#general-chat

1 messages ยท Page 105 of 1

sinful stratus
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but can the ATtinys do i2s?

fair summit
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but you have to pass data with specific timing, or else buffer it up. I don't think you can do this in real time

sinful stratus
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i could but i really like what i have! :>

fair summit
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what audio are you trying to play? Is it just canned things?

sinful stratus
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i have a modem talking over UART with 8 bit PCM audio data

fair summit
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instead of sending the audio, you could send a command to sometihng else to play some audio that it has stored

sinful stratus
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its not canned unfortunately

fair summit
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you mean modem tones?

sinful stratus
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sorry i should clarify. its not modem tones, its live audio data

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so you can think of it like i have PCM audio coming in over UART and i want to bring it to an i2s DAC but i only have an i2c peripheral :>

fair summit
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say more about what the audio is that you want to generate on the MacroPad

sinful stratus
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so this is where i thought the attiny might come in

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okay. so im not generating it on the macropad , the modem is giving me the audio data live

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right now i just play it on the builtin speaker with audiopwmio. but i wanted something better

fair summit
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I would just use another microcontroller board to receive the modem data and play it, and send control signals to it from the MacroPad. You could send them over I2C or use the STEMMA pins to send UART control signals.

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in other words, offload the playing work to another board

sinful stratus
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do you think the ATtiny can do it? like the ATtiny1616 breakouts Adafruit sells

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i looked for "audio" on the datasheet and found nothing so i dont think it has the i2s peripheral

fair summit
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no, it's not fast enough to do I2S. Use, say, an RP2040. It's cheap enough

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or SAMD21 or 51 or Espressif

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where is the PCM audio coming from?

sinful stratus
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i have a KB2040, could i power that from the stemma qt only?

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and just connect the two stemma qt ports together

fair summit
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yes, but if you plug in the KB2040 to USB, you'll have the two 3.3V supplies fighting with each and you may damage something

sinful stratus
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that sounds scary and frightening

fair summit
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anyway, consider offloading all that instead of everything on one board

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if you tie two board together, you must tie the grounds together, but don't tie the power supplies together unless one is going to power the other exclusively

sinful stratus
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but both of them can be powered fully over the red wire on the stemma qt port?

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no current problems or anything

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(or i guess only one board is actually powered by the stemma qt vcc)

fair summit
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you could also use a USB splitter and plug USB into both boards

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if so, cut the red wire on the STEMMA cable so you won't have the two 3.3V supplies connected to each other

sinful stratus
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i just want to make sure it won't overload the 3.3v regulator on the macropad

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but i will just try it. you're right its probably fine

compact crypt
fair summit
eternal trout
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On the huzzah32, does the JST connector both charge the lipo battery when plugged into microUSB, and draw from the battery when its not plugged into microUSB?

fair summit
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This is true of all Feathers.

eternal trout
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thanks :D

eternal trout
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Is there a way to calculate how many mA battery i need to power components for a given time?

bitter badge
# eternal trout Is there a way to calculate how many mA battery i need to power components for a...

If you mean mAh, then yes, if you know how much current the circuit pulls. (While you can calculate this for individual components, how they are arranged has a major effect on power drawn. For example, two identical resistors in series will draw half the current of one, but in parallel will draw double the current of one.)

Anyhow, if you can figure out the current your circuit draws (or average current for something like a microcontroller board), you can work out how long it will last on a battery that provides the same voltage as the supply used for your measurement, quite easily. mAh is a measure of how many milliamps you can draw and have the battery last an hour. In theory, my 20,000mAh USB battery should be able to provide 20 amps for 1 hour. Of course, it's peak current is actually 2 amps, so it can't actually do that. What that actually means it that it should be able provide 2 amps for 10 hours. So that 20,000mAh means that it can provide any milliamps * hours = 20,000, where milliamps can't be higher than 2,000 (2 amps). If you know how many milliamps your circuit draws, you would solve for hours like this hours = 20,000 / milliamps. That said, the batteries inside my 20,000 mAh USB battery are actually 3.7v, not 5v, and there's a converter to make it 5v. Odds are that 20,000mAh is referencing the 3.7v batteries, not the 5v output, which means I have to do some scaling math. 3.7/5 * 20,000 = 14,000. If my math is right (and I think it is), that 20,000 mAh battery can only provide 14,000mAh (a little less, due to conversion losses) at 5v. So instead, I would do hours = 14,000 / milliamps to get a fairly close estimate of how long my circuit will last.

I hope this helps. If it doesn't, it's probably time to find a basic electronics tutorial that covers Ohm's law and the fundamental equations of electricity. It really easy once you understand the relationship between current, voltage, resistance, power, and energy.

...

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If you are using standard sizes of non-rechargable batteries, finding mAh capacity can be very difficult. Some brands post datasheets online, while others seem to just keep it secret. Rechargables almost always have mAh.

Note that voltage adds in series, while capacity adds in parallel. If you don't understand what this means, you shouldn't be connecting multiple batteries together to make them last longer. Instead learn basic electronics math and how basic circuits work, and then come back to this. Otherwise, you may accidentally destroy your circuit!

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Oh, to calculate mAh needed for your circuit, just use milliamps * hours = mAh, where milliamps are the current you've measured that your circuit uses, hours is how long you want it to last (this can be a decimal value, if you don't want a whole number of hours), and the mAh solution will be the battery you want. Again, this only applies so long as the measured mA is at the same voltage as the battery. So if you measure the current when it is plugged into 5v USB, but the battery you want to use is a 3.7v lithium ion, the math won't work out. If you can, measure the current used connected to a 3.7v lithium ion battery you already have, and the use the equation, and that should give you the right minimum mAh value for a 3.7v lithium ion battery for the time you want it to last.

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I hope that wasn't too confusing...

eternal trout
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so

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i have a 3.7v 350 mAh battery

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an esp32 board that draws 200mA

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and an oled display that draws ~35mA

bitter badge
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Ok, so first add the esp32 and display together to get 235mA. The battery capacity is 350mAh, so 350mAh / 235mA = 1.49h. So it should run on that battery for around an hour and a half.

Note that this is a rough estimate. It will depend heavily on actual usage. If this is merely the maximum rated values, you'll probably get more than 1.5 hours for most applications. If it's an average rating, and you use the ESP32 wifi a lot, it will likely last less time (wifi uses kind of a lot of power).

It's common, with microcontrollers like the ESP32, to program it so that the wifi module stays off except when it really needs to be on. So if your use case allows it, you can initialize the wifi module, connect to the network, do whatever transmissions you need, then disconnect and power down wifi until the next transmission is necessary. (This is super common when using an ESP32 as a remote sensor. You'd create a buffer to hold sensor samples, and then only power up wifi and transmit when the buffer gets full.) This can extend the battery life quite significantly. Additionally, if the display can maintain the last frame sent to it (if I recall, OLEDs tend to prefer infrequent refreshes), you can put the ESP32 into a low power mode with a timer interrupt to bring it back up periodically. (Again, this is common for sensor applications, where you might want 1 sample a second, but it only takes a few milliseconds to capture and record each one.) So long as it doesn't have too much processing to do, this is another excellent way to reduce power usage and extend battery life. Tricks like this depend on your specific application, but if you can avoid having it pulling its full rated current for a significant portion of the time, the difference can be quite large.

dusk hawk
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Good morning y'all!

I'm helping a SWE friend of mine learn more about embedded design and hardware. I'm curious if there's anything better than the "arduino starter kits" available and with more structure around it.

Thank you!

fair summit
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we have a ton of education material in https://learn.adafruit.com and various starter kits. The "Circuit Playground" boards have a lot of devices on board.

dusk hawk
hard estuary
fair summit
dusk hawk
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will do thx! what's the difference between the skus?

image.png
terse lava
# bitter badge Ok, so first add the esp32 and display together to get 235mA. The battery capac...

"if I recall, OLEDs tend to prefer infrequent refreshes" - You are thinking of ePaper displays. OLEDs you can refresh as much as you want. The caution with them is they can suffer from burn in and dimming over time with use so you don't want to display something static 24/7 and if you can turn it off for large periods you won't "burn it out" so to speak. On the other hand, those little 128x64 models are cheap as chips, so who cares. Put them on a connector and if they start to go bad in a year or two, chuck it and get another.

bitter badge
eternal trout
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Only happening when the button is being pressed

bitter badge
eternal trout
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How long do those lithium 3v coin cells last?

bitter badge
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Don't know. Non-rechargables can be super hard to find data on, and they tend to differ by brand. You might be able to find an average or typical capacity with a web search, but if you know what brand you want to use, see if you can find a data sheet for the specific battery size from that brand. They don't always list capacity, but sometimes they do.

For rechargeable coin cells, the manufacturer probably has some public information somewhere on it, but again, it's going to be brand specific for the exact value.

eternal trout
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Thank youu

tepid stone
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check the current rating too. some coin cells are designed for low current draws. A CR2032 might have trouble supplying 235mA, for instance

fair summit
fair summit
dusk hawk
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perfect thx!

night crescent
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Desk of Ladyada โ€“ uBlox Drivers, Struct Wizardry & L5 GPS โ€“ The Future is Overhead!
https://youtu.be/692cmaCb-K0
OpenClaw wrote our 475-page uBlox GNSS library overnight. Opus suggested packed structs over byte parsing... smart. Also found new L1+L5 GPS modules on DigiKey: ~2x accuracy for $2-3 more. No RTK needed.

YouTube
Adafruit Industries
Desk of Ladyada โ€“ uBlox Drivers, Struct Wizardry & L5 GPS โ€“ The...

OpenClaw wrote our 475-page uBlox GNSS library overnight. Opus suggested packed structs over byte parsing... smart. Also found new L1+L5 GPS modules on DigiKey: ~2x accuracy for $2-3 more. No RTK needed.

โ–ถ Play video
icy dawn
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can I hook a barometer to a BNO055

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or is there a MEMS thatโ€™s 10DOF while doing all the math still

opaque fiber
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Are the 8x8 matrix backpacks (product 1048) able to be used with common anode matrixes? The ones Adafruit sells seem to be common cathode, so I'm wondering if this is something that can be coded around to work, or if there's something in backpack wiring that would make it a no-go.

fair summit
opaque fiber
fair summit
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I haven't been to Akihabara in more than 40 years but I know what you mean ๐Ÿ™‚

ornate kernel
# night crescent Desk of Ladyada โ€“ uBlox Drivers, Struct Wizardry & L5 GPS โ€“ The Future is Overhe...

Great to see the Desk is back and y'all doing great. ๐ŸŽ‰ Digging out I imagine. โ˜ƒ๏ธ
I've had great success with the NEO-F10 L1 L5
One question though... Do you have any concerns with the recent purchase of uBlox to private equity firm Advent?
With linked companies like biometrics company IDEMIA, tracking comany NielsenIQ, and Maxar Intelligence I'm not sure how comfortable I am them adding precise positioning. I know that not how GPS/GNSS works but still... thoughts?

trim rapids
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Hello there! @night crescent
Iโ€™m a software engineer, while I lack hardware design experience, I do have some experience with microcontrollers.
If I wanted to build a custom board starting from ESP modules and sensors, where should I begin to design a single integrated PCB?
Are there services that help with the design phase as well, not only manufacturing? I know PCBWay, but it seems you need to already have the hardware design.

Thanks for help

fair summit
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our designs are all open source. You can copy one and modify it. They are done in EagleCAD but you can import them into kicad

trim rapids
fair summit
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it's not technically prohibitive at all. Some PCB services have free design tools, and kicad is an open-source free design tool. Can you read and understand schematic diagrams?

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There are tons of YouTube and web tutorials

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The more sophisticated PCB design tools are pretty complicated; it's a learning curve, akin to learning Photoshop, etc.in terms of level of difficulty

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there are newer AI-based design tools, but it's early days on those. I have no idea how well they do.

fair summit
trim rapids
rare ravine
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hi im new! wondering - are Ask the Engineer streams still a thing?

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i found those interesting and to be honest i would also go on a shopping spree with the 10% discount code they provided there too

rigid whale
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@rare ravine They are. There was a break for the holidays and they are ramping back up with episodes this week.

ancient rivet
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@rare ravine also - some of the other live streams have discount codes too, like 3D Hangouts and JP's Workshop

rare ravine
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thank you!

woven lily
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So I've followed along with some of the LLM + PCB adventures you folks have gone on and posted about

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in my own experimentation I'm oddly finding COPILOT to be better than Gemini!?!?

