I'm in a really good appreciative hug report mood at the moment -- wanted to put that out there now, as moods are like weather. ;)
#general-chat
dusty citrus
dusty citrus
@cursive pike forth onSAMD51 (Metro M4 Express)
with file i/o on the 2MB onboard SPI flashROM:
https://github.com/wa1tnr/ainsuForth-gen-exp-m4/tree/_with_file_io_aa-
sand tapir
Douglass rain died yesterday as well
The guy who voiced HAL
This day week extracts a heavy toll
jaunty jetty
a lot of famous people were boomers, and now they're old. Add to that the hyperconnectivity of the world and it's going to become hard to not find somebody you thought well of has died
gaunt totem
So who's gonna play smash ultimate?
spice moss
no more cameos for stan lee
fluid forum
So I have no clue haw it was done I srota feel it fits here https://twitter.com/MytiaZimmer/status/1061379321170845696
and also someone like us would want to do this
jaunty jetty
@fluid forum those fish are very basic, the circuitry has two main sections, one part contains a storage chip, an audio synthesizer to play the data on the chip as audio, an amp, and a very simple processor to operate all that; the other part contains a motor controller that responds to the magnetude of the audio signal to drive one single motor. Bypass all the audio synthesis stuff and the motor just works
fluid forum
it's still cool
jaunty jetty
the mechanism by which a single motor operates the several mechanisms and behaviors is more interesting
fluid forum
I hate those fish
jaunty jetty
oh very cool, my point is it's also easy
fluid forum
but that...
jaunty jetty
cool + easy = very cool
looks like some models don't use a single motor, this gives more control and remains simple, the fanciest will be designed with a preprogrammed dance, but the basic ones will just have each motor behind a frequency filter so each part of the fish moves in response to certain sounds, like the mouth will respond to tones associated with voice, while the tail moves to the drums
fluid forum
one for the mouth one for the body ?
jaunty jetty
probably varies, but I'm seeing up to 3, mouth, body, tail
fluid forum
I can't wait till someone here dose something like this but more nutty
late fulcrum
I'm playing with the robot arm, which also uses individual motors (unlike the old Radio Snack "Armatron", which used one motor and a bunch of mechanical clutches).
jaunty jetty
I really want to build some kind of something that uses a single drive motor and a bunch of solenoids to control what gets powered
fluid forum
I am suddenly thinking of that robot arm simone gerts had for a wile
dusty citrus
I got the Trellis M4 chassis kit today (acrylic sandwich pieces and 2x squishy buttons).
This thing really reminds me of toys for young children that talk to them when they press buttons, or maybe beeps and other sound effects.
It also reminds me of industrial remote controls.
Positioning equipment by pushing buttons. Stuff like that.
(actuating position-determining motors and such)
dusty citrus
If you don't find the drum kit circuitpython program on Trellis M4 fun, it's time to see the doctor. ;)
I'm sure it carries a seal of approval from the First Church of Instant Gratification. ;)
echo agate
Eat a tide pod, do not pass go, do not collect $200 (darn stagnant wages, it's been $200 forever)
dusty citrus
Lmao
jaunty jetty
hearing revoked
dusty citrus
; (
karmic kite
opendns
when I worked retail we would use it to filter out social media, ads, explicit sites on display computers and replace them with a flashy gif
dusty citrus
The Internet stopped being fun a while ago, when web designers decided they could set their own rules.
karmic kite
also using it to block facebook while websurfing is scary the amount of things it blocks
dusty citrus
Anytime a web site does something I don't like I close the browser and hunt elsewhere.
karmic kite
also works for youtube ads
dusty citrus
I treat them as if they were a nuisance telemarketer.
I don't use WiFi. At all.
I’m slightly inclined to buy this and make my previous joke idea
Although I wouldn’t get good use out of it
karmic kite
thats tempting... I strongly dislike handwritten reciepts
dusty citrus
Well I’d use it for... not receipts
But I mean receipts and anime violations of the AAA are pretty much the same thing
right?
jaunty jetty
do you think when they upgraded the space shuttle to 119% throttle, they modified the throttle quadrants to go 19% further forwards
the whole reason they went with over 100% throttle was so that there was a single unified context of what a given percentage meant in reports and training, so it seems like they'd need the quadrant to have more travel so a given input would have a fixed consequence
karmic kite
I wonder if they use dynamic rates? on rc planes I make it so the last 25% of throttle is exponential
dusty citrus
I think they just called it Shuttle 2.0 and expected you to check the datasheet for errata, before flying it.
check engine light is a bit harder to obey..
spice moss
jaunty jetty
pretty sure ZALX is in one of those final fantasy or kingdom hearts games
you can tell he's evil because his name has an X in it
dusty citrus
schematic
silcscreen agrees. photo of device mounted on production board agrees.
Two out of three schematic refs agree.
TI PDF for this package agrees.
jaunty jetty
y'ever notice how on almost every adafruit schematic file the information block is in no way useful
most of them aren't labelled correctly, don't have an author, the formating has exploded, etc
dusty citrus
I will criticize Adafruit in a venue that Adafruit isn't promulgating. ;) If I do at all.
it could be a lot worse and it's pretty good as it is.
What I notice is that they publish schematics when they don't have to, and also several other pieces of intellectual property difficult to produce (costs real money). Open Sourced, for the most part.
Then people come here with their chinese knockoffs and ask for support anyway.
jaunty jetty
yay linkages
silver shale
what i like about blockland, it is very easy to make your own add-ons for it,
dusty citrus
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZnRCTkTLzII
Turin Horse
Toggle the CC button for English subtitles
mint trellis
ms!help
rare birchBOT
MakerSandbot Commands
MakerSandbot Commands
mint trellis
there
jaunty jetty
there?
rare birchBOT
➜ Code Database
Code Database
rare birchBOT
➜ Code Database List
Code Database
tender nimbus
ms!code open 3
rare birchBOT
➜ Code Database Card
Code Database Card
tender nimbus
ms!code open 4
rare birchBOT
➜ Code Database Card
Code Database Card
tender nimbus
😶 👌
sleek urchin
spice moss
Twitter
dusty citrus
Yeah that came sharply to mind when playing with it (without monitoring audio).
One of the demo sketches sets a random color on keypress, and always toggles that RGB LED off on the next keypress at that location.
So it can take a very long time to match a neighbor color (which is a simple game to play without modifying the sketch one iota).
side-note: I don't think I've heard or read of any use of 'iota' in over ten years, so I'm claiming renewal system-wide. ;)
dreamy solstice
well
I now cant say I havent experienced a part unplugging itself from a computer's mobo and it not be lying
I just had my macbook's wifi card come unplugged from the mobo
atleast it didnt damage anything
echo agate
Turning a dead Amazon Echo 1g into a not-dead speaker. It's an adventure so far 😊
The bottom two wires are for connecting a signal gen for testing
jaunty jetty
I'm thinking about making my encoder module a two piece PCB where they're attached at right angles so I can consolodate the area occupied into a smaller bounding area
jaunty jetty
This would have been a lot simpler if the pinouts of the end headers were less strictly defined, the one on the left matches the now standard hacker port cables, and the one on the right matches the encoder board
scooched it all in a bit, 0.2419 square inches, 1.2095$ from OSH
and it's reusable for any design that only needs 3ish exposed GPIO
jaunty jetty
the counterpart
this is the first board I've ever designed that doesn't have any ground
because I need that slot for the encoder to claw onto, there's almost 4mm between teh centerline on the header and the body of the encoder, with the PCB sitting at 1.6mm, I can actually fit the brain board between the header and the encoder, with right angle headers clipped near flush
jaunty jetty
3D mockup, occupies much less space
dusty citrus
Trellis M4 USB MIDI - Linux
$ aconnect -i
client 0: 'System' [type=kernel]
0 'Timer '
1 'Announce '
client 14: 'Midi Through' [type=kernel]
0 'Midi Through Port-0'
client 20: 'Adafruit Trellis M4' [type=kernel,card=1]
0 'Adafruit Trellis M4 MIDI 1'
Somehow my Linux desktop knows the trellis is trying real hard to be a MIDI thing.
DESCRIPTION
aconnect is a utility to connect and disconnect two existing ports on ALSA sequencer system.
ALSA is a 'sound daemon' running on a Linux machine.
