#general-chat | adafruit | Page 135

karmic kite Nov 26, 2018, 5:12 AM

#

all documents to be written in JSON then? /s

dusty citrus Nov 26, 2018, 5:12 AM

#

eww. ;)

#

Not a big XML person - it's too many tags mixed with too few sentences in plain english.

karmic kite Nov 26, 2018, 5:13 AM

#

very fluffy indeed

dusty citrus Nov 26, 2018, 5:13 AM

#

Fine when you need to edit something in a configuration, but XML kind of forces you onto some sort of GUI editor to deal with what it is representing.

#

HTML (before modern web devs got a hold of it) was great for simple markup.

karmic kite Nov 26, 2018, 5:14 AM

#

I used to use RSS among friends and colleagues alot for showing quick updates on desktops (before twitter was popular) so I got used to it that way

#

it was slightly more private without ads or tracking, as I could only see what friends posted

dusty citrus Nov 26, 2018, 5:15 AM

#

If I had to do anything like an e-book today I'd use HTML or something close to it.

#

I usually just use ASCII flatfiles (analogous to typewritten documents).

karmic kite Nov 26, 2018, 5:16 AM

#

https://motherboard.vice.com/en_us/article/9kgx7p/painting-made-with-code-html-pure-css-browser-art-diana-smith

Motherboard

This Stunning Image Made With Pure Code Is Like a Mood Ring For Yo...

Diana Smith's work is digital art on ultra-hard mode.

#

even art

#

motherboard makes me nervous posting here, need to scan articles thoroughly or the sensor gets angry

dusty citrus Nov 26, 2018, 5:16 AM

#

Typewritten documents are closer in analogy to JPG 'prints' since once rendered on paper, you can't edit them. You retype the whole document.

karmic kite Nov 26, 2018, 5:17 AM

#

thats valid. regardless I shouldn't have to check a reference sheet of what code to use to make a document

dusty citrus Nov 26, 2018, 5:18 AM

#

I can't begin to fathom how someone can go from 'code' to that image, without boo-coo cheating.

karmic kite Nov 26, 2018, 5:18 AM

#

there was video interview somewhere with some of her other works

dusty citrus Nov 26, 2018, 5:19 AM

#

Well don't worry because the last five people still avidly using LaTeX all die by March or April. ;)

#

I'm kidding -- I have no idea how many LaTeX adherents are in the world.

karmic kite Nov 26, 2018, 5:20 AM

#

theres only 5 engineering researchers left? 😛

#

it seems among friends doing masters and phd's everyones doing reports in latex

dusty citrus Nov 26, 2018, 5:22 AM

#

Well the report I edited was from someone famous. The corrections they made (obviously they did not fathom LaTeX one iota) were in 'sharpie pen' level detail, to complex formulas I don't begin to understand, but seemed to have a feel for, visually.

#

The person who did the original document was close to the famous person, who posted it on their web site.

#

But they'd made a mistake, and disappeared, leaving the famous person with a wrong document.

#

So just for the hell of it I did the corrections myself. ;)

#

This was hard core math stuff like you'd find in Roger Penrose.

karmic kite Nov 26, 2018, 5:25 AM

#

sometimes the just for the sake of doing it projects are the best projects

#

however for the sake of it, work comes early, I have to sign off for tonight. G'Night

dusty citrus Nov 26, 2018, 5:27 AM

#

take care!

#

at 529 grams my thermos bottle and my favorite coffee cup weigh exactly the same.

#

So I can use the empty cup as a 'tare' weight when I need it. ;)

vestal phoenix Nov 26, 2018, 5:57 AM

#

@dusty citrus Didn't they just change the reference standard for the kilogram? You may have to weigh again.

dusty citrus Nov 26, 2018, 6:11 AM

#

anybody know what language STM32 are typically programmed in?

#

also when it says it is compatible with the arduino ide, does that mean being able to use the arduino software? or something more?

abstract violet Nov 26, 2018, 6:23 AM

#

@dusty citrus yes you can use arduino with it

#

@dusty citrus https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EaZuKRSvwdo

YouTube

GreatScott!

Easy & Powerful Arduino Alternative? STM32 Beginner's Guide

Upload Gerber files for review & order $2 PCBs: https://jlcpcb.com/quote Support me for more videos: https://www.patreon.com/GreatScott Previous video: htt...