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GPT 5.2 superior to both

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Grok better than Gemini but worse than GPT 5.2

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I'm sure this will all change in a couple of months but wildly different than what I was expecting

fair summit
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these models are currently available in Copilot (with costs)

  Claude Sonnet 4.6 (default)                                        1x
  Claude Sonnet 4.5                                                  1x
  Claude Haiku 4.5                                                0.33x
  Claude Opus 4.6                                                    3x
  Claude Opus 4.6 (fast mode) (Preview) (requires enablement)       30x
  Claude Opus 4.5                                                    3x
  Claude Sonnet 4                                                    1x
  Gemini 3 Pro (Preview)                                             1x
  GPT-5.3-Codex โœ“                                                    1x
  GPT-5.2-Codex                                                      1x
  GPT-5.2                                                            1x
  GPT-5.1-Codex-Max                                                  1x
  GPT-5.1-Codex                                                      1x
  GPT-5.1                                                            1x
  GPT-5.1-Codex-Mini (Preview)                                    0.33x
  GPT-5 mini                                                         0x
  GPT-4.1                                                            0x
woven lily
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It looks like 4o-era output

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I do expect Gemini to be clearly the best in the end but it has made some silly mistakes so far like telling me to route input pins to gnd

fair summit
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The few anecdotal comparisons I've read have not been very complimentary about Gemini. People seem to prefer Claude or Codex.

raven mesa
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claude is king. dont use anything else for coding imo

icy needle
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oh that was copilot CLI, my bad, need to try that again now that it's the Generally Available release. Yeah GH Pro for free (OSS), about 10-16$ worth, but I ran out yesterday ๐Ÿ˜

fair summit
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I got my list from the copilot CLI app. I have a free plan that I think is like Pro, based on working on OSS.

icy dawn
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can i hook a barometer to the BNO055?

ancient rivet
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not directly

magic osprey
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Tryna get this repo to 5k stars so we can apply for a grant, please drop a star if it's something you are interested in. ๐Ÿ‘

This is the spiritual successor to Winamp Visualizers (MilkDrop), updated to run on modern systems, to tap into the 10,000+ community presets that many of you remember fondly from Winamp days.
https://github.com/projectM-visualizer/projectm

GitHub
GitHub - projectM-visualizer/projectm: projectM - Cross-platform Mu...

projectM - Cross-platform Music Visualization Library. Open-source and Milkdrop-compatible. - projectM-visualizer/projectm

icy dawn
torn holly
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Try Claude Code through the command line and VS Code plug-in, itโ€™s a completely different level compared to Github Copilot.

Spin up multiple agents, sub-agents, work with editable memory.md, etc.

This is real infrastructure, not an โ€™AI Chatโ€™.. but more expensive.

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Start in planning mode to detail the tasks, architecute and approach. Spin up an agent contextualized as a senior architect to challenge you and the plan, to poke holes, and refine it until itโ€™s bullet proof and clear. Then spin up a team of agents, do regular code reviews, test simulations. have multiple projects in parallell in terminal windows and VS Code-projects. Constantly feed back to and improve memory.md with mistakes, improvement in processes, QA-routines.

icy dawn
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this is odd

image.png
dim agate
topaz bison
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Tab-separated values

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Though I couldnโ€™t tell you why X is jumping between 2 and 300. Maybe sensor failure or a loose connection? You could fix the spacing by zero-padding the value for consistent width

ancient rivet
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@AirHead why does it need to be directly attached to the BNO055? vs. just adding a baro as yet another I2C sensor/device

compact crypt
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Would this sensor be fine for monitoring temp/humidity in a terrarium with a fogger/mister?

https://www.adafruit.com/product/5064

Or do I need to upgrade to this:

https://www.adafruit.com/product/4099

SHT30 Temperature And Humidity Sensor - Wired Enclosed Shell

The SHT30-Dย sensor has an excellent ยฑ2% relative humidity and ยฑ0.5ยฐC accuracy for most uses. Unlike earlier SHT sensors, this sensor has aย trueย I2C ...

SHT-30 Mesh-protected Weather-proof Temperature/Humidity Sensor

Take your next outdoor sensor project to the next level with this SHT-30 based temperature/humidity sensor. The sensor includes a dual-use sensor module from Sensirion in a sintered metal ...

ancient rivet
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what is the highest relative humidity level you are expecting? i think those are both generally limited to <80%

compact crypt
ancient rivet
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the PID 5064 one should be fine. at least as a starting point.

stone garden
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I bought a Circuit Playground Express a few years ago and only in the past 24 hours did I start tinkering around with it. It's a cool little microcontroller!

terse lava
# compact crypt 80 would be max

You likely want one that has a heater built in such as the SHT41. Per the datasheet...
"Possible Heater Use Cases
There will be dedicated Sensirion application notes elaborating on various use cases of the heater. In general,
the applications of the on-package heater range around:

  1. Removal of condensed / spray water on the sensor surface. Although condensed water is not a
    reliability / quality problem to the sensor, it will however make the sensor non-responsive to RH
    changes in the air as long as there is liquid water on the surface.
  2. Creep-free operation in high humid environments. Periodic heating pulses allow for creep-free
    high-humidity measurements for extended times."
charred slate
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Gmorning.

somber spindle
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Is there a JP's product pick today?

hard estuary
charred slate
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What's anyone building tonight?

frigid herald
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Well I have to debug my NVMe drive randomly powering down and then the OS not being able to tell it to wake up...

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But also puttering with a direct chat Discord-ish thing (we will end up having thousands of these, maybe I should be making a Discord clone aggregator instead)

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and speculating about how to polish 3d prints with a rotary tool, since it didn't go the way I had hoped exactly

charred slate
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Better clone that drive while you can,

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how were you planning on polishing your 3d prints? What's the material?

frigid herald
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so the main issue is with some PLA prints with supports that leave really nasty rough parts on the surface

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the little sanding cylinders that came with the tool are probably only 60 grit, and it doesn't really seem to remove the roughness before basically boring through the outer layer entirely

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I had a little more luck actually using a cutting disc to sort of shave/melt the excess support debris flat, but its not ideal

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(also on PLA silks, it ruins the silk effect)

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I suppose I could try the PETG/PLA support trick but I don't like the waste from the material swaps and I don't have toolhead swap capability

charred slate
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You have outter layers set to 3 at least right?

frigid herald
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yeah

charred slate
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My printers MB bricked right as I was finishing calibrating it (was rebuilding an old printer)... I'm on the anycubix Kobra X list, but it won't be here for a bout a month... Then.... MULTIMATERIAL BABY!!! Can't wait.. Gotta get a spool of PVA. You just have it use pla right up to the end and have it tip, where it contacts with the pva (haven't tried it yet

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you don't have a finer grit for your sander?

frigid herald
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just what came with the tool for now

charred slate
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Can you grind the grit off?

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like old sandpaper?

frigid herald
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you mean do hand-sanding of the print?

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or you mean actually modify the sanding cylinder?

charred slate
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What's your grinder look like?

frigid herald
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its just a Workpro rotary tool

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a dremel thing

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little 1cm diameter sanding cylinder

charred slate
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What other abrasives do you have? It's pla, right?

frigid herald
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yeah its PLA; I have heads that look like they're more for polishing metal or stone

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the pepto bismol pink ones

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I also have sanding discs, but I'm sanding a curved surface

charred slate
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I mean, you can put a small nail in it and make all kinds of bits if you need, or the core of the drum. You could even take a sink scrub, and twist it around the mandril and make something different to test.

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that would be soft to boot, for the curve.

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Just thinking out loud for ya.

frigid herald
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like copper wool?

charred slate
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no, like scotch brite?

frigid herald
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ah

charred slate
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the plastic wool

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Even a piece of t-shirt is abrasive.

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wrapped around it into a buff ball sort of piece.

frigid herald
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I do have these felt buffing wheels but I figured it just wouldn't remove any plastic

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maybe if I had like a polish paste or something?

charred slate
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it'll heat and smooth a bit. If you screwed 1 already grinding through you have a test piece.

frigid herald
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heh, fair

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so that's surprising to me, the buffing wheel actually does help a bit

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and even just the buffing wheel can clearly overwork the PLA if I drag against the direction, so its definitely heating

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I think at the lowest speed it doesn't melt no matter what I do, but at the second speed I have to be careful to not press too hard or go against the rotation

charred slate
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Hope it helped!

frigid herald
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I'll try when I reprint that one I sanded through (a maraca)

charred slate
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Gmornin

weary fiber
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Just spent 4 hours debugging an issue... which turned out to be an unfixed firmware bug in my budget siglent scope.

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Turns out the 1202x-e's "i2c decoder" doesn't decode i2c addresses properly. It correctly ONLY parses the first 7 bits of the transaction for an address, but it's parsed as an 8-bit number with the MSB as the first bit

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soooooo every address gets multiplied by 2

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For example, here Iโ€™m doing two attempts to talk to a (fake) device at address 0x01, shown as all 0s until the 7th clock pulse

IMG_3515.jpg
keen shoal
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Hallo guys, i got problem with my esp32 c3 super mini.
After soldering pins, my USB Type C doesn't work and got notification Unknown USB Device (Device Descriptor Request Failed). Before soldering, it's still work. Any suggestion?
I have done to make sure, no one short circuit.

fair summit
fair summit
weary fiber
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Even more shamefully, there's actually a setting buried in my scope to change the addressing mode, BUT TO BE FAIR it's not called out in any tutorials + is not obvious

fair summit
real river
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hello

keen shoal
fair summit
keen shoal
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i have done to unsolder esp with oled sir, and try connect to pc first. but i got notification like this

IMG_20260305_160850.jpg imagea.png
mystic tulip
ruby elk
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I've got a pc issue question. Anyone got time to talk to me for a few minutes about it?

fair summit
ruby elk
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So I have the predecessor to the hp Omen. I know it's old. That's not the point.
A while back I did a routine power cycle. Power down wait power on. And it would not power back on. I'm about 90% sure it is a psu issue. As the indicator light on the psu comes on when plugged but no power is reaching the board I was wondering if I could get some thoughts on the issue before I either spend 60+ dollars on a "new" psu or 100+ pitting it in the sho\p

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To specify it is not an Omen. it predates the Omen by about a year

fair summit
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I have seen 1 on various computers, not just HPs, in the past.

ruby elk
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i tried the cmos battery. no difference. i cannot reach the power pins. as my hands are massive and the case is not that big. i can clkearly see the pins i just cant access them

fair summit
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even with needle nose pliers or something?

ruby elk
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hold on ill show you

fair summit
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why do you think no power is reaching the board? have you measured the power pins at the power connector?

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I have had a couple of motherboards fail over the years with similar symptoms

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and also power supplies

ruby elk
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The indicator lights on the board do not light up.
The fans do not cycle.
Nothing at all happens.
And looking at it now I might be able to reach the pins with a screwdriver

fair summit
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i don't know about HP but Dell tends to use non-standard power supplies and connectors, so you have to get an equivalent replacement. You might be able to find a used one on eBay or the equivalent for not much.

ruby elk
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i found one on alliexpress the exact model for like 40 dollars this morning. so its a bit cheaper than i was expecting. but the problem that i face is my hands are huge and there is not a lot of space inside the case so i dont know if ill be able reach the connectors to plug/unplug them. so i may end up having to put it in the shop anyway

fair summit
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what is the part/model number? Are you in the US?

ruby elk
fair summit
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there are some cheaper used ones on ebay

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maybe you have to enlist a helper ๐Ÿ–๏ธ

ruby elk
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i appreaciate your help

fair summit
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good luck! too bad it isn't the easy stuff

ruby elk
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it could be worse. i mean for a 13 year old pc shes done really good. i knew eventualy something big would go out

weary fiber
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Using latex for analog circuits lab reports is just... awful

image.png
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probably something I'll miss least about college

frigid herald
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aw, I like LaTeX

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was a favorite software discovery in college for me, like 'you don't have to know what a professional paper is supposed to look like layout-wise in order to make a thing that looks professional!'

weary fiber
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That said...