It does this and your ears hear that. ;)
Now I have MIDI stuff reported but I don't hear it at all.
aconnect utility session log
holicau it works
$ cat play_music_using_trellis_m4.sh
#!/bin/sh
echo dont forget to do this:
echo aconnect 20:0 128:0 ; aconnect -i # for your hardware
echo do that after you do what is in this very script
fluidsynth /usr/share/sounds/sf2/FluidR3_GM.sf2 -p alsa_seq -a pulseaudio -g 4
(the aconnect business happens in another xterm, and is automatically undone when you quit fluidsynth -- it needs to be done each time fluidsynth is started)
$ apt-cache search aconnect
aconnectgui - graphical ALSA sequencer connection manager
alsa-utils - Utilities for configuring and using ALSA```
```bash
$ cat /var/lib/dpkg/info/alsa-utils.list | egrep aconnect
/usr/bin/aconnect
/usr/share/man/man1/aconnect.1.gz
3 12 20 15 8
That sound good on a piano voice, either chorded or as an arpeggio.
22 24 20 8 15 CE3K
20 22 18 6 13 CE3K also
late fulcrum
@dusty citrus When you hear someone say they "jot" something down, they're indirectly referring to iota. 😃
dreamy solstice
would registered ecc ram work in a non ecc mobo?
echo agate
If the board is non-ECC, it probably can't use registered memory either.
dreamy solstice
so if I want to use the ecc ram, I'll have to get a server mobo?
jaunty jetty
Yep
main kiln
So I got the XD75 Massdrop yesterday, and holy moly it has been a day
It's not just a rehash of the KBD75, it's an entirely different key array, and uses a different port configuration, so flashing any standard xd75 arrangement will almost brick the keyboard
But within 24 hours, 5 people figured out the keyboard layout, so it finally works.
But the PCB is hardly supported by the chassis, there are 8 RGB LEDs that no one expected to be on the PCB, so an entirely enclosed, aluminum, case has internal RGB lighting for some reason
And the keycap set shipped with it was designed around the older Khalil switch stem, so they barely fit, and came with keys that couldn't possibly fit in a thousand years
It's been such a rollercoaster of a keyboard drop, and the drama is only getting spicier.
dusty citrus
I have to have a double-width ENTER key and both SHIFT keys have to be double-width (I don't need the extra L shape on an ENTER key). Backspace also has to be oversized. The other deviations don't matter to me very much, as they're used infrequently enough that I don't touch type all of them, anyway.
Once my eyes leave the computer screen, it's already .. ahem .. game over. ;)
This keyboard I use has a single-width right-side SHIFT key and causes me no end of trouble for it.
(Logitech K410)
jaunty jetty
somewhere in my neighborhood there is a battery operated electrical device indicating every two minutes that it's battery needs to be replaced, via a loud piezo chirp
dreamy solstice
all it does is deplete it's battery then scream out into space that it needs a new battery?
or it's low battery indicator is a piezo chirp?
jaunty jetty
the second one
I'm going to guess it's a smoke detector in the hallway, so there's probably a few weeks of battery left, and they're sacrificing one in order to get the battery replaced
dusty citrus
Cold weather can push a battery over the limit - I've had a chirp go off when a basement got cold, and (I think) stop going off by itself, once the basement warmed up a bit.
9v king and crown head battery
vernal gale
funny coincidence, my UPS died today
karmic kite
A lot of devices I'm installing have a temp sensor on the battery, so they won't operate fully until the battery warms up. Really annoying having to wait to open the vault on a drop compartment for the electronics to warm up
in other news. thought two 9v batteries were dead this aft and threw them in my pocket to dispose of until I realize my pockets were getting warm. keys/tools in each pocket must have shorted them out. made for nice little pocket warmers 2/10 would not recommend
karmic kite
I see the point and I've corrected others about topic discussion in general or project help. how far do we deviant in #general-tech
dusty citrus
I'm trying real hard so I editorialize simply by recognizing my own topicality issue. ;)
(which is vast)
hehe
There has to be a very good reason why people are so resistant to simply moving to another channel.
karmic kite
The different channel ideas are great and I can see the seperation of topic but to switch channels always seems to kill the conversation
dusty citrus
Right but that's all human psychology. The lack of an internet to converse on would impede; a very difficult procedure to channel switch would also impede.
People don't want to hang up the telephone because continuance is so hard to obtain.
(but there's no tech barrier; just human behavioral barriers)
karmic kite
one click which to switch to this program I have to do anyways
dusty citrus
A pocket version may make it a lot more challenging to context switch.
hahaha. 🤣
I'm still on a caffeine regimen at the moment.
karmic kite
this is valid. I dislike the discord app
dusty citrus
The point of fact is that #general-tech isn't that general -- it's not a chatroom.
karmic kite
daily clock: caffiene>tea>distilled/brewed
dusty citrus
I believe the idea is to create a space in which conversations happen, biased strongly towards the newcomer who isn't having success getting something they bought at Adafruit, running properly.
Rather than speculation on whether/if we should be 'redesigning monkeys to be cyborgs' or not. ;)
karmic kite
(the answer is obviously yes)
dusty citrus
I also take a conversation to #general-tech when #help-with-projects is already moving fast -- allows a second visual space for a detailed troubleshooting conversation with the newcomer.
Interleaved troubleshooting conversations are very trying.
karmic kite
I can appreciate the newcomer space
as well as excessive tagging
but you don't want to always take things to a pm either
dusty citrus
I try to use syntax that won't trigger a @foobar_ tag
karmic kite
-+
dusty citrus
I won't PM (except with staff) because people misbehave in PM's.
karmic kite
dyno doesnt run in pm's 😛
dusty citrus
hahaah.
I was alwasy big on PM's in the past (a decade or so ago).
Now I never use them.
(well almost never)
I was telling staff that to resolve conflict here, voice channel is the best solution (where available).
When somebody's obviously going to behave nicely PM is not a problem for me at all.
dusty citrus
Hehe screen cast!
I used to 'voice' a lot (long phone conversations way beyond procedural) and noticed the longer it went on, the less anyone was listening .. very much like chatroom/IRC type 'lurking'.
karmic kite
I mean even among close friends the lurking tends to happen, but the option to talk is there
dusty citrus
Long time ago (way long time ago) I wanted to institute an 'Internet Doorbell' where someone pings your advertized IP address and it rings your virtual doorbell.
karmic kite
ie; all gaming and sometimes someone will suggest a group game which we do then go back to our seperate games but still in call
dusty citrus
There would be a follow-up channel (purpose was to get your attention as quickly as ringing your real house's doorbell would).
karmic kite
... I could get behind that
dusty citrus
My nephews (mid 20's in age) use a lot of headset based comms.
I assume it has some bearing on playing long games online interactively.
karmic kite
well more indie games, an hour or two at most for us.
Which is also interesting, one of the people is in the same house as I, but its a silence over the mic at tiems
dusty citrus
When I had my old IBM keyboard, it was loud enough that at 3 a.m. an overnight cough companion complained it was too loud. When I was alone this didn't figure in my thinking at all, but it's not totally silent.
Still, a world more silent than any speech acts on my part (I have a strong voice and it'd be impossible to modulate it lower in amplitude for domestic privacy concerns).
karmic kite
yea mechanical keybaords are not silent by any means
karmic kite
I just grabbed a few neat ones from ATMs with a roller ball similar to older laptops in the middle of the keypad
kinda thinking theyll be usefull
dusty citrus
Radio Shack had a generic keyboard in their cast-off bin at the back of the store, maybe 1975 or so.
I wanted it but I'd have had to sacrifice a lot of small parts' budget to have it, so I never went for it.
Probably just a matrix with no diodes, electrically.
I have a really nice hexadecimal pad with good action, from a ham flea market.
The kind of thing you wouldn't mind entering an entire program, using. ;)
karmic kite
I should fully tear apart a key board one day to understand them
late fulcrum
When I'm talking to people I want to talk to, I use my nice headset. When I'm talking to scammers that call on the phone, I put 'em on speakerphone while I'm using my Tactile Pro keyboard at full speed. Rattattatta!
dusty citrus
I want to find a cheap telephone bridge chip to pipe sound effects into the phone line, to razz telemarketers.
(pre-recorded message selling them something, back)
late fulcrum
I was going to use my Phlink to do exactly that, but it's no longer supported, so I'm thinking of using an old ZyXEL modem with sound playback capabilities.
dusty citrus
aha!
I think there were/are chips with a registered FCC ID and REN you can buy from places like DigiKey.
a 1200 ohm audio transformer winding will hold the telephone line open (off hook)
I still don't know how I got away with doing so, since there's 48VDC (iirc) across Tip and Ring.
late fulcrum
I should see if there are CELP and/or ADPCM encoders available, but if not, I think the modem itself can do the encoding for me.
dusty citrus
Hayes Smartmodem for 300 BPS had instrux in the back of the manual to interface to a ham rig for packet radio use.
late fulcrum
It can also interpret touch tones, so I could implement an evil automated attendant that repeatedly says "please listen to all options, as options have recently changed", then give ten random three-word options. Pressing any key gives ten more randomly generated options. Heh heh heh.
dusty citrus
oh that's funny. great idea!
late fulcrum
I actually have an ancient Kantronix packet modem lying around somewhere. Haven't used that thing in a long time.
dusty citrus
Yeah the 'KAM' I think it was called.