▶ Play video

dusty citrus Nov 26, 2018, 6:30 AM

#

yeah but wouldn't i still be programming in a language appropriate for the chip?

#

or does that mean i actually program in arduino C (aside from some particulars like pin numbers n stuff)

#

C is used for everything.

#

The Arduino IDE supplies dozens or hundreds of hardware libraries, and is C underneath (or C++ which amounts to the same thing, and can be ignored as such, except when creating libraries).

#

ic, thxz 😃

#

what language though is used by people who no dot use arduino for this?

#

it's almost all of it the GCC compiler underneath; even Atmel bases a lot on that idea.

#

just out of curiosity

#

So devs from 20 years ago would have a GCC compiler for the target architecture, and use Makefiles (so learning 'make' is useful as well in that context).

#

And then libraries from the vendor.

#

(written in C++ probably)

#

ASM was used a lot more when the target chips were easier to work with in ASM. Modern compilers produce code comparable with code written in straight assembler.

#

ugh, i remember some assembler from my hacking days lol

#

(that wasn't alway true; but the GCC compiler is really something!)

#

I use Atmel Start for simple GPIO-based projects.

#

It's not really any faster than using Arduino IDE and definitely slower to develop than Arduino IDE.

#

i used to dig for shareware register codes with a debugger and do little 2-bit hacks n stuff

#

However, each programming cycle (edit, compile, upload) is faster since it's not including libs I'm not using, over hundreds of small changes, that time adds up.

#

i thought every mcu needed a specific language to be programmed in

#

Haha I used 'edlin' in MSDOS to try to bypass copy protection embedded in distributed binary code. ;)

#

but if somebody built the right ide for it, i could conceivably code arduinos in python?

#

Every MCU has an 'instruction set'.

#

They are all different, across classes of various MCU architectures.

#

i used to use DASM and softice

#

We already have Python for 'Arduino' targets. That's what CircuitPython is.

#

heh! lol i thought that was just another name for python for micros in general

#

Python isn't compiled, ordinarily - it is interpreted!

#

like 'wireing'

#

oh yeah i forgot

#

Hmm I think 'Wiring' is a serial lib but I don't know. It's represented in the Arduino IDE source tree (common to all Arduino IDE targets).

#

I'm in my late 50's so I forget pretty much everything, on a daily basis. ;)

#

you kids get out of my yard

#

as i understood it, it is the name for a sub thing of C that is made for hardware

#

After six months in straight ASF4 (libs for Atmel targets, SAMD especially) I've come to value Arduino IDE simplifications.

#

but that's from 'arduino for noobs' type tutorials

#

they certainly are awesome for simple hobbyists like me

#

I'm sure people could earn a paid living never leaving Arduino IDE as the primary dev environment.

#

When it's reliability (medical equipment) they probably have special certifications.

#

i barely know how to write a blinky program, but i can frankenstein together all kindsa stuff

#

Blinky's are hard to program! If you get to know how to do that much, the rest is a lot easier (at first).

#

yeah, hell some people are prolly doing just that via producing commercial products

#

? it's just 'pin on, pin off'.. like karate kid 😛

#

Well all the work that was done for you, ahead of time, isn't small.

#

indeed

#

I've written blinkies for 8051 in assembler.

#

Once you can write an 8051 assembler program for blinkies, and learn a bit about interrupts, it's a smaller step to write an i2c driver.

#

assembler is an alien language lol, everything is hard in assembler

#

That's why I used Forth (which can provide assembler equivalents; you have to think somewhat in assembler to do that but it'd do-able).

#

lol i remember 3 things: JE, JNE and NOP 😛

#

I don't even remember that much anymore. ;)

#

jump if equal, jump if not equal and no operation

#

lol a hacker's main 3 weapons back then

#

(checks, yeah, we're in #general-chat, and this is still very much electronics and programming -- good to go) ;)

#

lol

#

:)

#

btw what do u think of those stm32 boards for animating displays?

#

They should have a ghost/supervisor that asks you (just in your Discord client) "Hey-- you posted a lot in a few minutes .. are you still on topic?" @stuck moth

#

we have memes for that

#

You have to remember a meme for it to work on you!

#

https://d3qdvvkm3r2z1i.cloudfront.net/media/catalog/product/cache/1/image/1800x/6b9ffbf72458f4fd2d3cb995d92e8889/s/t/stayontarget_newthumb.png

#

https://e.lvme.me/ct6ozc1.jpg

#

Yeah that's actually good. I need a sign like that in my office here.

