed to do. More spendy would be a 'water oven', which is the same idea, but packaged in an insulated container to help hold temperature.

[violet fiber]

Unfortunately, the water would cause some issues (not necessarily for others considering the same solution, I require accommodations)

[twilit onyx]

Is it a safety concern over a large-ish amount of heated water?

[violet fiber]

Safety as it pertains to mobility issue, also, no matter how low and slow the jar contents are heated (one option some people take is poor man's sous vide - basically what needs to be heated goes into a jar that goes into a sauce pot on low simmer) not supposed to be done with the jar sealed

Others just use a full on double boiler - either a dedicated pot system or the bowl over a pot version, but, again, safety issue that doesn't apply to others, it doesn't work for me

[twilit onyx]

The jars would be open while in the water bath, but in any case that doesn't address your safety concern. Perhaps one solution would be: heat source (whether pads or ceramic heat lamp(s)) under a cast iron griddle, cover (large heat-safe bowl would work in a pinch), rig up thermocouple to regulate power to heat source based on temperature data polling (it would work similarly to many home thermostats - turn off when too hot, turn on when too cold). Read the temperature of the cast iron griddle at a set interval; the density of the cast iron will help reduce hot/cold spots while easing temperature fluctuations. It may take some trial and error to dial in where the upper/lower temperature limits need to be set. The Adafruit shop sells relays which can be activated via microcontroller, just be sure the relay is rated for the appropriate amperage/wattage in AC for the heat source you plan to use.

[dim cypress]

So are we just giving up on Adabox at this point? I really miss it!

[wise scarab]

Forgive me if this isn't the right place to ask, but I'm asking here because I don't know what the right place is.
I'm wondering what it is about the 5V electromagnets that makes them not RoHS compliant? The little green leaf isn't on the listing page.
Where would I look or who would I ask to find out? I know that some things don't have it because they aren't compliant and some don't have it because RoHS compliance isn't a relevant concept.
Thanks!

https://www.adafruit.com/product/3875#technical-details

[fair summit]

The manufacturer may have not taken the time to certify it is RoHS. Or perhaps leaded solder was used internally.

[wise scarab]

That makes sense, thank you for the clarification!
I can't quite tell, so if you happen to know, are components like this usually sealed? If there's lead solder inside that makes it non-compliant, can it only get out if the magnet breaks? I get wiggy about non RoHS stuff, but would love to buy these if I shouldn't have to worry too much about contaminants.

[fair summit]

You are not going to get lead contamination from lead solder in regular use. The main issue is recycling or disposing of the material.

[wise scarab]

Not that it's particularly relevant to the original questions, but just out of general curiosity, do you mean that about using leaded solder yourself, or about the normal use of components that have leaded solder in them? I would imagine the latter (and would probably operate on that just to be safe, myself), but you'd know more than me, ergo, curious

[fair summit]

I am talking about the normal use of components / electronic things with leaded solder. The lead is in a form that is not readily accessible.

I myself used leaded solder for years. I washed my hands after using the solder, and I didn't put it in the my mouth 🙂 . Soldering with leaded solder does not emit lead fumes.

[wise scarab]

That makes a lot of sense, thank you for satisfying my curiosity!

[normal cove]

Does anyone know of some funny/interesting YouTube videos that involve PCB design or general electronics stuff? Think Micheal Reeves / Electroboom / styropyro type of video, this is something I’ve been missing

[wanton vessel]

Gotta throw EEVBlog your way.

[gleaming sand]

Louis Rossman also has some good stuff...

I also enjoy Bigclivedotcom

[ornate pawn]

this is really funny https://youtu.be/Nc9eu-IT93g

[night crescent]

WE ARE LIVE in BROOKLYN! SHOW AND TELL! https://youtu.be/nRwP4QgfvkM

[spice moss]

space makers filament https://blog.prusa3d.com/prusament-pc-space-grade-black_121877/

[undone phoenix]

I need help with the qt py pico, WLED and neopixel strip.
I'm not sure which is the data pin i'm supposed to solder to?
i've got 5v and ground already

[fair summit]

it would be DATA IN, or at the beginng of any arrow. If you're not sure give us a pointer to which strip you're using or take a picture of the end

[undone phoenix]

this is the pico https://learn.adafruit.com/adafruit-qt-py-esp32-pico/pinouts
these are the LED's https://www.adafruit.com/product/6016

they're left over from another project, i cut 1 LED off the strip and soldered the wires to the pads.