I can't get JohnPark_'s sixteen step machine to do anything at all
late fulcrum
I think mine's a KAM-2 or KAM-3. Later than that one, but hardly current technology!
karmic kite
I like to go james veitch on telemarketers. very entertaining
altough it wastes time
late fulcrum
Wasting their time is a service to everybody.
dusty citrus
late fulcrum
I don't know how much help I'd be, I don't have a Trellis, although I have several M4 boards.
dusty citrus
For a long time I answered the phone with a special desk phone that had its microphone element removed (unscrew standard mouthpiece, remove biscuit).
bodger: I'm still trying to figure out what to expect from that program, just by reading the code. ;)
The JPG indicates what it's all for.
late fulcrum
Looks like it can record and playback sequences of things. The timer code reminds me of my M4-based signal generator, which in turn was based on the Tone code.
Makes me wonder if I could build a mod player out of an M4.
dusty citrus
The Audio lib is the key (paul stoffregen's lib)
late fulcrum
That library is amazing. I've used it with the Teensy for years. Has it been ported to M4?
late fulcrum
Cool!
dusty citrus
The program can't find the accelerometer.
says to check your connections in the source code. ;)
late fulcrum
Hmm, run an I2C (or whatever) scanner?
dusty citrus
I'm going with programmer error here. ;)
late fulcrum
Yeah, could be, but in any case, my usual approach to narrow these things down is "divide and conquer".
dusty citrus
alright colin seems to have added MIDI out
So I'm probably in midi out and dont know it? ;)
no that's the arpeggiator.
visual jewel
@late fulcrum I still own a Kantronics KPC-3...
@dusty citrus The phone line has a 600 Ohms impedance. Find one, AC couple it with 250V caps and play what you want on the secondary. Not the exact FCC approved circuit, but it is close.
Just note that Ring voltage can reach 80V+, make sure you use proper isolation!
Of course, I meant 600 ohms TRANSFORMER..
dusty citrus
Right.
We were doing that in 1977. ;)
I had some doco from the University of Wisconsin (extension) on the subject, at that time.
bodger: there was no Serial.begin() but there were Serial.println(foo) so.. not ready for prime time, yet.
Good thing I got my Forth running the day I got this thing, to keep me happy. ;)
They push out a lot of code and product, so no real complaints. Just expectation-adjustments.
still the best rodeo in eight counties
spice moss
this might give you spoiler warning but there was led like neopixel on this device outer ring and trinket like bord on bottom http://www.doctorwhoitalianfanclub.it/wp-content/uploads/2018/11/DrLTRZbWwAAIm-o.jpg
grave crest
Well, it is common knowledge that The Doctor was the one who created NeoPixels.
karmic kite
I've been programming for 10 years now.. and helloworld is still cool on new tech
dusty citrus
I really wish they hadn't squandered the namespace taken up with the Hello World meme. There were so many other choice phrases to have gone with. ;)
Take me to your leader was always fun.
karmic kite
wumpus was another classic
dusty citrus
Manufacturers used to have pride, and document things.
It was one of the ways you could tell you were dealing with a quality vendor.
Lotus 1-2-3 came with an impressive binder that held the documentation. It was printed on thick, glossy stock and there were tables and diagrams.
They really wanted you to benefit from it.
visual jewel
That might be one reason I love to read manuals. I find it sad to spend hundreds or thousands of dollars and not get a good manual, or no manual at all. There is so much to learn!
As a corporation with lawyers and IP and other liabilities, the less you say, the better are your chances of not losing in court. If it's in the manual, it becomes a promise, a garantee, a liability, etc. Sad!
I know John Deere still makes great manuals
dusty citrus
Oh yeah I see your point very well now.
How dreadful. ;)
They should reverse that and sue for failure to provide adequate instructions.
"I had no idea you couldn't lean over the paper shredder while wearing a necktie"
visual jewel
And in some nearly-monopolistic areas, voting with your money is kinda moot. You have one, two, three choices? Money is not enough leverage.
The Right to Repair movement is a part of this
dusty citrus
Well like with WiFi I vote with my wallet by using nothing newly offered, since there's no solution that is satisfactory to me.
When my TV broke down for no reason (bad firmware) the punishment was 5 years against the industry: no TV for five full years (none; nada).
visual jewel
Louis Rossman vs Apple anyone? If a hardware/software company can brick your paid-for device because you put in a 3rd-party part, what do you do?
dusty citrus
You stop buying and tell others to stop buying.
It's called a boycott.
The real problem is that the public does not act as if it thinks things through, in (say) 70 percent of the population.
visual jewel
At least, for WiFi, you can get Business-class devices. You get proper support. Forget the Big box stores, they sell one-shot deals.
Yeah, people have learned NOT to think
dusty citrus
I did use DD-WRT to upgrade my router, shortly after the problem last October (2017) and Linux (of course) updated wpa-supplicant.
But my handheld devices would not see an upgrade.
The public schools can be helpful in teaching people to think, young.
According to Gatto, that's not what the schools are for, nor what happens in them.
http://johntaylorgatto.com
throw in some noam chomsky and I think a clear picture emerges.
visual jewel
I stopped using DD-WRT last year. It's getting too complicated for me, you must read pages of Forum posts just to know if the latest Build is stable or not. Dev is spread on too many devices.
Schools are there to produce a workforce
dusty citrus
That link used to point to a free copy of his book ;)
visual jewel
Workforce pays taxes
dusty citrus
yeah you got that right.
I'm glad I'm 58 and not 18 or 28 years old. ;)
I don't want to see what's coming.
visual jewel
I'm still too young at 43... But everytime I see a kid, all I can think of is his future enslaving and suffering
dusty citrus
If you have good health you're likely to see some fairly dreadful things, at 43 now.
visual jewel
Capitalism can work only as long as there is something to exploit. Otherwise, it will fail.
dusty citrus
OTOH in the year 1666 Isaac Newton stayed in London while the plague (black death) was raging there; they thought it was the end of the world, kind-of.
visual jewel
Yeah, my mind is already struggling with all I learned about humans, society, capitalism and the most important, out planet...
dusty citrus
The number of victims claimed by the plague was absolutely off the scale.
visual jewel
1984 anyone?
Orwell wrote a book to warn people, yet some must have used it as a guide to domination...
dusty citrus
People can take hold and use the political system -- that's essentially a software issue.
But how do you reboot the polluted and globally warmed Earth?
Everything can be weaponized, pretty much. Microcontroller projects help to bring about Universal Surveillance and imprisonment. ;)
visual jewel
I can deal with corrupt people if my survival is possible. But if I can't breathe, that's gonna be my priority!
dusty citrus
fwiw I thought it would be much worse when I turned 58 than it is. Lots worse.
(the world and our situation in it)
visual jewel
One way to keep control of people, keep them under stress. Survival will always be the priority, and they will leave you alone.
dusty citrus
hierarchy of need dotcom
visual jewel
yup! You won't learn that in school!
dusty citrus
I'll call myself offtopic even for #general-chat at this point, but I hear you. I hear you. ;)
visual jewel
Yeah, me too! DHS will start tracking me, I guess 😋
dusty citrus
I'm just thinking about what I've heard the people say who run this place wrt politics and such.
Not what we're here for.
visual jewel
The good news in all that, is what my horse taught me about real life
dusty citrus
did he .. did he stamp it out using his hoof?
(starting with enumeration of the primes?)
visual jewel
I never thought I could learn so much from a non-talking creature, but her silence was life-changing!
dusty citrus
:🍿:
visual jewel
I learned a lot about priorities, from the point of view of Life
dusty citrus
the cheval is clearly an intelligent species
visual jewel
All the universe is connected at a subatomic level. Heck, there even is communication involved according to theories!
dusty citrus
“Learning French is trivial: the word for horse is cheval, and everything else follows in the same way.”
visual jewel
Certainement! Ma belle licorne Magic est un merveilleux cheval magique 😉
dusty citrus
I kinda figured with the VE2 callsign there was some chance you'd have a thing or two to say en francais
visual jewel
Now, I've taken Arduinos. Something new to thinker with
Yeah, I know that by using my callsign, there is no chance in being anonymous!
That's kinda the point<
dusty citrus
mine's in my micro-bio here.
what I don't like is other hams announcing specifics about my callsign's indication (location, primarily) on the air, for no reason whatsoever.
visual jewel
I guess I'll have to touch that one day
dusty citrus
It's happened.
I mean if the public cannot put two and two together, why help them do so only to invade someone's privacy?