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Next step is translating all of this into the report, and I am so tired of entering equations at this point

IMG_0439.png
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Actually, gonna ask my TA if I can just say "X algebraically decomposes into Y, do it yourself if you wanna prove it"

frigid herald
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yeah that's a lot of \frac

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at least there's some copy paste in there

weary fiber
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Man, this has been the first semester where I really feel like an engineering major-- albeit an early one

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last semester was just stats and a couple geneds, this semester is all

image.png image.png image.png image.png image.png
#

Questa My Beloathed

burnt tendon
hoary basin
fringe raptor
#

"No thoughts head empty"

#

She's a good girl though

#

And actually very smart when she wants to be

#

Oops

sudden pagoda
#

hey which channel should i ask this - "I want to learn pcb design total beginner any resources/advice/suggestions welcome"

bitter badge
silent portal
#

Hey everyone! ๐Ÿ‘‹

I'm Kritish, a 3rd year Electrical Engineering student from India ๐Ÿ‡ฎ๐Ÿ‡ณ

I just wanted to say a huge thank you to the Adafruit team for featuring my open-source project '100 Days, 100 IoT Projects' in the Python on Microcontrollers Newsletter! ๐Ÿ™๐ŸŒ

It's been incredibly motivating to be recognized by such an amazing global community. I'm currently on Day 64 of my 100-day challenge, building real-world IoT projects daily using MicroPython, ESP32, and Raspberry Pi Pico.

๐Ÿ”— GitHub: https://github.com/kritishmohapatra/100_Days_100_IoT_Projects

Thank you Adafruit for inspiring makers around the world! โšก

GitHub
GitHub - kritishmohapatra/100_Days_100_IoT_Projects: A 100-day chal...

A 100-day challenge exploring IoT and embedded systems using ESP32, ESP8266, and Raspberry Pi Pico with MicroPython. Each day covers a new sensor or module with complete code, circuit diagram, and ...

night crescent
#

Desk of Ladyada - Cranking through a huge backlog! ๐Ÿ”งโšก
https://youtu.be/Ox4vutcj0BQ
Zooming through a massive pile of new boards and libraries, plus hunting for an ICS-43434 I2S mic replacement - watch to see what we find!

YouTube
Adafruit Industries
Desk of Ladyada - Cranking through a huge backlog

OMG, we're zooming through the backlog... new protos ordered (STC31+SHT41, MT6835) and boards/libraries shipped (Terminal Block BFF, TMAG5273, VCNL4030, MAX44009, TMF8806). Still in progress: RV-8803, WF100DPZ, ADS7128, TMF882x, and VL53L5x, then we're back to Feather designs, home sensors, and Raspi accessories.

โ–ถ Play video
cobalt talon
#

Is there any way to get a little bit of assistance with an order? I emailed support on Wednesday, and pinged again on Friday, and still haven't heard back. :\

fair summit
cobalt talon
bitter badge
#

I don't know if this is relevant to you, but there are some things that cannot be transported legally by air in the U.S., most notably lithium ion batteries that aren't in an end product. This means that Adafruit can't ship those batteries to you, if there is no ground or water mail route. If you live in Alaska or Hawaii, they can't ship you lithium ion batteries.

The USPS used to have a ground route to Alaska, but they don't anymore, so even "USPS Ground" shipping goes through air to Alaska. Hawaii never had a ground route, and to my knowledge there are no longer any boat shipping routes used by any of the major (residential) shipping companies anymore (either to Alaska or Hawaii), except for exporting to other countries entirely (and even then, it seems to be hit and miss). So, if you are in part of the U.S. where full ground shipping isn't available, or if you are in a country that the major U.S. shipping companies only ship to by air, Adafruit can't send you lithium ion batteries at all.

If your problem is not related to this, then ignore it. This is the only thing I know about when it comes to Adafruit shipping, so I can't help beyond this. If the issue is soemthing else, hopefully you'll get a response from support on that soon.

cobalt talon
# bitter badge I don't know if this is relevant to you, but there are some things that cannot b...

Much appreciated! (And bonus points for introducing me to a new piece of trivia: no ground mail to Alaska. TIL.) Alas, this is not the issue I'm facing. My [US-based, military-associated] PO box is not being accepted, because it's apparently a "freight forwarder". This despite the fact that I've completed multiple orders with Adafruit already under a different address, so I'm clearly not trying to pull a scam. I've offered to do anything they want: send payment by check and wait for it to clear, hop on a Zoom call, offer my firstborn as a hostage... and it's just radio silence from the other end. :(

fair summit
# cobalt talon Much appreciated! (And bonus points for introducing me to a new piece of trivia...

(I am not representing the Support department here.)
https://www.adafruit.com/shipping

We do not ship to hotels or mail forwarders. We may not be able to ship to PO Boxes depending on location or if there are known issues with the location. Not all shipping options are available to all locations. If shipping / billing names do not match or the payment method is outside the USA we may cancel the order ...

We ship free to U.S. Military APO/FPO addresses via USPS Priority mail. So no tracking, but, also, free. Make sure to enter city as APO or FPO and for state choose AA, AE or AP from the dropdown menu. And to make things really precise enter your full name, grade, and PSC or unit number.

cobalt talon
#

I can't use APO/FPO (and it wouldn't help if I did), so it's being sent to my PO box. Billing/shipping names and all that match up, and the payment method is a perfectly normal US credit card (not prepaid or anything like that). I think what's tripping me up is the "if there are known issues with the location". Like, cool, let us say that there are. But from Adafruit's perspective, what's the risk? If the risk is that the order doesn't get delivered or gets stolen after delivery and that Adafruit would have to refund itโ€”fine, give me the choice to pay in un-disputable funds (e.g. check or money order) and to sign in triplicate that I own all risk for the delivery going awry. If that's not the risk, then what is it? I can address it if I know what it is, but the silence is deafening right now.

hollow flint
# cobalt talon Much appreciated! (And bonus points for introducing me to a new piece of trivia...

Disclaimer: I don't represent Adafruit at all, so this is just me thinking in their shoes.

Assuming that customers with a "[US-based, military-associated] PO box" are rarely ever encountered, they might want to err on the side of caution, rather than taking on the responsibility of accurately differentiating between those addresses and other freight forwarder addresses.
If the above assumption is correct, then one option would be to order from an Adafruit distributor that's larger than Adafruit themselves. Hopefully those distributors would've already encountered customers in similar circumstances. DigiKey is one potential example: https://www.adafruit.com/buyfromdigikey

Buy Adafruit products from DigiKey

Adafruit Industries, Unique & fun DIY electronics and kits : -

fair summit
cobalt talon
# fair summit A "PO box" is an official USPS box at a post office. A "box" at a private mailbo...

Right, I made that clear in the email. I'm using it as colloquial shorthand for an offsite managed parcel receptacle; the industry term is "PMB", short for "private mailbox". I'm aware of where I fall within the letter of the rules. My hope was that a reasonable person could take a look at the entirety of the facts and provide a route forward. Indeed, the error message that appears on the website suggests that such exceptions are possible; it says to contact support if an exception should be made. In the end, it appears that such exceptions are flatly never grantedโ€”which is fine, that's a business decision that can be madeโ€”but based on two separate email threads with support, are also never followed up on after the first reply, which is a kind of crappy customer experience. Anyway, I needn't belabor the point any longer. Thank you to everyone who tried to assist in this channel. I've now elected to source the items I needed elsewhere.

ripe cloud
#

Been working on a browser CAD project called WebCad. Itโ€™s currently completely free and includes an AI generation tool, plus features like FEA, thermal analysis, CFD, and an assembly browser. Mostly just trying to see whether having modeling and early analysis in one browser workflow is actually useful, so Iโ€™d be curious what people here think.

https://app.webcad.ca/

WebCAD - Browser-Based Parametric CAD

Professional parametric CAD in your browser. Create, edit, and export 3D models with B-Rep STEP support.

warped iron
#

digikey is down

kind lichen
terse lava
compact crypt
#

Is there any remote chance possible of sourcing a x0xb0x?

crystal totem
#

this seems a bit ooff topic, but is anyone using wireviz often? need to get help and there isnt a real community for the thing specifically, but this discord came up in a google search about it.

rigid whale
#

Does it matter which side you solder the header pins on a feather wing doubler. The screenshots on the store page show both sides being used for header pins. Am confused.

#

One side has some markings while the other side is without markings.

fair summit
#

take a picture of what you did

rigid whale
#

Print facing up makes the most sense to me. Thank you for the clarification.

fair summit
bitter badge
#

So, in several previous years, I wrote up short articles for Pi day. They reveal some fascinating things about pi that really don't get any attention but deserve some. In case anyone is interested:

https://techniumadeptus.blogspot.com/2024/12/tau-vs-pi.html
https://techniumadeptus.blogspot.com/2024/12/pi-day-2016.html
https://techniumadeptus.blogspot.com/2024/12/pi-day-2018.html

Tau vs Pi

This is part of a series republished from another blog.ย  I wrote this in February 2016.ย  The others were originally published on Pi Day of 2...

Pi Day 2016

I recently wroteย  an article ย on the subject of whether we should use ฯ€ (pi) or ฯ„ (tau) in circle related math.ย  As a refresher, ฯ€ is the ra...

Pi Day 2018

This is the third installment in my series of articles on ฯ€.ย  The earlier articles can be foundย  here ย andย  here .ย  Due to lack of time, I a...

kindred isle
#

There's always that one piece of information you need, but isn't listed.
Looking for a power supply for the MHP50 hotplate on Adafruit, but none of the docs say if the barrel jack is center positive.

#

Perhaps I should just go with the USB C option.

valid glen
#

Excuse me what do you guys recommend for something like this? https://www.instagram.com/p/DVJbxGED2xS/?hl=en

thetiredcraftsman

Making a foam helmet. I put some LEDs between some layers of poly foam and then covered that with craft foam. Then used a wood burner to carve into the craft foam to reveal the light inside. #crafts #cosplay #glowup

Likes

13488

Instagram
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Or this?

Screenshot_2026-03-16_at_10.38.02_PM.png
#

One second.

#

https://www.instagram.com/p/DVWMcjQjrvz/?hl=en

nerdy.nostalgia

Over 100 hours of work and the power of delusion ๐Ÿ’… Materials in description โฌ‡๏ธ

1 inch PVC pipe
1 inch wooden dowel
10mm EVA foam
Contact cement
Dremel
Foam clay
Adafruit Powerboost 1000c
Adafruit ProTrinket 5V
4400 mAh lipo battery
22 gauge wire
Heat shrink tubing
3 pin slide switch
4 pin button switch
3 pin JST connectors
WS2812B LED st...

Likes

4510

Instagram
rigid whale
weary fiber
valid glen
valid glen
rigid whale
#

That is something you would have to craft yourself I think.

valid glen
rigid whale
#

I did. You asked for a recommendation.

#

You might want something custom. There is no standard template or product for that.

valid glen
#

I thought it was some sort of wire cap.

rigid whale
#

ah no, I was thinking of a decorative covering that matches whatever design you have so it makes the lights hidden.

valid glen
#

OH!

#

Well I've got that in my cart along with a weatherproof strip on sale I'm just going to make it slow and steady buying.

kindred isle
#

Funny thing, I'm basically designing a board for this exact purpose right now.
Well, I ordered the parts yesterday.

rigid whale
#

Is contacting support the best way to request a new product on the store?

#

or is the forums better?

hard estuary
rigid whale
#

Thank you!

shell verge
#

Wanted, a circuit or chipset able to handle radar as range detection and not a PIR function

grizzled bronze
#

Assalamualaikum everyone, I had made a bot on Poe platform, anyone can try my bot and can send their feedback....
https://poe.com/SahihOpen

SahihOpen - Poe

๐Ÿ’ก Welcome! All-in-one AI: Smart AI for your devotional Islamic faith, authentic Islamic guidance, motivation, verified knowledge, and professional geopolitical perspectiveโ€”adapted to any learning level.
I wonโ€™t just give you answers โ€” Iโ€™ll ask questions, challenge your thinking, and guide you like a real-life tutor using real-world e...

kindred isle
#

Man, did something happen with WS8212 LEDs? 5mm clear through hole ones are suddenly significantly harder to find.

ancient rivet
kindred isle
#

Yeah, but I want the clear ones, that's the thing.

terse lava
kindred isle
#

I found that too. Data pins appear to be reversed, which isn't a big problem for my purpose.
Just weird that they've disappeared from Amazon and lcsc. Though lcsc had squat ones, and rectangular.

cinder jetty
zenith ferry
#

Hey everyone!