[fair summit]

so do you see that? from which end did you cut, and are you saying you're using one neopixel or the whole strip minus 1?

[undone phoenix]

just 1 pixel

[fair summit]

you cut from the far end?

[undone phoenix]

uh, no? i don't think so

maybe?

[fair summit]

could you take a picture of what you have?

[undone phoenix]

sure

[fair summit]

By the far end I mean the end without the wires

[undone phoenix]

right, i used that wired half for a different project

ooh, didn't realize how blurry it was

pretty sure i bridged some contacts too, but i'll worry about that later

[fair summit]

blurry but the middle wire should be data, and it's close to ground, as you see in the picture I posted above, which is just one of the pictures on the product page

[undone phoenix]

yea i know that part, they're labeled

i mean on the pico

[fair summit]

OH!

[undone phoenix]

😅

[fair summit]

it doesn't matter, any of the pins. You don't have a level shift so it might not work, but if you power the NeoPixel from 3.3V it will definitely work, and then you could try 5v if you want it brighter

[undone phoenix]

any pin?

[fair summit]

A0 throuhg A3 SDA SCL TX, SCK MI MO, they will all work. Any of the data pins

[undone phoenix]

wow..how does that work? does wled just push the same thing to every pin?

[fair summit]

oh, wled, not sure about that, sorry, I am not paying attention. I thought it had a config option of some kind.

https://kno.wled.ge/basics/getting-started/

For ESP32 use GPIO16 (or IO16 or G16); GPIOs 4, 13 and 16-33 can be used, other pins are not recommended.

[undone phoenix]

aah, gpio are the yellow on the diagram

ok perfect, i think i got it. thank you!

[mint silo]

Hello,
I need the schematics for the crickit featherwing for a time-critical and important project. I can only find the version for the circuit playground and hat here:
https://learn.adafruit.com/adafruit-crickit-creative-robotic-interactive-construction-kit/downloads

How is a feather mounted on top of the crickit powered? and can I pull about 0.4A at 3V3?

[cyan plume]

based on this: https://learn.adafruit.com/hello-world-of-robotics-with-crickit/assembly

it appears to be powered via the mounts.

[fair summit]

I just generated this after importing into kicad, so it's not as attractive, but it's there

[broken plover]

am i allowed to ask for general help on a electronic project or does it have to use some sort of adafruit product

[fair summit]

it's fine to ask a non-adafruit question. Consider which channel to use (maybe #general-tech or #help-with-projects or one of the more specialized ones)

[broken plover]

Alright

[cedar osprey]

Man, the AI posts on Adafruit's social media really bum me out. Not very DIY of them

[stuck moth]

what's an example?

[patent badge]

show and tell today. ask an engineer today

[lusty grove]

where is Ask an Engineer being shown? I can't find it.

[patent badge]

let us know if you find it

[cedar osprey]

https://www.instagram.com/reel/DPR15KtAMtX/?igsh=ODZ2b3Nsb3ZmdnZn

adafruit

Disney-style movie about manufacturing in the USA ... a singing PCB stenciler .... from sora 2, photo of our stenciler and prompt used ...

"an industrial pick-and-place stencil machine with giant googly eyes comes to life in a whimsical animated musical scene. the stenciler is center stage in a bright, friendly factory workshop, singing cheerf...

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[sweet phoenix]

I've got an electrical mystery I can't explain. For some reason, turning off my kitchen light causes my TV to blank out for a second, any ideas why? 😂

[shadow siren]

@sweet phoenix I fed your question to Gemini pro

This is a classic electrical mystery, and it's almost always a case of electrical interference. The most likely reasons are a voltage spike from the light fixture or electromagnetic interference (EMI) from the switch itself.

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The Most Likely Cause: The "Inductive Kick"

The type of light in your kitchen is the biggest clue. If it's an older fluorescent tube light or a fixture with a magnetic ballast, the culprit is likely a phenomenon called an "inductive kick."

Think of electricity flowing through the light's ballast like water flowing through a garden hose. When you suddenly turn off the switch, the magnetic field in the ballast collapses, which creates a brief but powerful voltage spike that kicks back into your home's wiring.