(you can do the same thing with the voter's list)
I'm not worried (at all) about other hams showing up unannounced at my QTH. That's happened, too!
visual jewel
the majority always pays for the mistakes of a few...
I kinda strong-replied to a ham who cold-emailed me in the '90s... SPAM-like response... Oops, I messed up, won't do it again, promissed!
Right now, I'm working at a fireplace monitor linked over 900MHz to a remote console... Ham radio roots showing
dusty citrus
The hams around here are either CB radio ops who decided to get their ham ticket, or clique members -- not a lot of in-between for the social (non-DXing, non-tech) aspects. Repeaters are kind of dead; not much after work commute voice traffic on them anymore (though it's been a few years since I monitored much).
Traffic nets are in disarray.
It's a different hobby now.
another .. what .. 20 years without sufficient participation by folks now in their teens, 20's and 30's .. the spectrum won't be protected from being auctioned off by the FCC in the United States, to commercial uses.
It would be a good idea to get people licensed and using the frequencies available.
visual jewel
I'm guilty, I don't have a working shack since 2010...
dusty citrus
haha.
I've been meaning to do some QRP CW work on 40 meters.
Somehow it gets pushed back.
visual jewel
I still have two handhelds, no power supply, no expernal antennas, and the battery packs must be dead by now...
dreamy solstice
huh, someone else who shares my view that this planet sucks and is only slowly getting worse.
cool
visual jewel
I meant to learn CW, but stopped when I realized I was remembering the letter's location on the keyboard instead of the letter...
dusty citrus
I have had excellent results on HF with the Buddipole. Worked the Ukraine (from Connecticut USA, 73W41N) on 25 watts SSB from an antenna in the attic (when propagation was booming).
dusty citrus
The off-center fed arrangement of the Buddipole works really well for low-altitude (<8 meters above earth) dipole antennas. Matches impedance much better.
visual jewel
I remember listening to the Woodpecker OTH Russian radar... Those where the good times!
dusty citrus
I can generally get a 1.2:1 Standing Wave Ratio (SWR) with the Buddipole, just by adjusting the telescoping whips.
visual jewel
My ARRL antenna book is a bit far right now, do you have a pic?
dusty citrus
It's about 300 dollars worth of antenna, but it's for a backpacker's use especially, which was what I had in mind at the time.
It's easy to copy but they already make and vend them. ;)
I would say it's a bit pricey, but this was my one splurge on antenna hardware.
I also ran a Ringo Ranger for 2 meter FM, but that was a while back. A commercial antenna (very nice).
visual jewel
Quite interesting! It would go nicely with my future Nooelec NESDR SMArt!
I still have my Comet 2X4Max in the basement... I think it's the name... not too sure
dusty citrus
Buddipole performs quite well - I'm confused as to why, since I've never tried something similar enough to compare with. Dipoles almost count, except they are hard to adjust in length (shortening is generally the only adjustment possible to the leg of a dipole antenna.
Moving the feed point off center, and center-support are two key features of a buddipole-like antenna system.
I think thick radiators are also interesting. Telescoping whips work very well indoors.
visual jewel
One thing is certain, antenna tech has evolved. I wonder why we never hear about fractal antennas, designed by a ham and used in other fields
Like stubby car FM antennas
dusty citrus
I've known a few intuitive antenna experimenters working with very low budgets who did well. ;)
I once set up a Yagi using clothesline indoors, and hanging reflectors from it (simple tuned lengths of wire, passively coupled with no physical connections).
Enhanced reception for NOAA weather radio reception, which is marginal here. ;)
somewhere near 165 MHz iirc.
Also there were/are radio beacons in orbital space that can be heard below 180 MHz (typically provided for by VHF transceivers that operate in narrow bands for transmission, but more open for reception).
Hearing a space vehicle that only can be heard when it is overhead confirms the space program's achievements, quite personally. Never again can the conspiracy theorists gain ground there, with me. ;)
Between Ham Radio, Linux and Adafruit-style microcontroller cultures, one can be kept busy without a whole lot of funds to work with. ;)
visual jewel
Celestrak... Thanks again to T.S. Kelso! that is the place for sat tracking!
I used to use STS-Orbit plus for Shuttle flights
I can't believe it! There's a mirror of it!!!
I was so sad when my links failed last time I checked!!!
dusty citrus
just created right now (a moment ago)
I did not have DOSEMU or STSPLUS, ten minutes ago. Think-and-do!
(linux here)
exitemu at the C:> prompt to end the session, btw.
https://www.celestrak.com/software/dransom/sop0223.exe was used for the above.
from linux point of view
dusty citrus
ISS - 'World' view (near-sinusoidal orbital graphing)
ENTER F10 F6 F6 F6 ENTER ENTER to start at the map view and end back at the map view, with a change to that view. F6 is a four-toggle.
QUAD projection
visual jewel
@dusty citrus 😂 I had planned to use DOSbox in Windows
SOP had all you needed, in a clear UI.
Nothing bloating
Sad, the author deceased in 2006
grave crest
Totally random question -- anyone know where I could get a "left handed yardstick"? Essentially it's a yardstick that counts upwards right to left -- backwards to what we normally have which counts upwards left to right.
I could always turn a regular yardstick around, but this use case, the person would rather not be reading upside down print.
Doesn't need to be high quality, and material doesn't matter. I could make one, but that's a pain I'd rather avoid.
jaunty jetty
you could get it lasercut
if you know someone with a big router table that could work too
engrave the top, cut out the profile, then follow the engraving path manually with a sharpie or paint pen
karmic kite
^ had the exact same thought as he started saying that. did it with protractors as I needed reverse angles often
late fulcrum
Or just chuck a pen into your CNC and draw it directly.
jaunty jetty
in my experience pens don't tend to be that deterministic, and you'd need a spring jig to apply consistent downforce to an inconsistent surface height
it's worth building the jig
it's easier to draw on a flat surface, so if this doesn't need to be durable you could sharpie all the markings and cut out the stick without engraving, that would be more reliable than having the CNC we don't know exists follow the engraving details
soft thicket
@stuck moth Enjoying Fallout 76?
main kiln
@jaunty jetty Or just use a fountain pen.
stuck moth
@soft thicket yup! Its fun as long as you keep moving through the world. some of the events can be a bit long
soft thicket
@stuck moth I've felt about the same with the bit that I've played of 76
stuck moth
@soft thicket what platform are you playing on?
soft thicket
@stuck moth I play it on my pc!
soft thicket
I'm getting off work in just a bit. You wanna play in 40ish minutes @stuck moth ???
soft thicket
Well then. SOMEHOW Fallout76 uninstalled itself from my desktop
patent ibex
@stuck moth if u ever have a st7735r w/ an m4 and 5(ish) mins and are Just curious it 'should' be as simple as changing some pin defs.
stuck moth
@soft thicket I'm in seattle so can't play for a while
@patent ibex I'll reach out when I'm back on display work
patent ibex
👍
soft thicket
Thats fine. Im waiting for it to redownload. I have 30 more minutes left on it anyways
patent ibex
tnx
stuck moth
@soft thicket feel free to add me I have the same username
soft thicket
Alright!!!
soft thicket
I think I got you added @stuck moth It'll be from Azure_Empyrean
proven olive
@soft thicket There was a patch this morning
soft thicket
Yeah but it shouldnt have deleted my entire game....
proven olive
Which has a minor bug. Even though the patch is only 15gb, it says it wants 50
soft thicket
Ah
vernal gale
minor
proven olive
It doesn't actually take up 50gb, thankfully, but it SAYS it wants to
Also, @soft thicket and @stuck moth I'll be tossing you both friend invites. From, unsurprisingly, the username "andon"
soft thicket
Lol ok. Im on right now
proven olive
@soft thicket Says Bethesda.net account with the name Azure_Empyrean doesn't exist.
proven olive
That worked.
proven olive
47
soft thicket
oh dang
tame saddle
@sleek urchin The P2 is still alive!? yay!! Loved propeller...even though i always felt in over my head.
sleek urchin
yeah, they got their first batch of real engineering samples just now
so, I'd imagine barring any major errata that needs silicon fixes, Prop2 should be available from all fine silicon distributors sometime next year
dreamy solstice
so
the imac pro 2018 can do 11 teraflops(on it's most powerful configuration)
that makes my 70 gigaflop macbook look tiny
sleek urchin
quite a bit of that power is purely out of the GPU
no mobile GPU could ever hope to compete, let alone an integrated one
jaunty jetty
So, the 2017 macbook pro without touchbar has a battery of about 4.7Ah, and the iMac Pro with the most cores running flat out can consume up to 370 watts theoretically. That means the iMac Pro can do 11 teraflops for 🥁 🥁 🥁 45 seconds
These are very different devices and its useless to compare them unfairly
my E3-1230 blows the raspberry pi 3A+ out of the water
it also cost hundreds of dollars to use, surrounding components included, and consumes 90W at idle
jaunty jetty
@old fjord regarding your foot switch https://www.amazon.com/PageFlip-Firefly-Bluetooth-Turner-Pedal/dp/B00ILVHBKC
old fjord
Not sure how I feel about that
jaunty jetty
bluetooth MC + footswitches = foot macros for your phone
this one looks quite a bit better https://www.sweetwater.com/store/detail/PEDPro--airturn-pedpro-bluetooth-foot-controller
but you could still build it for like 30$
old fjord
@jaunty jetty hah I could built it for less than that
What? 2 $2 foot switches, some 3D printing material, ESP32, wiring...
jaunty jetty
20ish for bluetooth feather, battery, 2+ pedals, a box
old fjord
Meh ESP32 is $4 and does BLE and Bluetooth...MFI is a limitation kind of.