Weโ€™ve been working on a portable antenna measurement system that tries to solve a problem many of us probably ran into: measuring radiation patterns without access to an anechoic chamber.

Instead of a chamber, weโ€™re using a โ€œdigital anechoicโ€ approach (time gating to remove reflections), combined with a fully portable setup (battery-powered + SDR-based + 3D printable structure).

The idea is to make antenna pattern measurements as accessible as NanoVNA made S-parameters.

Weโ€™re preparing to launch it on Crowd Supply soon, but Iโ€™d really love to get feedback from this community first

Does this sound useful for your projects? Anything youโ€™d want to see in a system like this? https://www.crowdsupply.com/antenom-antenna-technologies/nanofarfield

Crowd Supply
NanoFarfield

A portable antenna far-field measurement system for NanoVNAs and LiteVNAs

lapis anchor
steep wraith
#

HD-wf2 (ESP32-s3) based any one tried installing circuit phyton .

kindred isle
#

I knew how small the MHP50 was going to be, but it's still baffling to actually hold it.

kindred isle
#

Power supply came in. MHP50 certainly seems to work. I don't have any of my boards or components yet to do any soldering, but I can feel the heat coming off it.
I don't like how you can't see the actual temperature while it's cooling down, but it does have the status light, so I guess that's good enough.

cinder jetty
#

the lack of static variable types in python is killing me

sturdy dawn
#

I want to modify this to a prescious metals API, but not sure where I even downloaded this ๐Ÿ˜†

IMG_20260321_205920.jpg
#

It was a lot more basic when I got it and then I added some tweaks to colors and fonts

sturdy dawn
#

Refresh rate is worse with 64 height panels. I might rebuild the pico setup with 64x32 panels

#

I get the scrolling lines plus the tearing between parallel lines

terse saddle
#

Puzzmo

sturdy dawn
#

I haven't plugged this thing in in like a year

somber spindle
#

I think it did get updated

small tapir
#

is there a kicad module/library for adafruit components? x

stuck moth
small tapir
#

i can get the EAGLE schematics imported but i dont know how to use them as modules for a wiring diagram

ancient rivet
#

are you just wanting a wiring diagram for general documentation?

#

or are you actually trying to make a PCB?

#

maybe fritzing is what you're after?

kindred isle
#

Once again, I forget just how tiny some of the things I'll be working with are.
Spend hours staring at the board design on my screen, and then I get the components in hand.
Oh boy are these boost chips small.

#

Hotplate was absolutely the right decision.

balmy flume
#

Hey everyone, Iโ€™m an electrical engineer specializing in PCB design (schematic + layout), and Iโ€™ve been working with clients on Fiverr since last year.

Iโ€™m looking to expand beyond Fiverr and was wondering if anyone has advice on where to find more opportunities or connect with people who need PCB/electronics work.

solar kindle
balmy flume
rigid whale
#

@balmy flume oshpark.com might be an avenue for your services.

balmy flume
solar kindle
#

cadcrowd is similar to fiverr but more tech-focused; might be worth a try
And upwork might also be a place to look. It's more like fiverr than cadcrowd but I'm pretty sure there are PCB design gigs there too.

granite depot
#

Anyone know where I can quickly get some adafruit jst connectors in NYC? Microcenter doesn't have it in stock.

violet swallow
#

do you really need specificaly adafruit?

#

because if not, i bet you can get some amazon same day stuff

fair summit
shell verge
#

Sadly priority can cost money

clear crypt
#

CODER WARNING - BEWARE PYTHON litellm v1.82.8 - COMPROMISED

CODER WARNING โ€”ย if you're doing any sort of work in Machine Learning LLMs with Python, and you have used the Python litellm library, version 1.82.8 has been COMPROMISED. It will grab all Personal Identifying Credentials off your project and send it to a remote server!!

See โ€”

https://x.com/karpathy/status/2036487306585268612?s=20

                - and -

https://www.theregister.com/2026/03/24/trivy_compromise_litellm/

Andrej Karpathy (@karpathy)

Software horror: litellm PyPI supply chain attack.

Simple `pip install litellm` was enough to exfiltrate SSH keys, AWS/GCP/Azure creds, Kubernetes configs, git credentials, env vars (all your API keys), shell history, crypto wallets, SSL private keys, CI/CD secrets, database

X ยท
LiteLLM infected with credential-stealing code via Trivy

: Python interface for LLMs infected with malware via polluted CI/CD pipeline

hollow flint
granite depot
#

So was hoping there was a quicker way to get it without the 30 dollars

fair summit
#

I see STEMMA/QT 4-pin JST-SH cables in stock both in Brooklyn and Flushing Micro Center

#

some are Pimoroni and some are Adafruit. Both are fine.

granite depot
fair summit
granite depot
granite depot
#

Yeah I got it thanks!

crisp halo
#

Random thought, I only find an answer I'm looking for when I go to document my error.

hard estuary
broken plover
#

Gonna try to touch up electronics/soldering again after spending $$ on trynna do personal project and all of dem basically failingโ€ฆ I got this DIY dice that comes w instructions nod

IMG_7468.jpg
hollow flint
hollow flint
hollow flint
bronze isle
#

Great post,

I was P. Eng. In Alberta, CAN. & at Queen's Uni. Kingston CAN, I was given a far simpler story: the iron ring was symbolic of all engineers rings coming off a single iron tube; it signified continuity, bond & strength. Simples.

Ockham's Razor: "among competing explanations, the simplest is most likely true."

Iron Ring โ€“ Every Engineer In Canada Wears A Ring Because Someone Screwed Up The Math โ€œThe Ritual of the Calling of an Engineerโ€ ยซ Adafruit Industries โ€“ Makers, hackers, artists, designers and engineers! https://share.google/oeyTbVjKLGCyUuOE1

kindred isle
# hollow flint Uhhโ€ฆ

At least for Digikey, it looks like it's extending to their PCB manufacturing too. Typical turnaround for their DKRed service is 5-10 days.
Tomorrow will be 14 days for my recent order.

#

The actual components shipped pretty quick though.

versed pewter
#

So, I saw this Blog Post, and was wondering when it might be available?

ancient rivet
kindred isle
#

Yay, my boards shipped. Next week will involve hotplate soldering.

jagged citrus
#

I am currently building my own turboencabulator does anyone know where i can get the spurving bearings for the panametric fan

2da0p2v6x4l41.jpg
kindred isle
#

Manufacturing of those components was outlawed decades ago.
You'll have to build them yourself if you can't find any on eBay.

dusty citrus
#

I don't get it, how did you bend/curve the pcb?

ancient rivet
#

probably with transtensional langtry device

hasty wedge
#

just curious

#

Is this ESP-PSRAM64๏ผŸ

#

It's sanded but from the 6 that's barely visible on the chip it looks like where the numbers would go on an ESP-PSRAM64

#

Curious to know why ESP asked them to sand out the logo

hollow flint
hasty wedge
#

Then why bother

hollow flint
hollow flint
hasty wedge
#

Does Adafruit ship to Canada?

#

I moved to Canada half a year ago for PhD

#

I am now suffering from severe Adafruit withdrawal symptoms

terse lava
hasty wedge
#

So they don't ship directly

#

I don't want to buy from a trailer

terse lava
hasty wedge
#

If the prices are the same then I want ladyada to have more of my money

hollow flint
hasty wedge
#

I think I am gonna wait for the GigaChad release

#

Then I am gonna order them along with FruitJam

hollow flint
fair summit
hard estuary
#

they're practically on the Canadian border they're so far north in Minnesota

fair summit
compact crypt
#

Ya'll have a great community here. I'm so happy I finally caved and dove into microcontrollers after neglecting it for over a decade. Mad props.

proven galleon
terse lava
# proven galleon Agreed, Jesse. I too had neglected them for decades. Having lots of fun and enj...

Kind of the same thing for me. Back then (20+ years ago?) I was dabbling in Atmel's AVR line of 8-bits and using a BASIC compiled called BASCOM-AVR. Then kind of dropped it. Some 5 or so years back I had some projects in mind for around the house. I thought maybe Raspberry Pis would fit the bill but I found them to be too much "computer" and not enough microcontroller for what I wanted. I didn't want to have to mess with linux and PIP this and that just to get to a point where I could start to think about getting to my project. So like before, I put away the Pi Zero. Then a couple years ago, I revisited it and and because I wanted something easy to learn like BASCOM-AVR was back in the day, I ran across CircuitPython and ESP32-S2/S3 board from Adafruit. EXACTLY what I had been looking for. All the simplicity and ease of a basic MCU like the AVR chips or the Basic Stamp but with built in WiFi to (I didn't know the term then) IoT my projects which is what I had originally envisioned with the Pi Zero. But without the hassle of compilers and operating systems. Been a fun ride ever since that I have stuck with because I am actually creating useful things.

river harbor
#

Hey, how long would it be to have part shipped to around middle Ohio area?

Thanks

fair summit
#

There are multiple Micro Centers in Ohio. Maybe one near you has the part you want, if you want it now. But they don't have a huge assortment

dusty citrus
#

looking to "hire" anyone experienced with tinyusb and rp2350
one time off gig

real river
weary fiber
#

Just spent 3.5 hours trying to figure out why my filter sims differed from my professor's provided matlab code

#

Like, my simulated filters were getting a gain of 10 when his were 1, so I was going insane trying to figure out if there's some fundamental limit keeping responses (at least for passive designs) at unity gain

#

...turns out I just can't read

image.png
shell verge
#

Oh how many times I've missed important documentation...

kindred isle
#

Classic RTFM.
Read The Flippin Manual

wheat pagoda
#

Can someone tell me what topic I should be asking in for this? I have a pyportal and need the output of 3v from the I2C connector and the language on the adafruit website is a little vague for what jumper I should be disconnecting

image.png
fair summit
sinful stratus
#

oh i did the same thing :>

wheat pagoda
#

Thank you

#

Do you have to solder a connection from v to 3 or is it already supplying 3v after the connection is cut

sinful stratus
#

you do have to solder the 3 and v

fair summit
#

no, you have to bridge that connection. Look carefully at the picture and your board. There is a thin trace between 5 and V you have to cut. You replace that connection with the V-to-3 connection.

wheat pagoda
#

Thank you Dan wasn't sure if there was a connection under the surface.

fair summit
#

... The I2C connector defaults to 5V. There is a jumper you can cut or solder to change it between 5V and 3V. To change it to 3V, cut the trace between the middle pad and the 5V pad, and solder together the middle pad and the 3V pad.

#

also in the box:

If using the I2C connector, you must change the jumper on the pads labeled "5V3" to the left of the connector. Cut the trace between "5" and "V" and bridge the "3" and "V" pads. See the pictures and text below. The SAMD51 does not like it if there are even light pullups to 5V and may hang on boot otherwise!

wheat pagoda
#

In combination with the picture the surface mount pads aren't highlighted so I wasn't sure what the jumper actually was. An arrow or something saying the jumper is on the surface mount pads would be helpful

#

I think if that was there the instructions would make sense.

fair summit
#

I agree with that. The pads are grayed out, but the connector is not. I'll see about touching up the picture

#

perhaps what I posted above is good enough!

fierce prawn
#

Which channel do I ask for esp-idf

fair summit
fierce prawn
#

once I disconnect my battery my c++ sketch shutdowns

static hollow
fierce prawn
# static hollow According to docs, maybe the program must set the hold pin (G4) to high to keep ...