Modern TVs have sensitive electronics and power supplies that monitor for voltage fluctuations. When your TV sees this sudden spike, its built-in protection circuit briefly shuts down to prevent damage, causing the screen and audio to blank out for a second before it recovers.

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The Other Common Culprit: EMI from the Switch

Every time you flip a mechanical switch, a tiny spark, or electric arc, jumps across the contacts as they separate. This arc is like a tiny bolt of lightning that releases a burst of broadband electromagnetic energy, also known as electromagnetic interference (EMI).

This EMI radiates outward from the switch. If your TV's power cord or, more commonly, a poorly shielded HDMI cable is nearby or running parallel to the electrical wiring, it can act as an antenna. The cable picks up this burst of static, which is enough to disrupt the digital signal from your cable box or streaming device, causing a momentary signal loss.

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What You Can Do About It

You can try a few things to diagnose and solve the issue, starting with the easiest.

1. Identify the Light Fixture: If the light is an old fluorescent tube, it's the prime suspect. Replacing it with a modern LED fixture will almost certainly solve the problem, as LEDs don't create an inductive kick.
2. Use a Power Conditioner or UPS: Plug your TV into a good quality surge protector, or even better, a power conditioner or an uninterruptible power supply (UPS). These devices are designed to filter out electrical noise and voltage spikes, protecting your TV from the interference.
3. Check Your Cables: Ensure you're using high-quality, well-shielded HDMI cables. Try to separate the TV's power and signal cables from other electrical wiring where possible to reduce the chance of picking up EMI.
4. Try a Different Circuit: As a test, try plugging the TV into an outlet that you know is on a different circuit from the kitchen lights. If the problem disappears, it confirms the issue is isolated to that original circuit.

---

When to Call an Electrician ⚠️

While this issue is often harmless, it can sometimes point to a more serious underlying problem. You should call an electrician if:

• The problem gets worse or starts happening with other appliances.
• Lights in your house frequently dim or flicker.
• You hear buzzing sounds from the switch, outlets, or your breaker panel.

These can be signs of a loose neutral wire or a failing circuit breaker, which are serious fire hazards and should be addressed immediately by a professional.

[sullen canopy]

Howdy Adafruit Team, The Adafruiut Monster mask Board is currently out of stock, do we expect some soon?

[hard estuary]

This is a community server - while there are a few Adafruit employees here, in my experience they don't really comment on inventory

[sullen canopy]

Got it thanks, worth a try. I see they have 63 on digikey, great haloween idea

I'll order from there

I'm always trying to order from Manhattan first 🙂

[hollow flint]

They've moved to Industry City recently.

[sullen canopy]

Oh Good

I will try to order from Brooklyn first next time

😉

[stuck moth]

Thanks for the link. I hadn't seen it.

[wispy heron]

I wanna get a new feather, but I'm having a heck of a hard time deciding between ESP32-S3 with TFT or RP2040 Prop-Maker.

[wispy heron]

I'm slightly leaning towards the rp2040, just because I haven't worked with them yet. I dunno, decisions are hard lol

[stoic mesa]

depends on how you want to use them.
I really liked the ESP32-s3 reverse TFT feather

[terse lava]

Usually my deciding factor is do I think I will need/want the board to be connected to Wifi or will it be a completely isolated purpose that doesn't require connectivity. Right now most of the Adafruit RP2040/2350 boards do not have Wifi. Even the projects I think don't need Wifi, as I think about them more I always end up coming up with further enhancements in my head like "Yeah, but what if after I get it working I also decide I want to add sending data to an IO feed?"

[wispy heron]

Well, after talking with two of the people I’m working on projects with last night, both explicitly said they wanted things to NOT connect to the internet. One even went on a ten minute rant about how they are sick of everything wanting to connect to the internet, and how they just want stuff that is simple and works offline. And the other is a cosplayer that goes to conventions where the WiFi & cell are so overloaded they aren’t usable.

Which, I guess I kinda get their point. I too am kinda sick of every device being a “smart device”, and I was glad to get rid of my WiFi enabled washing machine that sucked when I got a regular cheap washing machine that actually does a better job. Less focus on connectivity & coolness factor, more focus on what the devices actual purpose is.