Well...MFI isn’t needed for Bluetooth HID is it?
old fjord
They hover around $4-5
Ones with oleds are more
The whole board
Not just the module
jaunty jetty
useable as in all the parts you need to plug it into a computer
old fjord
$4
jaunty jetty
4$, lithium controller's probably like 1~7$ depending on what you feel like, battery's probably minimum 3$ for something that won't burn your house down, what would be fun is to set it up with a bunch of 2.5mm mono sockets and put the foot switches on jacks, and just build it to support as many as the ESP32 can
buck each on digikey, I'mma bet fiddy cents on aliexp
jaunty jetty
stereo would let you put two switches on a socket
old fjord
jaunty jetty
looks good
jaunty jetty
how many eye bleed LEDs?
old fjord
none they're fine
jaunty jetty
1.30$ for this https://www.cui.com/product/resource/sj1-4253x-smt-series.pdf
specifically the 6 terminal model, SJ1-42536-SMT
you get 3 actual signal lines plus ground, and 2 port switches to detect what's plugged in so you can poll only what's needed
except there's 3 signal lines and 2 of them have detection
jaunty jetty
this seems like cheating
old fjord
I'm still a tad confused
jaunty jetty
aboot?
old fjord
I think you're talking about ports and I'm talking about ESP32s?
jaunty jetty
oh, the ESP32 has to connect to the footswitches, and if they're not a singular object like the products I linked to begin with, then it'd be best for the feetswitch to use a port, jacks like these would be ideal except that they're not cheap, more than a dollar each no matter which
old fjord
Oh well I was thinking of just printing a custom case and soldering all the stuff internally
jaunty jetty
that works, but the ESP32 has a fair number of pins, you could make a box that exposes all of those pins via 2.5mm jacks so you can plug in various switches and have that part serve multiple uses without modification
looks like the one you linked has over 20 pins
jaunty jetty
even with stereo jacks that's 10 sockets
jaunty jetty
the BLE spec doesn't currently support HIDs so you have to do it yourself
old fjord
I just want to say that I'm probably not going to make a page flip pedal
If I make anything at all I'll probably make it one pedal
jaunty jetty
you could use it to add a bunch of IoT switches for sensing a bunch of things close enough to wire them back to the plugbox, or just any time you wanted to add a bunch of switches to something
old fjord
oh..
Ok project idea
just going to make a switch box for my wifi lightbulb and smart plugs
with very nice switches
should've thought of this before...
jaunty jetty
ooo, and witha bunch of these you could use standard 2.5mm patch cables https://www.aliexpress.com/item/2-5mm-1-8-2-5-Audio-Mono-Plug-Audio-Connector-Adapter-2-5-audio-mono/32650497350.html
old fjord
oh i have many of those
jaunty jetty
a buck each is too much
old fjord
I got mine for less than 50 cents each
jaunty jetty
I need to own some wire with various quantities of wire inside the wire
jaunty jetty
do they click great?
jaunty jetty
like this, but not 16$ https://www.amazon.com/Gauge-Conductor-Solid-Security-white/dp/B00M89S026
I use dead USB cable a lot, but it's such small gauge
jaunty jetty
?
old fjord
Aliexpress
I just realized the metal buttons I bought have way more button than the adafruit versions
less rim
jaunty jetty
tried, Ali was all "Yea nope, we got dovetails, you want an ultrasonic thickness gauge? how about some pliers"
old fjord
what about ethernet wire?
jaunty jetty
8 conductors is too much to justify, and they're still pretty small gauge
4 conductors can be 3 switches or VCC, GND, SDA, SCL, or hard selected MOSI MISO, or RXTX, etc
old fjord
jaunty jetty
5 on it's own is applicable to far fewer situations than 4, 6 even fewer, I've never had a reason for 8
jaunty jetty
26AWG though
old fjord
the thing about Aliexpress is that the sellers are the manufacturers most of the time so when you shop inside their "store" they actually carry reasonable things. Not random crap like shady ebay stores with sellers who have no idea what they are doing.
so simply click on their store...and search 22awg yay
jaunty jetty
every time I searched for 22AWG I got "yea nope, how about some plates, maybe a live turkey?"
old fjord
well you see aliexpress shopping is an acquired skill
This seller is for sure the manufacturer so this is bottom of the barrel pricing
So how low gauge do you want?
jaunty jetty
22 is good
old fjord
I think I'd die before using 10m of that cable
jaunty jetty
this is the closest thing I've found to a good image of a AWG wire gauge, the measurement is the thin part of the gap not the circular hole https://www.picclickimg.com/d/w1600/pict/282984221950_/AWG-Wire-Gauge-Thickness-Measuring-Tool-Sheet-Metal.jpg
28 is real small, and 26 is still very small
old fjord
well I'm saving this store
I knew I'd find a cable store
for all my cable needs
wow nice
jaunty jetty
if you've got the budget, 2 conductor and 4 conductor will be well suited to the majority of stuff, #3 would be 18 or 20AWG 2 conductor for beefier power
how much for 0000?
old fjord
jaunty jetty
how am I going to run several houses on 0AWG
old fjord
dunno
maybe you need 000 awg
So just checking
Are you going to order 10 meters of 22awg multi core wire
this seller provides a handy graph as to why aliexpress is so much cheaper lol
dreamy solstice
how is my macbook able to connect to wifi networks without needing a password?
even on password protected networks?
cause I am at my grandmas, she has a password protected network, I went to go grab the password I had stored.. and it just.. connected in the meantime
didnt even ask for a password
it's actually a little concerning that it's able to connect to protected networks, bypassing the password
cause this is the second network it's done this on
strange fiber
Have you connected to the network on another device in your iCloud account?
Like if your iPhone connects to a network it can store the credentials in your iCloud Keychain I think.
So then your mac will automatically connect.
jaunty jetty
Also apple has a thing where your imessage friends can access that too
dusty citrus
I think the Audio lib provides for five or six samples at the same time, but it's a constant that could be changed depending on resources.
jaunty jetty
do you feel like the number 5 or 6 was decided based on reasons or just there needed to be a limit and it seemed reasonable?
dusty citrus
My wild guess is that it didn't sound acceptable when they tried 7. ;)
jaunty jetty
mmkay
so theoretically, to do 7 you'd probably want something either more powerful than an M4, or an M4 clocked higher?
I think the M4 spec calls out that it 'can' be clocked up to low 200MHz, 80~140MHz seem far more common probably because it gets substantially harder to make stable at higher clocks
dusty citrus
I don't know .. haven't studied Paul Stoffregen's Audio lib in much detail; just glanced through it.
I think 120 MHz is hyperbole. ;)
jaunty jetty
?
what was that X chip that's like 270MHz, 16 cores
XMOS XCore
not the 16 core version, but they go up to 32 cores https://www.digikey.com/product-detail/en/xmos/XS1-L4A-64-TQ48-C4/880-1065-ND/4004854
dusty citrus
I'm not sure I understand what I've read .. but .. sounds a lot like the crystal, when present, isn't being used (or at least, not to its full potential) on the target boards we work with.
That's probably not a problem for SAMD21 and is specific to SAMD51.
they're 32 kHz crystals, anyway.
jaunty jetty
every MCU I've looked deeply into, which does not include the xcore series, has the option to use an external oscillator, but also contains an integrated oscillator, usually about 2MHz
dusty citrus
Pretty sure we had an internal 27.5 MHz clock for C8051F330D.
jaunty jetty
if you were going to run a D51 at very high clock speeds, you'd probably want to provide a very high quality clock signal
dusty citrus
This guy Jake Read I sourced for some of my code seemed determined to go for the full 120 MHz on the D51.