I already did

rtc_gpio_init(KALIVE_PIN);
    rtc_gpio_set_level(KALIVE_PIN, 1);
    rtc_gpio_set_direction(KALIVE_PIN, RTC_GPIO_MODE_OUTPUT_ONLY);
    esp_sleep_enable_timer_wakeup(5000000);
    esp_sleep_pd_config(ESP_PD_DOMAIN_RTC_PERIPH, ESP_PD_OPTION_ON);
    esp_sleep_pd_config(ESP_PD_DOMAIN_VDDSDIO, ESP_PD_OPTION_ON);
    esp_sleep_pd_config(ESP_PD_DOMAIN_RC_FAST, ESP_PD_OPTION_ON);
    //esp_sleep_pd_config(RTC_SLEEP_PD_DIG, ESP_PD_OPTION_ON);
    //esp_sleep_pd_config(RTC_SLEEP_PD_RTC_PERIPH , ESP_PD_OPTION_ON);
    //esp_sleep_pd_config(RTC_SLEEP_PD_VDDSDIO, ESP_PD_OPTION_ON);

    rtc_gpio_pulldown_dis(KALIVE_PIN);
    rtc_gpio_pullup_en(KALIVE_PIN);
    rtc_gpio_set_drive_capability(KALIVE_PIN, GPIO_DRIVE_CAP_3);
    rtc_gpio_hold_en(KALIVE_PIN);
    // 2. Power Management (The Secret Sauce for 24h battery)
    esp_pm_config_esp32_t pm_config = {
        .max_freq_mhz = 80,
        .min_freq_mhz = 40,
        .light_sleep_enable = true
    };
    ESP_ERROR_CHECK(esp_pm_configure(&pm_config));
static hollow
fierce prawn
#

Battery dead
Can't even run circuitpython without usb connected

#

I hope batteries aren't expensive

dim temple
#

Just a heads up to any adafruit staff or higher-ups but this has said "coming soon" on the adafruit store for about three years or so and it doesn't seem like that was intentional lol https://www.adafruit.com/product/5654

Nightjar - Analog Electronic Birdsong Synthesizer

Coming soon! Sign up to be notified when these are in stock and shippingNikola Tesla famously said, โ€œIf you want to find the secrets of the universe, think in terms of energy, ...

#

Seems like a cool project too

fair summit
odd tartan
#

Sad to have to rescale my main project but least my gps one will be able doable. I am excited to work on it, will have to obtain a soldering kit

weary fiber
#

I SURVIVED THE FOURIER EXAM :D

image.png
#

Next is the Z transform, and next semester has me taking active circuits + advanced digital design + advanced embedded systems! Those classes feel the most career-oriented, but MAN analog circuitry is cool. I really hope I have enough knowledge to diy somethin radar-related by the end of my degree.

terse lava
uncut raptor
#

Hi, I'm new here and I can't seem to find where to watch the Ask An Engineer. I can't see it streaming on any of the links on the website

hard estuary
uncut raptor
#

Okay, thank you

vale oxide
#

Can anyone recommend some strategies to study firmware design? I've been working on embedded systems for over 5 years. I want to learn more about how things should be designed, etc. Where can I read about this in further detail? Some documents or references would be welcomed.

stuck moth
#

Their patron slack has a bunch of resources too

topaz bison
#

Cross-posting seems to be a frequent occurrence here but isnโ€™t explicitly prohibited in the code of conduct. Maybe we could have a bot to enforce it?

#

Apologies if this has already been discussed

weary fiber
vestal rapids
#

Iโ€™m a novice at all of this, however in curios about one specific thing. Would you say learning python is a prerequisite in this space? Iโ€™m looking to get into comms/home security builds, but Iโ€™m unsure of where to start. My only experience is with 3D modeling in blender, and recently FreeCAD(considering fusion 360)

I work a labor job but Iโ€™m actively trying to make a shift, and advice on a starting point would be helpful.

#

Looks like there is a kids show on the website called Circuit Playground but it looks fairly short. Iโ€™m definitely going to watch this series so that I can get a solid intro.

topaz bison
vestal rapids
#

I think itโ€™s going to be worth it to learn. So time to hunt for free lessons!

dusty citrus
#

can I have like a public dns that's public?
I want pretty much to block/rendirect some sites. many use vpn but it can easily be turned off.
not self hosted, but something that's dirty cheap

fair summit
somber spindle
dusty citrus
fair summit
dusty citrus
#

although even a public dns can be turned off... I wonder what android for business does give, but I don't wanna pay a subscription

fair summit
#

so this is on android phones?

#

I think there are also business-style management options for Android, so you lock down the phone like it's a company phone. iPhone has similar

dusty citrus
dusty citrus
#

thanks though

wooden flint
#

like the eagle cad pcb files and such like on most other products

fair summit
wooden flint
valid glen
lapis anchor
fair summit
kindred isle
#

Cheques, for online orders?
I can't say I've ever heard of that.

valid glen
#

Okay just contacted them they said it's for schools only.

proven galleon
#

Does anyone know why discord suddenly marks a whole section of channels as having unread items when there are no new items (sometimes for months in the past)? It has happened on both an iPhone and my Mac OSX discord apps (apps not web). It just happened with my adafruit Help With and Topics Section but not the Welcome Section.

topaz bison
compact crypt
#

Does anyone have experience with Adafruit IO that could please help me with likely a simple issue?

fair summit
jaunty prawn
#

Hi

twilit ore
#

Anyone know how to get an arducam 5P up and running on a Pico? Preferably using MicroPython or CircuitPython... I haven't really found good guides online that weren't using an Arduino.

weary fiber
#

side note: z transform stuff is evil

image.png
twilit ore
dry heath
#

Looking for some assistance getting started with my first Adafruit project. I have experience with C++ and I'm using the included example code in the basic arduino libraries, but I'm not getting very far. Been troubleshooting, looking up examples - trying basic examples for a single library, etc for almost a week now and getting pretty frustrated with lack of progress. Pretty sure this stuff isn't supposed to be that complicated Any help is appreciated.

fair summit
dry heath
fringe raptor
#

Im bored af

#

So here's another video of Bella

hasty wedge
#

trying to drive a 3 phase BLDC

#

That sound ๐Ÿ’€

#

Iโ sโ  โ lโ iโ kโ eโ  โ tโ hโ oโ sโ eโ  โ aโ nโ nโ oโ yโ iโ nโ gโ  โ cโ aโ rโ sโ  โ oโ nโ  โ tโ hโ eโ  โ rโ oโ aโ dโ  โ wโ iโ tโ hโ  โ lโ oโ uโ d eโ nโ gโ iโ nโ eโ  โ sโ oโ uโ nโ dโ  โ bโ uโ tโ  โ mโ oโ vโ iโ nโ gโ  โ sโ lโ oโ wโ lโ yโ 

rigid whale
#

I am new to Digikey and their PCB maker wanted like $300 to make 4 25x25mm 2 layer boards. I got 3 from Oshpark for $5.60. So is there something I am missing when setting up a board order or is that the norm for Digikey?

#

I ordered some parts from Digikey so I was curious about their PCB maker stuff. Saw the price and was like NOPE.

kindred isle
rigid whale
#

will look for that thank you

#

The board is rather basic so I just uploaded like it asked and the offers that came back were like I mentioned I will look to see if I was out of bounds.

kindred isle
#

Oh, also boards will require that you make an account with them, and they have to verify you. Verification is supposedly mostly automatic. Certainly when I did it they just verified me after a few days.

rigid whale
#

ah ok

kindred isle
#

Just giving you a heads up in case you were really hoping to order them this instant.

fair summit
#

it looks to me like the low-cost DKRed service is gone. There is now very little mention of DKRed on the digikey website

rigid whale
#

I ordered the parts I needed from Digikey and then used Oshpark to fab the boards. Thank you for the information. I am still learning.

fair summit
#

i think asking DigiKey directly might get you a better answer.

kindred isle
#

Weird, I just used it a few weeks ago

fair summit
kindred isle
#

Disappointing.
Now I'll have to order from 3 places.
Digikey for components, OSH Park for boards, OSH Stencils for the stencil.

fair summit
#

I text-chatted with a live agent at Digi-Key, who said that the (overpriced) "PCB Builder" service replaced "DK Red". No further info.

kindred isle
#

Bleh.

valid glen
#

And here's what I have so far from the company.

#

TBH the nOOd I got was a wee bit small for my project.

#

So I will need some advice on what to get especially when it comes to the batteries and chips needed to make blue lights.

rigid whale
#

QTpy form factor either a RP2040 or an ESP32-S3. Not sure about batteries because I am not sure about how long the lights would be running. Blue does not take as much power as full bright white.

fair summit
#

for the 3v noods, you would need to use 3 in series.

#

The Instagram link ou gave does NOT use filaments, as you know: it scrapes away something to expose a glowy thing underneath, so no filaments needed.

valid glen
#

Sorry I'm confused about this.

fair summit
#

In the instagram video, the maker is burning away the painted foam to expose the glowing plastic underneath. There's some translucent plastic underneath that's illuminated. The glowing lines are not directly lit: they are illuminated indirectly.

#

quote:

For the symbols I put some LEDs under some polyethylene foam to diffuse them and then covered that with thin craft foam. Then using a wood burner I carved into the painted craft foam to reveal the lights underneath.

#

so it sounds like the foam is illuminated just by one or more regular blue LEDs. The foam diffuses that to be more uniform. e.g. something like this: https://www.adafruit.com/product/847

#

you could ask the maker more about the LEDs.

#

@valid glen๐Ÿ‘†

valid glen
#

thanks

#

I'll look more into it and the battery packs and everything else I'll need later.

#

Right now I need my left eye to heal a bit first due to a superficial corneal abrrasion from a dust speck.

cold dome
kindred isle
#

@fair summit@rigid whale
Hey, update on DKred now that I got home and checked after logging into my verified account.
Looks like DKred is actually still available, but now you have to explicitly turn it on in the PCB builder.
My guess? Given that the new toggle also actively disables all unsupported options (except the stencil for some reason), they were getting too many complaints from people trying to use it, and not configuring it correctly to get the cheaper rates.
Why support said that the PCB builder replaced it? I think they were confused, or didn't know about the change.

image.png
rigid whale
#

ohhhhh ok let me try that

#

thank ye!

fair summit
kindred isle
#

Yeah, I'm... not actually sure it was there when we were looking at it earlier.

#

Or it didn't show up when I wasn't logged in.

fair summit
#

i wonder if my query triggered something happening there

#

or it was just not done or broken

solar kindle
fair summit
solar kindle
fair summit
#

The landing page (https://www.digikey.com/en/resources/dkred) still exists, but I don't see a way to navigate to it from their menus.
Yup, exactly my impression also. I will ask about this. We of course have good contacts with DigiKey, though their reasons may be private.

valid glen
#

I've already got the 5 wire pack and wire cutters and all and Kamui cosplay has a great tutorial but you know I still need switches and stuff.

fair summit
# valid glen Good Idea Danh, I just need the right battery pack and wiring to attach those ti...

you will need resistors, as described in the LED guide I linked to, to limit the current to the LED's. That is the simplest way. There are also things like this: https://learn.adafruit.com/adafruit-tps61169-constant-current-boost-converter-for-leds, but it's more complicated (the LEDs will need to be grouped into series-connected groups). For a first project, resistors are good, and simple, and you can experiment with changing them to adjust the brightness.

valid glen
#

But what about the batteries and switches?

#

I need one that's not too bulky and can fit a coin sized battery or two.

fair summit
#

how many LEDs do you think you need?

valid glen
#

I have no idea personally. But what do you recommend based on numbers?

#

I would only turn on the lights for a picture a photoshoot or a walkon in a contest or judging room.

fair summit
#

if you are trying to duplicate the instagram project, then I'd ask the maker of that project how many they used

valid glen
#

I tried I got no answer.

#

I hate it when people do that.

fair summit
#

blue LEDs need about 3.0-3.4V, at 20mA. Red LEDs need about 1.8-2.5V at 20mA. I'm just telling you this because some tutorials assume you are using the lower voltage red ones. Green are in between.

#

you will learn how to apply Ohm's Law.

#

and there are many non-Adafruit guides as well

valid glen
#

But I just want a switch and battery pack recomendation.

fair summit
#

these packs have built-in switches. I'd choose a 3-cell pack so you get adequate voltage for the blue LED's

#

a fresh alkaline battery is 1.6V, will gradually drop over its lifetime

valid glen
#

Good as long as I can replace the batteries it shouldn't be a problem.

fair summit
#

you may need to experiment with the resistors because the coin cells hav limited current output

valid glen
#

Oh wait you mean these.

fair summit
valid glen
#

Oh man math ๐Ÿ˜”

fair summit
#

math is your friend here

#

The Adafruit guides go through the math step by step. It's just subtraction and division

#

if you do a websearch for led resistor calculator you will get hundreds of results

#

buy maybe some 100 ohm, 220 ohm, 470 ohm. The higher the value the dimmer

#

or buy a larger assortment elsewhere

valid glen
#

100 ohm resistors could work.

fair summit
#

try it all out with alligator clip leads or on a breadboard before you start soldering or assembling. Experiment first to gain confidence. Follow the guides

valid glen
#

You mean these?

fair summit
#

buy a pack of 220 and 470 also. yes

valid glen
#

At least they're cheap.

fair summit
#

do you have a breadboard or alligator clip leads?

valid glen
fair summit
#

you don't need that

valid glen
fair summit
valid glen
#

And aligator clip leads you mean like in the picture I sent then the link?

fair summit
#

we are out of stock of a lot of stuff, sadly

#

those short ones are in stock

valid glen
valid glen
fair summit
#

they are just shorter; for experimenting they will be fine

#

some are in stock at Digikey. Do you have a Micro Center or other electronics store near you?