[terse lava]

Yes a lot of things you would think, why do I need my washer & dryer, refrigerator, garage door openers, and other things connected to the internet? And sometimes it is true. But as I have upgraded some appliances that now have this connectivity, I have discovered there are some useful features. Mostly it is the alerts that can be a big help. A lot of the other crud can be rather useless and a lot of the apps seem to be mostly about selling you high priced filters or whatever else the appliance needs.

[wispy heron]

Yeah. I use timers all the time for other stuff, so setting an egg timer when I start the laundry is easier than downloading an app, for me at least since timers are already part of my daily flow.

But I do get the appeal for folks that are more app oriented

[terse lava]

Yes, the alerts that your laundry is done and you can move it to the dryer is nice but you can also do it with a timer most of the time. On the other hand, if you are on a tight schedule and need to make sure the laundry is done to be able to fold & pack it for a vacation and so you are also busying yourself around the house with other things, the alert that tells you the washer stopped due to an imbalance and needs to be addressed to continue is certainly way better than finding out it stopped 25 minutes ago when you come to move it over to the dryer based on your simple timer.

Likewise getting an alert that the fridge or freezer door wasn't fully closed is better to find out sooner rather than, say, the next morning and everything in your freezer is compromised because the door was open all night.

[wispy heron]

Ah, that would be a useful feature on a fridge. Ours is a dumb fridge, but has a beep alert that sounds like a U-Haul backing up if it’s left open, so that works okay although very annoying.

[violet fiber]

Pulling a bezel off a TV and all I've got to help with the clips is an old credit card. Wish I had the proper pry tool, this is harder than it should be. Blah

[fair summit]

plastic cutlery knife?

[violet fiber]

Ooooooo, if I ever do this again (and haven't bought the tool), I'll remember that. I don't have any of the good quality ones that won't just bend here (I don't think), and I did finally get it off

(Still trying to figure out if I can get plexiglass thin enough to fit in where the lcd was and not bend because of the large dimensions)

[fair summit]

you might need to sand it down. I have some other scrapers in the kitchen that might do. (But I also have the iFixit spudgers that AF sells.)

glad you got it off, in any case

[violet fiber]

Next time I do an order, I'll just add the spudgers to my cart

[violet fiber]

Sand down the plexi, or a plastic knife?

[fair summit]

the knife. We have some with teeth

I have these https://www.ifixit.com/products/ifixit-opening-tool

[violet fiber]

Oh, yeah, I don't think I've ever seen any without teeth except for ones meant for kids to play with clay

[fair summit]

I guess I got that elsewhere, not Adafruit

[violet fiber]

For a while they were on adafruit, seems like they're kinda disappearing, tutorials that are only a couple years old have dead links on where to buy

[fair summit]

report any dead links using the "Feedback" item in the left sidebar -- thanks

[violet fiber]

Oh, not just adafruit tutorials, random blogs, instructables, etc. But, yeah, on the adafruit ones I will

[violet fiber]

Oooooooo, wow. Contrary to pretty much every LCD removal video, on this TV it was just floating under the bezel, held on by the tight fit and the way the address boards were secured to the chassis

Was not prepared for that

[violet fiber]

Oh, only partially true, there's adhesive at the top

[white grove]

hey all! new here!

[dusty citrus]

besides a sim module what can I use for long range drones with video?
I saw that there are some radio modules, but it does not look like they can trasmit video?

[violet fiber]

The type of video (the quality, and such) that you'll want can probably only come from sim with a data plan. It is, technically, possible to get high quality video via radio (TV off an antenna works that way), the problem is the frequency ranges we're allowed to work with I don't think are ones that support that much data - you'd basically need 2 radio modules, one for control, the other for the video transmission

(Not, sim and wifi modules also, technically use radio, just different bands - I'm too long out of date to know what is and isn't possible with the hardware and frequencies currently available, things of changed, some bands shrunk down for what can be used, and transmitted without a license, others expanded, then there's the bandwidth issue)

[dusty citrus]

I was looking at openhd now, which claim to trasmit till 50km or more using wifi dongles (?)

as the project is getting complicated... is there any company that offers a prebuilt or mostly prebuilt thing based of foss projects, with some gpios free, so I can add some functions? couldn't yet find much

[dusty citrus]

ops wrong channel

[violet fiber]

It happens

[night crescent]

industrial lullaby: a walk through adafruit 🖤📽️ sorta

[dusty citrus]

Good morning everyone! I hope you are all having a wonderful start to your day

[stable dove]

Hi,

asked a while ago here what soldering irons people recommend

but I forgot what people said. Can anyone give me some recommendations again?