Didn't sound easy to achieve.
jaunty jetty
isn't the M4 Feather clocked at 120MHz?
dusty citrus
I don't want to speak out of turn -- I Don't know for sure.
jaunty jetty
the M3 WICED feather is 160, but as we've covered before, it's a horse of a different quantity of limbs
dusty citrus
tetrapoda is fairly primitive at the root ;)
jaunty jetty
ATSAMD51 32-bit Cortex M4 core running at 120 MHz, 32-bit, 3.3V logic and power https://www.adafruit.com/product/3857
dusty citrus
I'm not going to comment on veracity here. ;)
jaunty jetty
it sure would be fun if XMOS chips were in a form and ecosystem where it was possible to make use of them https://www.xmos.com/developer/download/private/XS1-L4A-64-TQ48-Datasheet(1.3).pdf
dreamy solstice
@strange fiber yes I have
dusty citrus
There is code possible directing the output of a clock generator to a port pin where it can be measured directly, using an oscilloscope.
Not every target board supports this pinout -- only a few pins can do this.
jaunty jetty
say that again differently?
dusty citrus
You can prove the clock by sending it to a port pin and measure it.
I only have a 25 MHz scope so my readings were not conclusive.
jaunty jetty
I only have a 0Hz scope, so I'll rely on your readings
dusty citrus
haha.
jaunty jetty
however you could probably determine what clock speed it's configured for entirely by reading registers
and you could use known cycle length operations to create a software clock divider and use that to toggle a pin
dusty citrus
I'm far from convinced about various utterance wrt clock frequencies. Where are the photos of the oscilloscope measurements, and code used to generate them?
What are the practical, measured consequences of a 'faster' clock?
jaunty jetty
oh that one's easy
the performance of ARM cortex chips is measured in rating per MHz
3.40 coremark points per megahertz
dusty citrus
I would like to see indisputable evidence of higher clock frequency claims, made by anybody.
Evidence, not ad copy. My dad wrote ad copy for a living.
jaunty jetty
whether or not the clock speed is what they say, the performance you will recieve corelates strictly with clock speed, increasing clock speed will cause more operations to be completed in the same time in a deterministic fashion
dusty citrus
no doubt, but my own needs are meagre. I just need USB or the UART to be able to talk externally.
The 48 MHz figure shows up a lot, in code.
jaunty jetty
if we take the conservative route, for every 24MHz of clock speed the M4 can support 1 audio sample playback, ignoring the myriad of other factors that probably make clock speed irrelevant
that's with 5 and assuming 6 is not acceptable, the conservative route
so if it is running at 120, then 6 would be stable at 144, and 7 would be stable at 168MHz
dusty citrus
I only noticed something calling itself a 'mixer' which is kind of interesting to consider what that could be.
jaunty jetty
so what really interests me at this moment about the XCore processors is that they're sold as being highly suited for digital audio synthesis
XMOS's largest failure in the XCore series is not being willing to see alternate uses for 'low cost' extremely high performance highly parallel microcontrollers, so everything they've done and made in service of the XCore brand has been under the umbrella of DAS, which then made it very expensive
dusty citrus
Well, like, for example, I just read recently that the Raspberry Pi was considered 'fragile'.
Would you buy something considered fragile?
I think sales and marketing are orthogonal to objective fact and truth.
dusty citrus
If businesses were 'honest' the way I can be (not always) -- they wouldn
jaunty jetty
I would buy 2 of those things
dusty citrus
get the sales they needed, to stay in business.
jaunty jetty
but what I mean more than direct sales is eval/demo devices, that take engineering time and serve to present what you've done to an industry, and what XMOS did was these things https://www.digikey.com/products/en/development-boards-kits-programmers/evaluation-and-demonstration-boards-and-kits/787?FV=ffe00313&quantity=0&ColumnSort=1000011&page=1&k=XCore&pageSize=500
dusty citrus
So I dont' believe what I read. Never occured to me not to believe clock frequencies until I did some of my own work with them. I don't know what to believe, and I need equipment I do not own, to restore belief wrt attained clock frequencies. ;)
jaunty jetty
I'm willing to assume that each of these is real cool; but they're also hundreds of dollars and serve no purpose remotely in a field I have interest in
the XCore MCUs are on the order of 5~20$ each, they are not what makes any of these boards so expensive
dusty citrus
I've already said more than I believe is polite. ;)
jaunty jetty
you should, because I think you might enjoy it, design a board that uses high frequency clock dividers, to expand the range of your oscilliscope
and I mean clock dividers where it's flipping a bit back and forth to make a lower frequency, not the ones where it's somehow generating a faster clock
dusty citrus
The factors that drive my continued use of adafruit M0 and M4 boards are the external SPI flashROM, internal flash and sdram of the chips, existing cultural support (arduino, make code, circuitpython, firmata, others).
It more than meets my needs, and if I need something specific, it's probably got an Arduino IDE driver for it.
jaunty jetty
definitely the thing stopping me from seriously looking into putting an XCore chip on a board is software support
dusty citrus
that is a very good reason to pause
jaunty jetty
I don't know how you program them, but it's not Arduino IDE, and it's not circuitpython, and Adafruit to my knowledge is not embarking on the considerable voyage to correct that
I don't even like python but I'd learn it for them 16 cores
dusty citrus
I don't have a crystal ball, but I would suggest that the fact that the SAMD51 was very similar to SAMD21 made it possible to consider the newer chip in production design.
jaunty jetty
you don't need a silicon boule to determine that
dusty citrus
There is a lot of code reuse between those two.
jaunty jetty
similarity is a marketing point on all of the M series cortices
dusty citrus
Well, the Grand Central demonstrates some willingness towards greater variety.
jaunty jetty
near the top of the D21 datasheet I think it even calls in that it's a "drop in replacement for the D20"
dusty citrus
I was quite content with 8051 development, except for the small flashROM found onboard.
PIC and AVR people similarly are still fairly happy with those platforms and are amazingly resistant to more recent vendor offerings.
jaunty jetty
cost matters, and it's really tough to kill an AVR
tangently relevant https://youtu.be/FdS3tjEIqUA
dusty citrus
I bought a few tubes of C8051F330D right after I redeveloped an existing bootloader to run on it.
(very minor edit but quite a challenge to me)
jaunty jetty
apple recently made a silent design revision to their most expensive laptops to make fixing this fault prone keyboard they refuse to stop using much less expensive
instead of the batteries being glued directly to the back of the keyboard, so that the unit cost 700$ to replace, now the batteries are stuck on with command strips
dusty citrus
I had an iMac G4 in 2002 and had no interest in remaining an apple user afterwards.
jaunty jetty
was G4 the last powerPC or the first Intel?
dusty citrus
I put linux on it about 8 months after I bought it (new).
It was def. powerpc.
The only thing I found very useful to me was the font engine in Mac OS X (audio was very nice but not useful to me; a very fun toy, though)
TDA2003 iirc in that thing. Nice audio chip.
jaunty jetty
I would say at this point, if you get the chance to have a 2018 Mac Mini, they can do some neat stuff when they don't feel like being annoying
*points at keyboard, points at touchbar, points at slippery iphones, points at notch, points at battery life
dusty citrus
slippery handhelds is an unpardonable sin ;)
jaunty jetty
*points at dongletown
jaunty jetty
so, for a long time after Apple put out the 20...15? macbook pro, the one with just 2 USB C ports, the only way to connect to gigabit ethernet was to get a thunderbolt 3 to thunderbolt 2 dongle and connect the Ethernet to Thunderbolt 2 dongle
dusty citrus
I think the entire point of smartphones is pacification of the populace.
People are so worried about if they got dissed on Facebook that they don't have time (mentally) to look for trouble in their immediate environment.
visual jewel
They are useful tools, but very misused
jaunty jetty
visual jewel
Facebook is mere entertainment for me, and then only if I have nothing better to do. With all the privacy issues of social networking nets, the less the better
dusty citrus
got dongle?
visual jewel
And for Apple, yeah, their target seems only to be different... Design first, functionnality later
jaunty jetty
in the Apple podcasting community, needing to figure out a series of dongles to let you connect the things you need has become known as taking a trip to dongletown
jaunty jetty
problem #1, the thunderbolt port is the port you can charge the laptop with, so you need a dongle that lets you connect stuff and a charger
visual jewel
I'm against the 3.5mm stereo plug removal for stereo sound on iPhones... Come on, there is no real audio separation !!!
jaunty jetty
that wasn't for stereo sound, that was because Tim is obcessed with minimalism
visual jewel
I always noticed there is pretty much nothing connected to Apple devices on Ads...
jaunty jetty
on the ipad pro it's because it wouldn't fit and they didn't want to make it thicker; there's various reasons that I'm willing to accept for why it shouldn't be thicker
visual jewel
As soon as you put them in real scenarios, it becomes ugly
jaunty jetty
on the iphone the only legitimate reason is water resistance, I think they're water proof to an extent now, but I don't believe that was a driving concern, it's a backsplaination
visual jewel
I feel my 6s is too thin to hold nicely in hand...
jaunty jetty
put a case on it
jaunty jetty
there's been a theory going around for a lot of years now that the goal is to get the iphone to a place where it is so unimposing that you can add stuff onto it to get the personalized iphone experience you desire; and the ipad prop plus the iphone X's make me think this has gone from a fan theory to an actual decision process within Apple
for instance the camera bumps, that are entirely negated by putting a case on it
visual jewel
So the design should switch to better dongles now? 😂
visual jewel
Oh, Now I get it... they come with a minimal frame, so you add what you need case-wise...
jaunty jetty
you can get a super durable case, you can get a super pretty case, you can get a case with battery in it, with lenses, with a stand, with a speaker, with your credit cards, with a gameboy
if that's the design goal, then the phone being slippery doesn't matter because nobody is actually going to touch it
visual jewel
That part is actually something I do enjoy!