#

where are you? (generally speaking is OK)

#

but really, the short ones are fine for this, and probably neater

valid glen
#

And as for resistors I think Kamui explains it in this video too.

fair summit
#

There is a micro center in westbury

#

but just keep it in mind. you can get what you want mail order from us

valid glen
#

I guess they can help out and Kamui's tutorial even shows I can still get a small switch while using a bigger battery. I just got to get creative with the battery pack.

fair summit
#

those battery packs I pointed to have built in switches

valid glen
#

Sorry Danh, it's my first time and I'm frigthened.

#

Very frightened.

#

being a n00blet is scary

#

and having a tiny cornea abrasion doesn't help.

fair summit
#

you are not going to hurt yourself, but you need to take the time to play with things before you build

valid glen
#

fair point.

fair summit
#

you can be unconfident, but there's nothing to be scared of

#

are you a student?

valid glen
#

no I'm in my 30s I'm a cosplayer

#

I'm more of a sewist

fair summit
#

is there a makerspace near you?

#

that has an eletronics area?

valid glen
#

I don't know it would be hard to go since my brother is always relying on me for the dog

#

It's a long story plus I'm an introvert.

fair summit
#

i can't help you with that; it is between you and your brother, but don't get taken advantage of

valid glen
#

Oh great the closest ones are in the city ๐Ÿซ 

fair summit
#

what town on LI?

valid glen
#

NYC

fair summit
#

no i mean where you live

valid glen
#

Nassau county but that's all I'm telling you

#

I don't feel comfy giving out too much info since I was doxxed in 2019.

fair summit
#

that's fine, nassau vs suffolk is fine

valid glen
#

I would have to find a day of the week while my brother isn't at work because if any of us leave Freyja (my dog) at home for any amount of time she will use the carpet as a toilet even if she just went.

fair summit
#

ok, never mind about that. shopping list:
pack of blue LEDs
packs of 100 ohm, 220 ohm, 470 ohm resistors
breadboard linked above
alligator leads linked above
choose one or more battery packs with switches linked above

#

do you already have soldering equipment?

valid glen
#

Thanks. I'll save that for later. I'm still waiting for my cornea on my left eye to heal up a bit. I can at least pack my order beforehand.

#

And yes I bought one through Kamui's recommendation on her youtube channel.

#

I'll let you know when I order them and get them.

fair summit
#

one or the other is handy for holding things when soldering

valid glen
fair summit
#

do you have a multimeter?

valid glen
#

Wait are those important?

fair summit
#

really handy to figure out what's going on. measuring voltage across the LED, measuring current, etc. makes debugging much easier. measuring whether batteries are dead or not, etc.

#

would you do sewing without a ruler? no

valid glen
#

Thanks for the rec.

#

I can get that later too.

fair summit
valid glen
#

I think I can get one second hand too.

#

I like trying to be more eco friendly with electronics.

#

You know prevent them from winding up in a landfill.

fair summit
#

i looked on long island craigslist but it was not that -- no bargains

valid glen
#

Anyway I got your shopping list and I think I'll order as soon as I have my fabric orders too, this weekend I'm going to experiment with acid dyes on raw silk and horse hair and I do mean actual hair from a horse's tail (note no horses were harmed in the acid dye experiment)

#

While you're good at LEDs and electronic wiring dying unusual material also takes a lot of effort especially to get the right color.

dusty citrus
#

on gmail (user, not bussiness/stuff alike, free class), do I have a way to allow a spoofed mail? I don't see it in spam or anywhere, in other mail providers it appears, so it's Gmail that's blocking something

spice moss
#

blue origin with it new glenn mission ng-3 successful launch and booster landing

fair summit
dusty citrus
fringe raptor
#

We got Bella a haircut

#

Before:

PXL_20260417_155822761.jpg
#

After:

PXL_20260417_183952047.jpg
#

Now she has a nice short coat for when it gets hot out

#

And it's much less messy

terse lava
fringe raptor
hollow flint
fringe raptor
#

My bad

hollow flint
# fringe raptor My bad

I'm not a moderator, but I figured it's a good idea to be organized by channel. ๐Ÿคท

autumn dawn
#

Hi, I want to start using Arduino sets. Which set should I buy first?

rigid whale
#

@autumn dawn Nano R4

autumn dawn
amber sequoia
#

A reason to check everything .This is a brand new commercial board that failed inspection on arrival. Even if its brand new doesn't mean it works.

Power_core.jpg
autumn dawn
#

Hello everyone Can I build a game console project using an Arduino Nano R4 board?

rigid whale
#

It's possible to do a game console but it won't be like a retropi or emulator.

fair summit
kindred isle
#

Polarized SMD components: "The cathode will be the side with the dot or other discrete marking."
Me: "Sounds good."
Polarized through hole components: "The cathode will be the side that is flat, has a marking, or has the shorter lead."
Me: "That works."
Vishay side view LEDs: "We're not putting any markings on the component."
Me: ". . ."

image.png
#

And no, it's not just that picture. If you read the whole document, literally the only indication of which one is the cathode is the package dimensions technical drawing.
You also wouldn't necessarily be able to tell, even if you know how LEDs are built from looking at the internal semiconductors because this is the tinted and diffused model.
(might also explain why it's discontinued)

rigid whale
#

I feel ya. Those markings are a boon for proper placement.

stoic mesa
#

Tindie website is down for 3 days already. They say it is "planned system upgrade", but very clearly something went wrong.

I am seriously thinking about alternative platforms. Anyone has experience with selling electronics on Etsy? or other platforms?
(I am not a big fan of eBay, but maybe that is an option too)

burnt tendon
#

Oof. People called it when the acquisition closed ... a few years back.

dusky tree
#

PyCon US 2026 is coming to Long Beach, California, May 13โ€“19, and this year it's practically in our backyard.

Registration is open now:
Corporate: $899 | Individual: $469 | Student: $139

This year's program has two brand-new tracks that are worth the trip on their own:
The Future of AI with Python: a full day of AI talks on Friday, May 15. LLMs, voice agents, edge inference, and what it all means for Python developers right now.
Trailblazing Python Security: the first-ever dedicated security track at PyCon US, all day Saturday, May 16. Supply chain, SBOMs, zero-trust, and more.

Both tracks are free with a full conference pass.

Register here: https://us.pycon.org/2026/accounts/dashboard/

PyCon US 2026
PyCon US 2026

PyCon US 2026

hollow flint
dusty citrus
#

is there a way to skip all windows crap that appears on the first time of booting windows?

iso+auto run xml takes way too much time.
using an hid device to simulate key presses, isn't really ideal, gotta spam timeout and hope it works right

rigid whale
#

Hand soldering SMD parts. Anyone have a particular order they prefer in regards what goes down first? Smallest to largest? Largest to smallest?

steep barn
#

Thinnest to thickest

rigid whale
#

Any particular reasons why?

steep barn
#

It makes things a bit easierโ€”it's hard to, say, solder in a resistor next to a big chunky inductor.

rigid whale
#

Thank you for the clarification. Much appreciated. Makes sense.

craggy dock
#

Speaking of I just used a hot air gun to salvage a bunch of SMD parts and I can't help but feel extremely cheap ๐Ÿ˜† especially considering I'm going to have to go through and sort them all and I don't even have a microscope. I don't know I just really felt bad of throwing the circuit board into the e-waste bin when they were still components on it that I could use, even though I'm not even sure if I'll ever use them

#

I personally prefer through whole components but with everything being compact nowadays it's hard to find through whole components to salvage from stuff everything's SMD now which is good for all the small tech we use but for someone who wants to play around with them as a hobby it just makes it frustrating

kindred isle
#

I don't think the components I'm using for my project even have designations printed on them. Well, the resistors and capacitors at least. The diode has some text on it, but the resistors and capacitors are just tiny unlabeled black or beige bricks.

#

Fortunately I made a point of filling in the component names from my schematic when ordering from Digikey, so not only do I know what is in the bag, but also where it goes on my board.

sinful stratus
kindred isle
#

Mmm... Pebble Time 2

image.png
sick apex
#

anyone know of a place i could buy a nice laser head that i could throw on my old 3D printer to convert it to a laser engraver / cutter ( yes i know it's not just that simple )

eternal trout
#

would a solder suckker get solder out of through holes

#

ive mmanaged to press it into one accidentally and i cant get it out

#

also somehow i manage to burn myself every time i use a soldering iron

half venture
#

Well that's a new level of frustrating... The specific-length USB cable I bought for a project is 5cm too short. So close and yet so far... Time to wait for another one to arrive from China

fair summit
eternal trout
#

Solder wick seems to suck for through hole stuff

#

Or maybe im bad

#

I feel like wick would be better for smd stuff

proven galleon
# eternal trout Solder wick seems to suck for through hole stuff

You may already be already using a recent vintage solder sucker but I was using one frok 20 years ago. I recently purchased and received the Adafruit Engineer Professional Solder Sucker https://www.adafruit.com/product/1597 and it sure is a big improvement. Now I can one handed reset the plunger. My old one's operation resembled resetting a really high strung crossbow.

I too find solder wick to be less than helpful.

Yesterday I put too much solder on one connection and just used my new solder sucker to remove all of it and then redo with more care. I also cleared a through hole of solder easily for another connection redo.

Engineer Professional Silicone-Tip Solder Sucker

Ever go to a diner and they give you a bottle of ketchup and it says "Extra Fancy" and you're thinking to yourself "what makes this ketchup 'extra fancy' ...

eternal trout
fair summit
#

they don't like pressure

eternal trout
#

Top right corner, do you think itll still work?

fair summit
#

well, that is not in display area, so maybe, if the crack doesn't spread. Certainly worth trying

eternal trout
#

Seems like a small amount of the crack is in the connector area thing

fair summit
#

if there is a conductive path on the glass, it may hae broken. Or it may be below the glass

rigid whale
#

If that crack extends to the trace/ribbon below then you have a broken part. Looks like a SPI ribbon but split into two strips.

hasty niche
#

That's a scam guys

#

Mods will nuke it soon hopefully

weary fiber
#

yikes, it's in every channel

hasty niche
#

That's how it works yeah

weary fiber
#

lmao the spam screenshot misspells "successful"

hasty niche
#

My servers that i'm admin in trick scambots by having a bot assign users a role after they do something, and restrict everyone from seeing anything but the not catcher channel and the channel that you're supposed to react in

#

The bots never verify themselves as real people and just spam the hidden bot catcher channel

#

BTW the verification thing is literally just a button that gives you a role

#

The bot catcher channel and lack of visible online users usually breaks the bots

#

Sometimes the bots will scrape the usernames of everyone and then do mass DMs... That doesn't work with the right permissions

#

Thanks @stuck moth โค๏ธ

#

We need a bot catching system like I describe, that's the first of a flood ๐Ÿ™

stuck moth
#

Thanks for the mod ping

hasty niche
#

I haven't seen one of those here in a while, and the ones hitting the servers I'm in are worse than usual

stuck moth
#

Discord automod has been pretty good. We used to rely on dynobot more

hasty niche
#

We have no automod, they just get caught in the bot catcher channel

stuck moth
#

We can look at switching stuff up tomorrow

hasty niche
#

Anyway, fun fact of the day:
Dolphins use ultrasonic vibrations on their skin to swim faster
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/41090886/

PubMed
Dolphin-inspired skin microvibrations can accelerate swimming - PubMed

Research on dolphins dates back nearly 90 years to the well-known Gray's Paradox, which proposed that dolphins are capable of swimming at speeds that seemingly exceed their energetic limits. Inspired by microvibrations observed on dolphin skin, longitudinal micro-ultrasonic waves (LMUWs)-a form of d โ€ฆ

dusty citrus
mellow solstice
#

Iโ€™m new here just wanted to say hello and I hope everyone has a great day ๐ŸŒธ

sturdy dawn
#

Finally this thing says something over like 35

PXL_20260427_214126280.jpg
#

P5 64x32 panel from adafruit. I love how light they are

kindred isle
sturdy dawn
#

That way you don't have to ping off a server every ten minutes and it's more accurate