[hollow flint]

BTW, you can search previously sent messages by the username of who sent it. I found your previous message in a mutual Discord server: #789303214016561173 message

[terse lava]

For whatever it is worth, I went with the Pinecil which does the job very well. I have also gone lead free with this iron which is a tad more difficult to work with than leaded solder and it still does the job. I have over 35 years of soldering experience including surface mount by hand.

[violet swallow]

Im an ameteur and find the pinecil easy to use, can't really say if its better than others

[fair summit]

I have an older analog version of the Hakko FX-888DX. It works well. Buy genuine Hakko tips.

https://www.adafruit.com/product/1204

[burnt tendon]

I have the generation of Hakko before the FX-888DX.

[gleaming sand]

Good day folks!
After ages I finally got a new idea. I'm trying to catch a mouse in my house, kitchen to be exact. Bought these traps but in the morning the bait is gone and no mouse. They said to tape a coin to the trigger so it triggers faster but no luck. So imma digitize it :p I was thinking simple 9v battery, buck converter, microcontroller, servo for the trigger but then the last part; sensor. I guess 3 options. Sound, light or gravity. Sounds/ultrasoon might not work,as they will hear it. So laser or microscale? And got any recommendations?

Thinking laser might be the best. Let him mission impossible through that!!! Then again he is is quite small... Like Tom Cruise so, who knows!

🎶i got a mouse in my kitchen now what I'm gonna do? I'm gonna catch the mouse that's what's in gonna do I'm gonna catch that mouse 🎶

[solar kindle]

I've owned numerous soldering irons over the course of 50 years. Everything from a cheap thing from Radio Shack to a high-end soldering station. I currently have 3 soldering irons. The only one I've used recently is the Pinecil. Heats up quick, easy to handle, the tips are easily swappable, and it can runoff a variety of power supplies. The only complaint I have is that sometimes it'll go into sleep mode if it detects that it hasn't been handled for a couple minutes.

[gleaming sand]

i got me a velleman. my dad got me a parkside with a fancy display and such but the cable running to the iron is just to thick and tough. love my velleman

[hollow flint]

@stable dove 👆

[gleaming sand]

oh... replied to the wrong message. sorry and thanks for correcting me...

[fair summit]

FX-888D has a confusing UI -- too easy to change the calibration. FX-888DX has fixed that. I have a an FX-888 with an analog dial

[languid portal]

Any cheap camere for pi that has night vision and day vision?

[gleaming sand]

not sure you can get real night-vision for cheap. not sure how they work.
There is cheap IR 🙂
5MP OV5647 Webcam 75 175 IR-CUT Camera
https://nl.aliexpress.com/item/1005001592713507.html

thats kinda like night vision 😛

oh yeah they work way different xD
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UAeJHAFjwPM

[languid portal]

Nothing without IR or anyway LEDs visible or invisible to human eyes?

[gleaming sand]

you basicly mean without a flashlight lighting things up 😛 (in the visible range or not)
And im looking but i can not find it. not cheap anyways. its a whole different technology

[languid portal]

Like what's the minimal?

[gleaming sand]

watch the video... things are still kinda high-tech and secret it seems 😛

apparently its analog as well.... i dont know what to say. analog video is from before my time xD

[gleaming sand]

there is always thermal! that works at night. but its like 70 bucks for 32x24 pixels 😛

real nightvision is image intensification. it does not use thermal or ir.
there are no consumer-grade, legal, modern intensifier tubes that can just plug into a Raspberry Pi. apparently you can sometimes buy surplus or decommissioned night-vision tubes (e.g., MX-10160, MX-11769, or Russian-made EPM66G, XR5, etc.) but all that stuff it not beginner safe.
real ones use high voltages up to a few 1000 volts. all the other option also cost hundreds of euros for what i can find.

IR is your best shot to be cheap

[languid portal]

Not the answer that I hoped XD
Those tubes are no way cheap, they start to 1k+
IR sensible cameras, aren't quite stealth :-//
And as you say thermal ones have a bad resolution

[gleaming sand]

thermal ones can get a high res but will also cost thousands.
its all pretty costly tech 😛 just not IR