We must admit, however, there is a lot of marketing gimmicks in electronics now...
jaunty jetty
what if I told you that there's a case with another case on the back so you can phone while you phone
visual jewel
There are a LOT of wierd or stupid cases...
jaunty jetty
oh yea, robots got into it, and they made it weird
visual jewel
Anyway, "Smart" phones are just computers with a phone dongle built-in 😉
Yet, people treat them as appliances... Nope, you need to think of them as computers security-wise 😃
jaunty jetty
you will never understand how much I yearn for the future where the concept of phone service gets fully liquidated into data, and SMSs die, and people stop having phone numbers, because they're all just on google or skype or facebook or discord or etc
visual jewel
That is clearly the future!
I'm currently subscribed to TVoIP, VoIP and internet from the same provider... Fiber all the way...
jaunty jetty
9/5 calls I recieve are robodialers
visual jewel
I have to admit the phone is not for me, it's for the parents when they come around... Plus it was cheaper as a triple-play bundle. I only use my mobile!
Wich btw is VoIP when connected to WiFi :-p
pine cloak
grave crest
You know, I have to concur @pine cloak -- the only way I can read it is if I get very close to the screen, far closer than the normal focusing distance of the other text. I can only imagine how red-blue colorblind folks feel....
Rods and cones I suspect are fault here. Silly human biology, if we only had robot eyes 
I suggest emailing support@adafruit.com with the link to this design element.
stray wind
I'm not sure there's a way to make the link not blue without making it not a link.
visual jewel
Sure you can... You can specify all colors as you want in many ways. Is the system adafruit uses flexible enough, that I can't say. But the color choice is not the best, agreed!
karmic kite
a:link{
color: green;
}
jaunty jetty
mid dark red is a troublesome color in general, white is one of a few colors that's legible on it
obvs can't do red, blue as you can see is weird, green will be too, black is low contrast, yellow would probably work
designing for vision accessibility takes nuance and concern
grave crest
Agreed @jaunty jetty -- it wasn't until I had a chance to speak with some console game developers that I realized just how challenging it is to create a friendly interface to all the different forms of colorblindness.
...in fact, it wasn't until that conversation when I realized there were multiple forms of colorblindness.
It's something that sadly, I never thought about before.
stray wind
I'm well aware of it because I put some serious effort into researching it before making wiring diagrams.
I have a bookmark somewhere that shows what colors look like to all of the different colorblindness types. Though I know now without checking which colors to use together and what not to.
jaunty jetty
although this is just straight color, in design you also get to work with saturation and luminosity
and if you're designing for screens, you get to deal with the difference between light that monitors can make
vs the light that our eyes respond to
when you look at a yellow flower, that flower is reflecting frequencies near 550nm, which then interact with both your red and green cones.
When you look at a yellow flower on a screen, it cannot produce 550nm, it in fact can only produce 3 frequencies at all (on most screens)
visual jewel
It also means that what we see is not what other animals see...
I remember Photoshop has a mode to check out your images in other peoples color vision
dreamy solstice
will a RAM upgrade from 8 to 16gb actually make any difference on my Macbook?
dreamy solstice
mostly light gaming, graphics design, internet stuff, discord, and media
karmic kite
maybe for large graphics, but unless you have large render times not really
dreamy solstice
I really only do 2048x2048 resolution at max
but ok
I'll go with just an upgrade to replace the hdd with an ssd
karmic kite
that's a better option for sure
real anvil
yeah if you want it faster, SSD is what you need
karmic kite
I'm doing image processing with an I7-8700 , nvme drive, 8gb of ram, my bottle neck is definitely cpu
dreamy solstice
thank God I have one of the older actually user servicable macs....
real anvil
is it the original HDD?
dreamy solstice
no
karmic kite
everythings user serviceable if your not worries about warranty 😛
dreamy solstice
I had to replace it's hdd and trackpad
I got the macbook 2 weeks ago from a friend,
they didnt want it anymore
it was broken
it found a new home with me,
I fixed it up
it's a maxed out late 2011 model
atleast.. I think it is
quad core 8 thread 2.3-3.6 ghz core i7,
8gb of ram
1gb of vram (amd radeon 6470)
real anvil
it's not maxed out if you can put more RAM in it :p
dreamy solstice
I meant more, maxed out from what apple would have sold
I know the older models werent maxed out, even on max offered configuration
adding some wiggle room for upgradeability
real anvil
ah
real anvil
honestly I don't remember back that far 🤣
dreamy solstice
2nd gen intel cpus were pga?
I dont remember there being and BGA 2nd gen intel cpus
real anvil
haha well apple gets whatever package they want.... 🤣
dreamy solstice
true
and I'm surprised steve jobs didnt come back to life and break down my door the moment I removed the first screw from that mac's case
woulda had to have warded him off with PCs
he would have broken the door down though
he hates windows
real anvil
nah, the old ones were somewhat user-serviceable. the new models....forget it. not unless you have a microscope, a hot air station, and are willing to do some soldering... 😆
dusty citrus
I'm glad I'm not wasting my time by having avoided Applefoo. ;)
If I wanted extra work I'd run gentoo. ;)
real anvil
I use a combination of windoze, macOS, and linux both at home and at work. none of them are perfect 🤷 😏
dusty citrus
FWIW this Dell Optiplex is a bit too condensed in form factor to fool with much - but it was only 80 bux used, from a ham flea market.
dusty citrus
I used to buy a new Dell every 3-5 years but they pulled my credit account for lack of use in-between.
So now it's flea markets. ;)
dreamy solstice
my server runs win server 2008
real anvil
time to update! 2016 man! 😛
real anvil
eh. you get used to the 10 UI. it's fine. yeah, it's a transition and yeah, M$ changes stuff to change stuff but it works fine 😄
iirc windoze 7 is EOL anyway
dreamy solstice
not until the early 2020s
real anvil
it's in extended support. meaning (more or less) critical "omg the OS is severely broken" updates/patches only.
real anvil
haha fair.
real anvil
I agree, but I wouldn't call windoze 7 "retro" 😛
you want retro, run 3.11 😆
or an old version of NeXT
dreamy solstice
if I want retro, I go to ebay and buy a c64
dreamy solstice
the oldest device I have is a 1989 gameboy..
jaunty jetty
I bet a cartridge could be made that would run windows 3.11 on a nintendo 64
fun fact, windows 3.11 came before windows 3.2, which only released in China to fix problems with the Chinese Language support
visual jewel
Windows 3.11 for workgroups! Now with (some) 16bit support! 😂
dreamy solstice
spice moss
jaunty jetty
Boston Dynamics needs to build a car sized ridable robot that's like the Mule family of robots, but with 30 legs coating the bottom of it
late fulcrum
Strandbeest style?
jaunty jetty
not in any functional way but yea
it'd be some pattern of legs across the bottom, maybe 6x5, maybe not a grid, probably gotta be careful that they don't get in eachothers way
jaunty jetty
I have a sudden urge to make a block of wood that sits on my desk with a paper diffuser on top and under the paper there's like 6 cells blocked off with something good and opaque like cardboard, and each cell has a neopixel, and then the microcontroller checks stuff like if I have email and makes the cells different colors
the neopixel sticks are a bit too dense, and strip neopixels don't comre in a small enough length to be cheap. I could probably modify the stick design to stretch it out and move the capacitors to keep the board area low; but I'd need a hot air rework setup to solder the SMDs well, and while I'd love one it's not in the no budget
then prolly use adafruit.io to hold the state from stuff like googlescript for monitoring unread, automations on my phone for SMS, hangouts, task management, etc
late fulcrum
You could use either the little board-mounted neopixels, or the discrete ones.