#

I was looking at the Tetris animation library which is what the Tetris clock uses, but the Tetris clock project that I found is outdated in the syntax

#

Plus they never made it for adafruit graphics. They made it for PX matrix

#

So it's basically a matter of studying that code and porting it over to adafruit graphics

#

The dma library had an example for a gif player, but it used spiff or SD which The matrix portal is neither of those. So I was able to take the GIF player project for protomatter and somehow protomatter was compatible with the dma library after some tinkering. I saved my work but I can't exactly remember what I did

#

Mostly just cutting and pasting the wiring setup but there was more to it than just that

#

But the dma library has brightness control and I can tie that into the buttons

cyan gyro
#

Hello everybody. I was wondering if somebody happened to have the RP2040 PIO simulator made for java? Should be called rp2040pio_server.jar. Would be awesome if I could avoid installing a few SDKs for this one thing just to compile it.

uncut ether
fair summit
#

that is the official support channel

uncut ether
sturdy dawn
#

I think the only driver that had it was like the old matrix hat for rpi. I started with the old stuff and moved to the new stuff ๐Ÿ˜ญ

kindred isle
#

I've already got an RTC from the current time keeper I made, so that's no biggie.

sinful stratus
#

when i set the angle of my servo it "jiggles" a bunch around the end angle unless i hold on it a little to slow it down and then it stops. its like it keeps trying to correct for the rotation caused by the mass of the thing its turning (a camera) but im fine with it not trying to rotate at all once it reaches the angle. can i do that? maybe in cpy i can only pwm the servo when rotating it?

kindred isle
#

Gotta pick up another USB C power supply, and a nice long cable for my time keeper project. I want to put it up near the ceiling, but just about all the power supplies I find come with short cables. Typically 1.5 or 2m. 2m might be long enough, but it'll be taut. So I'll need a supply that'll do 3A at 5V, and has a removable cable so I can stick a 10 foot one on.
Fortunately, the Anker one I got to run my hotplate fits that description.

#

Just gotta get a second one.

magic totem
#

Does anyone know where I can find this one thing I remember it was a tab in the adafruit website but it had like a whole bunch of pre-made songs to choose from

uncut ether
#

ofc the LED buttons I need are sold out ๐Ÿ™

uncut ether
candid lantern
#

Anyone know when the ADA5991 comes back in stock or if there's an exact alternative

hasty niche
#

Did you see the new linux cve

#

everyone can be root now

#

This is bad right

hollow flint
undone tinsel
#

hey hiI randomly came across this tech fest in Bangalore called ASCENT (May 15-17), and ngl I thought itโ€™d be mid at first, but it actually looks kinda solid. Itโ€™s got a bit of everything: 24h hackathon, chance to build an MVP and maybe get some funding, a startup pitch event with a prize pool, plus robotics stuff like Robo Soccer and Robo Race. Thereโ€™s also Prompt Wars thing hosted by Google and some ML, CP, and cybersecurity events. Theyโ€™re listing sponsors like Google, TogetherFund, Eyecandy Robotics, and VorFlux AI (found this on their website btw), which lowkey makes it feel more legitโ€ฆ but idk, could still go either way. Itโ€™s open to both students and working professionals, and yeah.. just stumbled on it and did a quick check.
Anyone here been to stuff like this before? Is it actually worth pulling up, or does it end up being all hype no delivery?It says free registration too...

clear heart
candid lantern
hollow flint
valid glen
valid glen
#

Just got to play the waiting game with the delivery.

fair summit
valid glen
acoustic slate
#

I have some technical questions about clocks on an Adafruit Feather M4 board... which channel here would be best to bring that up?

fair summit
acoustic slate
#

Hardware clocks on the microcontroller (specifically the 48MHz DFLL) - coding in C++, using adafruit samd core, often coding down to the bare registers in the chip

fair summit
#

so arduino?

#

("samd core")

acoustic slate
#

yep

fair summit
#

it doesn't matter too much. we have done some work on that in arduino and in circuitpython. could ask here or in #general-tech

acoustic slate
#

(going there now)

valid glen
#

Speak of the devil everything arrived today

turbid eagle
#

im new

dusty citrus
#

Can't keep a stable job cause I always give off the impression of being weird, autistics,
it's more of a rant maybe, but it's really, really annoying
Always wanted to do "clean" things, but I can't go on otherwise

#

more of rant sorry

sonic ingot
#

Hej โœŒ๏ธ

dim agate
#

Is there a way to get the C64 emulator for the Adafruit Fruit Jam (MCUME) to mount C64 disks (.d64)? Mine could not load them in the menu.

kindred isle
#

I appreciate USPS's optimism about delivering my stuff from Adafruit...
But delivering by 9pm today is going to be quite the challenge when it's already 6:50 pm, mail delivery has already happened today, and it's currently "in transit to next facility"

clear heart
#

This server is pretty great I need to dig in more though

tall cedar
#

i agree

#

i do feel like im outclassed compared to the stuff that i see others do here

#

and most things sent here are questions or people requesting advice

#

that im not yet experienced enough in to reply

clear heart
#

I think we should uses pins to stuff in channels imho

tall cedar
#

stuff is pinned in channels

#

just not all of them

kindred isle
tall cedar
#

nice

#

thanks

sturdy dawn
#

I'm about to dive into animation. I've done it by tutorial in c# like 15 years ago, but that was with .png source files, now I'm using 16 bit xpm arrays I think

clear heart
#

Just finishing up K8 PI 4 cluster

#

Friend 3D printed the tower getting shorter cables now.

sturdy dawn
#

I get the general idea here but the program I'm using also declares the size (ex. 0, 0). Is my thing using XPM or something else? I think it declares them as bytes

Screenshot_20260504-085632.png
#

I think inside the bracket after the frame0

dusty citrus
#

I need actual suggestions
how do I make friends at almost 26 year old?
I did made one untill not long ago, but I kind of ducked up, and now they won't talk to me back (he did also, but it doesn't look like we are going to have peace, just blocked for life), and now I am alone yet again
it really hurts me as I really haven't got any in all of my life, and he also had some similar issues of mines ..

fair summit
dusty citrus
#

and he kinda experienced the same thing having wasted like 5 years in a drug recovery center. so we were like both without a social masks, and stuck at like 14

fair summit
#

I don't know what you mean by "mobbing"

dusty citrus
fair summit
#

"he" is your brother?

#

or your former friend?

dusty citrus
#

I mean I ducked up some days ago because I was heavily preoccupied, and won't talk me back

fair summit
#

I'm not going to try to give detailed psychological advice in a text chat forum. But there are support structures for this, and it's worth seeking them out.

dusty citrus
fair summit
#

i am suggesting outpatient, community mental health, support group organizations, not hospitalization

clear heart
#

I am 46 is this an issue ha

hasty wedge
#

A Meanwell PSU i just installed in my synth

#

Replacing the 20 years old made in USA one

dusty citrus
proven galleon
# dusty citrus not an issue, but I wanted "real" life people

Assuming you mean in person interactions, do you have any hobby interests. Perhaps there is a club near you with others sharing that interest. For instance I like amateur (HAM) radio and have made some lifelong friends attending ham radio club meetings. Is there a maker space nearby where you could share building electronic projects? Model trains? Maybe take a class at the local University or tech school.

dusty citrus
#

I definitely shouldn't admit it, but when I see group of people smiling and having fun... I kind of perceive it as a threat, all I think about, is how easy would be to eliminate them... I'm some kind of a monster in reality, I never thought I would actually care about someone, and that it would cause me pain to lose the contact

#

so maybe I'm just looking for a mirror

proven galleon
#

I wish I could have been better help. Just wanted you to know you were heard and are not alone โ€” at least in the cyber sphere.

clear heart
kindred isle
#

One of these days I'm going to stop being surprised that super common functions in Arduino land are neatly packaged into a convenient function.
Like, getting internet time. I thought I was going to have to learn a whole ton of stuff.
Nope. It's a single command (assuming you've got your ESP32 board connected).
Ahh, who am I kidding? I'm never going to stop being surprised by the Arduino community.

rustic obsidian
#

Anyone working on open source medical hardware???

fair summit
#

but I think that is mostly with existing hw. The sw is replacing the commercial sw.

hard estuary
river pike
#

i have an idea

image.png
terse lava
kindred isle
#

Oh please. That keyboard looks positively normal compared to some I've seen.

static flare
topaz bison
dusty citrus
#

ps:
you can use unshielded inductors and a couple of magnets, to make a programmable pressure thingy

solar kindle
burnt tendon
#

Wow, that looks perfect for emacs.

hollow flint
burnt tendon
#

Well, if you bind one button to :wq! you'll always be able to leave vi at least.

hollow flint
burnt tendon
#

Gah, right. Sometimes there's just no escape.

kindred isle
#

Gotta figure out how to bind one of the buttons to "short power supply to ground"

#

A very not good way of shutting your computer down in a way that no software can block.

#

There's always a way to escape.

hollow flint
kindred isle
#

I did want to get a Steam Controller, but missed out. I'll just have to keep using this instead.

PXL_20250826_181639490.jpg
burnt tendon
#

I had one of those.

kindred isle
#

I picked it up explicitly to convert it to USB...
And I've yet to actually play anything with it.

#

Works great though, and I even split the two orange buttons apart so it can be a 3 button controller now.
Or if you send a command over serial, you can convert it to a 1 or 2 button controller.

#

I also considered adding an additional command to make it left handed. Rotate the directions 90 degrees clockwise so you can hold it in your right hand, and press the buttons with your right thumb.
Just for giggles.

sturdy dawn
#

Wouldn't it be more efficient to use delay(100) for animation instead of using millis checks

Screenshot_20260504-085632.png
#

I sped it up and lowered the movement rate to 1 pixel and it's smoother but seems like a weird way to animate, I don't quite get this code but I'll look it up

#

Specifically the part I don't get is how that colon is calling the max move height variable

#

Ok lol nvm is right there. I guess none of this is animated so it makes sense

sturdy dawn
#

Looks a little smoother but the camera captures a little distortion now. It was 60 milliseconds. I dropped it to 30

quaint flint
#

Looks good to me, whats the problem?

sturdy dawn
#

I was just thinking out loud I guess

#

Nothing is animated and I'm looking into how to do that with like the clouds and stuff

quaint flint
#

ohhh, cool

sturdy dawn
#

The milliseconds works when you're just moving stuff around, but for animation frames, that's the code that Google suggested on the top

quaint flint
#

Ah, well delay pauses the program at that point so iirc if you have other stuff to do it will also be delayed by the delay() which is not always optimal

#

i could be wrong though so dont take this as gospel

sturdy dawn
#

Ok but good to know

#

Ai doesn't always know exactly what it's talking about when you ask it code suggestions

#

I could probably just use a second set of block bits that are a lighter shade of yellow and then use a milliseconds call to swap back and forth

quaint flint
#

AI is ...variably useful i would say? if we ignore the various environmental/societal stuff and look at it from a purely useful/not useful aspect then AI can be great for programming questions but also sometimes can lead you on a wild goose chase by suggesting outdated or depreciated functions and whatnot

#

I actually think an LLM specifically trained on known good programming/code data sets would be a very useful tool but the general ones like chatgpt contain data that may be incorrect or outdated

kindred isle
#

Yay, I got enough into the mood for programming that I got the first step in my big clock project done.
Getting the time from the internet, and using that to update the RTC, so I'm not constantly pinging the server.
Important note (once you find the variables in the tm struct) is that the time gotten from the internet has January as 0, but the RTC function expects it as 1.