Or individual LEDs and an LED controller chip.
jaunty jetty
the single neopixel boards are quite expensive for what you get, I see their use but small panellized boards end up wasting a lot of PCB that then consumes a lot of machine time so it's hard for them to be cheap and they aren't
late fulcrum
When you just need six of 'em, it isn't too bad.
jaunty jetty
4 for 8$, 5 for 5$, 25 for 40$, and 20 for 35$
ooo SK6812 come in side projecting packages https://www.aliexpress.com/item/10-1500pcs-SK6812-4020-side-WS2812B-IC-in-LED-Chip-Side-lighting-SMD-4020-RGB-4/32841790913.html
late fulcrum
Why does aliexpress always think I'm in France?
jaunty jetty
do you eat a lot of fancy food?
oh that's a really nice picture https://ae01.alicdn.com/kf/HTB1fo_zRXXXXXcOXVXXq6xXFXXXm.jpg?size=204982&height=1000&width=1000&hash=1f56c21ab6ff3222e7cdde20be2e3e32
late fulcrum
Ah, apparently it uses a buggy method for autodetecting locale, then remembers it. Clearing all the cookies for all the cognates of alibaba and aliexpress, reloading, selecting English and "global" seems to have fixed it.
jaunty jetty
so, I'm unclear what's being referred to as a piece in this listing https://www.aliexpress.com/item/10-1000pcs-SK6812-Similar-to-WS2812B-RGBW-Addressable-LED-Pixel-Chips-Matrix-on-Heat-Sink-PCB/32811057113.html
late fulcrum
Odd that quantity is under "color", but it does say "LEDs Number/M:1 pcS".
jaunty jetty
what's Number/M mean
late fulcrum
My guess is that 1 is 1 LED, they just snap off as many as your order. If you order 10, you probably get a row, if you order 100, you probably get a 10x10 panel.
jaunty jetty
Gasp! rings that nest evenly! https://www.aliexpress.com/item/Addressable-WS2812B-pixel-Ring-1-8-12-16-24-32-40-48-60-93-241-LEDs/32809169128.html
if I had a ring that was like 9" OD, it'd be neat to build it into a clock and then use it for I don't know sunrise/sunset indication, temperature by color, precipitation forecast, calendar events maybe
I don't own any clocks at the moment, but it'd be neat
late fulcrum
Reminds me of the Bulbdial.
fallow tendon
my bad i should have said that here
hey
i was looking to find someone who can make a bot that automatically posts things from reddit to twitter, and someone sent me a link to this server
can anyone here help me out
jaunty jetty
today I learned that portable train derailers exist
dreamy solstice
heheh, way to derail the conversation hehehehe
even though the previous conversation already ended
I had to make that joke
jaunty jetty
tldr, portable derailers are one of the emergency measures used to resolve runaway trains safely
covert spire
jaunty jetty
it's mostly a thing in train yards, and the trains aren't going fast yet
sleek urchin
free game alert https://www.humblebundle.com/store/outcast-second-contact
dusty citrus
From #help-with-projects just now..
https://faculty.frostburg.edu/phys/latta/ee/6146amp/schematic/6146schematic.html
quote
Plate Metering Resistors:
In the plate circuit very accurate metering was also desired. Since the expected plate current was about 150 mA..
I'm pretty sure 65 mA was on the front panel meter for both the Kenwood hybrid rig I had, as well as the (older) Heathkit DX-60B (both of which leveraged a pair of 6146-B's final amplifier tubes).
That was at idle (putting out hardly any power, or perhaps none at all, to the antenna).
Seems to me that value was checked during tune-up of the amplifier, whenever changing frequencies (QSY).
late fulcrum
I'm fond of 6146 tubes, but I'm used to measuring cathode current. Plate current can be a little tricker, but a floating, well-insulated meter will work.
tender nimbus
@jaunty jetty In India generally they use Track Detonators whenever A Train has some kinda of failure and Has been halted to Avoid train collisions
jaunty jetty
that seems wasteful, the train will be derailed and the track is ruined
portable derailers at least lave the track undamaged
dusty citrus
#general-tech carryover
The pin pitch on the zif socket is the same as that for an IC
so, what IS the topic? were we still talking about that 14seg display?
Yeah I have the 14 seg here as well so I'm testing it against the zif socket
ok then i'm officially confused lol
I think the socket will crush/dent the pins on the 14 segment display module
The 14 segment module is considerably wider.
So a single zif socket ain't happenin'.
u have double width versions of those
I never ebay nothin and ain't amazonning much at all anymore.
ohh i get it, they are not an even number of pins sideways
just saying that model exists
Oh I figured as much. This was a kludge to start with.
btw that's a cool display
Doesn't really solve the I don't want to solder until springtime comes problem. ;)
I have like three sets of these alphanumerics for about six months.
Haven't lit one up yet. ;)
lol
But I did do a 7-segment tonight so I got my fix.
i'm worse, i have like 40 microcontroller boards, and i am wanting to buy more
lol
Yeah I do that myself -- but I have a goal: to support most Adafruit SAMD boards in my Forth interpreter.
I don't have an itsy m0 or a hallowing m0 and I bricked my feather m4 exp.
I have pretty much everthing else samd and operational.
oh lol i just have 7 arduino nanos, 4 pro minis, 6 wemos boards, 5 digisparks, 5 other type digisparks...
The porting between all these similar targets was very helpful to understand some things I'd have missed otherwise.
i'm just a noob hobbyist myself
atm i mostly frankenstein code as opposed to writing it 😛
I can produce legible code but I don't often bother to do so.
oh wow, 18 pins, common anode, none of that funky stuff like with those matrices 😄 😛
OH you mean 8x8 dot displays?
lol yeah
I never looked at them as they're inefficient for what I wanted.
i got a couple to play with when i still thought i wanted to make robots
I like the 14 segment idea tho the reason I want to do a larger one is to see if I really like it all that much.
figured i would use them for a face
i just think it looks cool
maybe cuz i grew up in the 80s 😛
I might make some digital thumbwheels.
Believe it or not, some ham radios had those as the primary user interface to change frequency.
i might do something like that some time
to make score keeping devices for tabletop games
Right, exactly.
Those are the kinds of projects that interest me.
! u are a tabletop gamer?
Well .. I was thinking of 'chess clock' type timers.
i am mainly into electronics now to make special effects for scenery for dungeons and dragons
ahh ic
Mainly though I want stuff for the kitchen.
D&D has a lot of stats to keep track of, health points, ammo, that kinda thing
normaly u write it down on the sheet with pencil and erase etc, but that gets messy quick
But that hurts your stomach to reach away from your body to operate the device you build. ;)
When you drive a car your arms are better supported.
For the kitchen the timers and stuff will be on top of the refridgerator so moving my arms is mostly vertical and still close to my body. ;)
If you both take a hand off of bicycle handlebars and do not sit back on the seat, you put a lot of strain on muscles that don't see a lot of use.
dude why not wifi-fu that?
I don't like radio wireless -- it's not there yet.
lol
fair enough
I still like optical.
i'm thinking: holster, laser gun, solar cells...
lol
I don't even carry a cell phone.
another future project of mine: old school light gun shooting gallery
If you took everything off me I was carrying on a bike ride it could be like 30 things already.
lol i have similar tendencies
item: hat; item: second hat; item: third hat .. item: flashlight; item: glove
???????????
In summer I have a completely different regime since I don't use a backpack all summer long (too hot).
what the frack
omg i can;t say f@nnyp@ck?
well the first tuple there is the problem
whoops it knew that one!
I bet they hired a non-christian to give them a list of bad words to filter for.
so, i carry a pocket knife in one pocket and a flashlight in the other, and i have on of those unmentionable baggage carrying devices that are apparently so evil they shall not be named
paid them filth money for their research
rofl
whoever it was seems to be bucking for a promotion 😛
I bet violence words are underfiltered
lol toldya that thing was a zealot 😛
It doesn't bother me anymore
it did a lot when I first got here.
i'm ok for now, but some days.... some days i just won't be able to talk here lol
they don't care as the goal is to include the people who, for whatever reason, would be uncomfortable if you ______.
fill in your own ________ there. ;)
there's lots i could say about it, but ill just say that personally i hold the belief that the cure is worse then the disease when it is driven to extremes like this
They're trying to be child friendly I think.
yeah i get the intent, and i don't mean it as a criticism
I think the idea is that young children are easily put off from electronics and similar tech for a variety of reasons.
The idea is to change that, by giving parents and fairly young children support in all the ways needed to get them making stuff together. Like, real tech, not just fluff stuff.
in any case i suppose it's better then getting banned again 😛
Now somehow they have to coexist with popeye the sailor, on furlough from the ship, and drinking from a tankard.
lol
This is the one time Popeye loses and has to settle for a muttered "Well blow me down!" (maybe hand out leaflets explaining it's a metaphor for the wind and the sails and all that)
lol right 😉