#

I do have to shamefully admit that I spent far too long trying to debug the whole thing crashing and restarting because I forgot rtc.begin()
Still, at least I knew enough to put it into the emergency bootloader mode, instead of panicking.

sturdy dawn
crisp nacelle
#

To Adafruit support - is there any way to get a 400ma very small lipo shipped USPS, I have an order pending with 2 feather LoRa's and would like one battery added to it, but it causes very large increase to ~+18.58$ in shipping by using UPS.

quaint flint
#

Not support but i believe USPS has restrictions on shipping lipo by air or internationally, so you might be running into that restriction

crisp nacelle
#

Without the lipo, I am able to select USPS - GROUND ADVANTAGE $6.51. With it, I am forced to UPS GROUND SAVER $17.51 (no battery on the order now)

#

Does Adafruit support watch this channel ?

gleaming tinsel
crisp nacelle
#

I like adafruit alot, but back and forth over support form has not resolved the issue

#

I did get a reply 'we arent able to ship batteries via USPS'. idn if thats adafruit company policy, but it is possible to ship batteries USPS and even support suggested adding a sticker to allow the battery to be shipped - but that might be over UPS

gleaming tinsel
terse lava
# crisp nacelle To Adafruit support - is there any way to get a 400ma very small lipo shipped US...

Order through Digikey (seearch by "Adafruit xxxx" where xxxx is the Adafruit number). That still supports Adafruit since Digikey is a sponsor and a distributor for Adafruit and the shipping I think it is a bit less in general, AND they don't charge the ridiculous shipping markup for a battery like Adafruit does. I have asked about this TWICE on the forums. First time my question was ignored. Second time someone said they would ask about it and that was the end of it. There is no reason for Adafruit to drop the USPS Ground service when you add a Lipo and jack up the shipping price.

crisp nacelle
#

@terse lava thanks, I am not imagining it then ๐Ÿ™‚

quaint flint
#

Yeah i looked through myself, im no expert on mailing regulations but it does seem like theres no specific USPS reason they cannot ship them via USPS, i would assume its simply an internal policy, in which case i imagine you are out of luck

#

could be related to all sorts of things, just because something isnt prohibited doesnt mean it wont cause issues, specialist markings or packaging needed, perhaps insurance or whatever

#

i imagine there is a reason

crisp nacelle
#

well I found some very old rat shack USB battery packs that have plenty of juice for the feathers... just wanted to try out a lipo

terse lava
crisp nacelle
#

separately, project is to get two feather RP2040's and hook up via LoRa, downstairs one as 'call button'. Upstairs one will flash the led. To learn LoRa. Then will package one up and see how far away from home I can get. Hoping for remote LoRa to send a byte and home LoRa sends it back, incremented. Then remote LoRa makes sure it got an incremented byte.

quaint flint
#

Sounds like a fun project

kindred isle
#

I was gonna do LoRa for my clock project to get an outside probe, but since moving to one of the LED matrixes, and picking up the Matrix Portal S3, I'll just use bluetooth as that's built into the ESP32 running the whole thing.

#

That does mean that I have a random Feather floating around somewhere that's not gonna get used for its original purpose, but that seems to happen with me. I also have a pair of SeeSaws that I was going to learn how to do one pin programming on, and that kinda got sidelined too.

rustic obsidian
#

Thought I'd share!

certification_workshop.jpg
crisp nacelle
kindred isle
#

That's... Kinda weird. I only just now discovered that the Adafruit graphics library does not include an RGB to RGB565 function. Seems like an odd omission. Not a show stopper, but unexpected just the same.

river pike
river pike
river pike
river pike
#

That looks so cool.. but also priceyโ€ฆ and I want to try and make my own pcb, style etc

#

Btw.. does anyone have a suggestion for a good microcontroller for that keyboard Iโ€™m making (I made a few minor adjustments but its mostly the same), as it needs a lot of rows/columns..

provided image shows rows/columns, is slightly outdated but basically the same as my latest revision.

Screenshot_2026-05-05_at_21.43.39.png
river pike
kindred isle
#

The Space Cadet keyboard was what I was thinking of.

image.png
quaint flint
# river pike :0

you can probably use any of the common convenient microcontrollers and use either shift registers or IO expanders to give yourself more IO

#

theres probably restrictions that you might run into with concurrent keypresses though

#

or just do this i guess

burnt tendon
#

You know, I really really really judge the world of keyboard obsessives and retrocomputing obsessives for not making a modern day Space Cadet.

kindred isle
#

"The Space Cadet keyboard influenced our modern key layout"
Sorry, not really seeing it.

#

The bulk of the modern layout comes from typewriters, and everything that isn't from there is just a matter of "where else are you going to put more keys?"

#

Still, there's apparently the Hyper7 R4, which is a "tribute" to it.
Yours for only... $490... If you get the barebones model that doesn't include switches or keycaps.
$721 for the kit
$836 for a fully assembled one.

image.png
river pike
river pike
crisp nacelle
sturdy dawn
#

I bought way too many panels and I was going to sell clocks but I ain't messing with the Mario clock or any of that IP LOL. Nintendo is the enforcer for that

#

Also the adafruit boards I have come with limitations, you can't address the device once it's connected because the refresh of the screen interferes with the esp32s Wi-Fi

#

They sell ones without the antenna and it's like a separate thing but I'm not trying to be the clock master LOL

#

Visibility means they would be good for stuff like road signs and I have seen that. Speed limit signs that are made from and LED array

#

Good luck landing a state contract though then you got it made

#

Assume not a huge profit margin if you're working for the state though

#

I'm not knowledgeable enough to know if the deficit from importing all that stuff is offset by the efficiency of the technology

#

I know the LED stop bulbs are like 70 to 90% more efficient than the old ones and most cities have switched over

kindred isle
#

Can't say I'm having any problems with the wifi myself, but I'm not running a ton of pixels on it yet, and the router is in my room.
I do know it's working though because the first time I tested my update function I actually watched the time jump backwards. I suppose that if it does prove to be a problem, I'll just use the included cable to move the matrix and controller apart.

#

While working on it at 2am last night, I was having problems getting it to actually queue up a time sync, only to realize that it doesn't help to only try setting a value to false, if it's already false.

tranquil depot
#

I wonder if I can add in my resume not so ethical projects, as I kind of got fired from my previous job for concerning behavior/skillsets

it's not like that I like to do damage, I just like to show how it could be done, but they didn't take it too lightly

#

they got pretty mad after noticing some several security issues

fresh relic
#

Hi i just bought rp2040 feather. I am looking for the correct .uf2 file. I am also trying to use with for ps5 controller can ideas of where i can find some examples

fair summit
native warren
#

@fair summit yes sir i am trying to send the controller signals from pc so it use 2040 and sends it back to ps5 . trying to remove chaiki remote play. Currently i use chiaki remote play it has lot of latency

fair summit
#

You can make the RP2040 emulate an HID controller, if you know the report descriptors for the controller you are trying to emulate.

#

@Alfie are you the same person as @Grayson?

fresh relic
#

@fair summit i use sony dual sense . i also have xbox controller. Since i am on chiakiremoteplay right now both works. yes is its wierd @Alfie is my active discord and this morning when i opened it on google. I said accept @Alfie and now it shows on both. I fixed it so this will be my active discord. Grayson

fair summit
fresh relic
#

@danh the purpose of what i trying to achieve is i current play on ps5 with chiaki remote play and i have xbox contoller plugged on pc and i use it . I heard using rp2040 i can play without chiaki remoteplay where i rp2020 can act as brigde between pc and ps5. I am trying to read ai script from pc and send signal back to ps5

fair summit
fresh relic
#

@fair summit Using an RP2040 to send signals directly to a PS5 without using Chiaki or any Remote Play software is possible by configuring the board to act as a USB controller emulator. This creates a physical hardware bridge where your inputs (from a PC or another controller) are converted into standard PS5 controller signals.1. Hardware Bridge via GP2040-CEThe most effective way to do this is by using the GP2040-CE firmware. This firmware allows the RP2040 to appear as a native controller to the console.Physical Setup: Connect your input source (like a PC or a custom button layout) to the RP2040, and then plug the RP2040 into the PS5's USB port.The "8-Minute" Problem: PS5 consoles periodically check for security handshakes. If the RP2040 is alone, the console will disconnect it after 8 minutes.The Bypass: You must use a USB passthrough setup. This requires an RP2040 board with an extra USB host port (or a breakout board). You plug an officially licensed "legacy" controller or a dongle like the Mayflash Magic Boots v1.1 into this host port. The RP2040 then passes the security handshake from that device to the PS5 while sending your custom button inputs.2. Emulating a Native DualSense (DIY Passthrough)If you are comfortable with coding, you can use libraries like TinyUSB or PICO-PIO-USB to create a custom bridge.Flow: Input Source โ†’ RP2040 (Host Mode) โ†’ Processing โ†’ RP2040 (Device Mode) โ†’ PS5.The RP2040 must be programmed to mimic the USB descriptor of an official controller so the console accepts it as a HID device

fair summit
sturdy dawn
#

I finally ordered a 3d printer for these projects

#

I'm surprised they didn't get one 10 years ago, but the plus side is they've come a long way at this point

#

I saw an instructable write-up on how to make a small grid that goes over the LED's which helps to disperse some of the light within the acrylic panel in front. Now I have to wait for new nozzles because it's a really fine print

20221217_120253.jpg
#

Top Images when he tried it with a point 4 mm stock nozzle

#

Non-Frosted acrylic but achieves the effect of filling out a full square for each pixel

#

That's the write-up, he just used buttons but I'm pretty sure you could get it to work with a basic controller

quaint flint
#

mmmm its tough to get a sense of scale on that but it doesnt look like THAT detailed a print

#

but a finer nozzle is useful in a lot of things so its probably worth it

iron latch
#

hello, im looking for help with some off-brand Pro Micro nRF25840 (with nice!nano), (What software I need to actually be able to program the thing, website to go to for learning more.) Im not sure if this is the right community for it, if not I would appreciate a point in the right direction.

fair summit
iron latch
#

ok cool. I have it "sort of" set up in vscode. I can upload to it and do the usual hello world serial prints. but I hadnt the first idea about using this things bluetooth and ArduinoBLE doesnt seem to build for it. Ill check those out

fair summit
#

do you want to use it for a keyboard specifically, or just in general?

iron latch
#

im targeting a keyboard project.

fair summit
#

so you know about zmk already?

#

kmk is in CircuitPython, not sure if it has BLE support

iron latch
#

i have heard about ZMK and QMK but dont knoow a lot about them. I wanted to try to learn to implement the basic BLE stuff

fair summit
#

either Arduino or CircuitPython or MicroPython are available.

iron latch
#

ok ill check that out

fair summit
#

we don't use PlatformIO much

iron latch
#

im starting to not use it much either ๐Ÿ˜„

iron latch
#

I will have to make sure of /correct some pin mappings maybe. P0_15 is LED and board.LED points to some other pin

#

Thank you very much

fair summit
bronze cosmos
#

should I get a 3d printer? Might have the opportunity for a graduation gift, but I'm not sure if it's worth it since I don't have specifics on any projects I'm planning that'd need one, it'd mostly just be printing random bits and bobs with the occasionally useful thing

fair summit
# bronze cosmos should I get a 3d printer? Might have the opportunity for a graduation gift, but...

If you don't have an immediate need, I'd say wait until you do. They are only getting better. I bought one about 8 years ago: someone locally was getting Amazon returns of low-end printers and vetting them as working. It was cheap. I use mine every once in a while, but it can be months between uses. Uses have been a project box, some board stands, house numbers, AirTag holders (for keychains). I don't regret getting it, but I waited until I had something I actually wanted to print.

bronze cosmos
#

Hmm, alright
I don't know any 3d modeling unfortunately which is another thing that I'm a bit hesitant about
I can't think of any other things I could ask for, and a printer is something I've been interested in for a while but couldn't ever justify it so I'm super torn

fair summit
#

If you are going to college then there is likely to be a makerspace with printers you can use without having to buy one

#

and even if you stay there might be a makerspace nearby or at the library or similar

bronze cosmos
#

oh, college grad

#

(thankfully)

fair summit
#

other gifts might be a nice set of tools and soldering setup if you don't already have something

quaint flint
#

Its hard to go wrong with tools

bronze cosmos
fair summit
#

multimeter? probably have one already

bronze cosmos
#

Borrowed one from my dad yeah

quaint flint
#

I own an FDM printer and I have used it a BUNCH for all sorts of different things, I often play around with projects of different types and have created project enclosures, a case for a handheld computer, a couple of art projects and the occasional purely useful object (i designed and printed brackets for a rail for my shelves to prevent my cat pulling things off the shelf)

#

its a thing that could be used in a ton of ways