#

lol

#

Are you over in blokeland or what?

#

lol i am in the netherlands

#

so, close

#

oh right. let's call that bike-land tho my first choice is UNPRINTABLE CHARACTERS.

#

(nice ones tho)

#

I would so like to live in a bicycle-friendly world.

#

Tho my 'merican friends abroad say the bike riders are kind of agressive in yurrup.

#

as someone who never bothered to get a drivers licence, yeah it's nice 😃

#

lol from an american point of view maybe

#

bikers here claim the road like everybody else does

#

They have a parking garage in I think Amsterdam for just bicycles. Huge one. Like 20,000 bikes or something.

#

(maybe just 5,000)

#

People around here drive large trucks that the hood is at my eye level (at 73 inches tall at the scalp).

#

but there is only so much aggression you can express while exposed and sitting on an aliminum rack surrounded by cars and trucks

#

yeah also you are forced to share the road with them in places where you really shouldn't be

#

hood is the flat sheetmetal over the engine compartment

#

lol i know

#

i'm dutch, not handicapped 😛

#

yeah your english is good enough I mistook you for someone from England, after all. ;)

#

lol thanks 😃 i spend a lot of time online, and don't watch TV so pretty much all my entertainment is in english

#

In Norway I think they speak english so well that you can't get in any practice speaking Norwegian, if your first language was English

#

u can get around pretty well in holland too i think

#

What is Dutch, exactly -- linguistically?

#

especially in the cities where there's tourism

#

it's anglosaxon in its grammar but borrows a lot of words and sounds from german and french

#

so english is way easier to learn for me then german or french

#

which native speakers who don't speak Dutch directly understand it the easiest?

#

eglish i would think

#

Wow. Cool.

#

the only grammar differences is switching the order of some words around

#

'on there' becomes 'daar op' or 'there on'

#

I was okay with French when I was young. I still recognize the vocabulary but don't remember the mapping.
But in other languages I can only pick up on the syllables, not words or phrases.

#

Is afrikaans related to Dutch?

#

i learned english watching american cartoons initially

#

haha.

#

yeah afrikaans is a defomred form of dutch

#

Our deshipu said he learned English from video games.

#

imo designed to make it's speaker sound dumb

#

yeah a lot of us learn that way

#

they start teaching english at around age 10 i think, but we start watching american tv way sooner then that

#

I'm still impressed by how quickly the American colonists (while they were British subjects) managed to change English into something different, and several somethings, regionally.

#

and of course english spoken stuff has dutch subtitles

#

prolly down to the simplicity and robust nature of the language

#

The English I speak and understand is in analogy to Parisian French (what that is to regional dialects of French, within France).

#

we have one of those within dutch

#

There are many Americans with regional accents so thick I don't really understand them, unless I listen carefully.

#

the province friesland has it's own dialect that is indecypherable to normal dutch speakers

#

It's pretty amazing how quickly those differences in language arise.

#

yup

#

I had a lady friend who said "Yoonz" for "you ones" which isn't something we say (at all) only a few hundred miles from where I live.

#

also how powerful human communication is vs machine communication

#

(or 'you'uns')

#

i have had entire conversations consisting entirely of hungover grunts

#

but 1 typo and your whole program comes to a grinding halt

#

Our teevee broadcasters (news departments) standardize English in the spoken form quite a bit.

#

yeah thankfully

#

There's an algorithm called 'SOUNDEX' that is pretty good at presenting alternates if you spell into it phonetically.

#

It was implemented on the very first generation of personal computers.

#

I think I had code for it in BASIC.

#

lol i remember watching people mess with basic on the c64

#

prolly put me off of the idea of programming anything for several decades

#

We had the VIC 20 just a bit before C64 came on the market -- had a modem!

#

! we had too, in fact i don't think we ever upgraded to c64

#

everybody else had the c64 though

#

I would not want the CPU in my lap -- my keyboard is light and I always use it in my lap (wireless).

#

we were early adopters

#

i just remember seeing a page of code in a magazine

#

and symbols i have not seen before or since lol

#

First timeshare I used was in 1974 -- turns out later in life I knew the guy who owned it.
We would hook up a teletype to an acoustic modem and slam the phone receiver into the modem, after dialing manually.

#

lol i remember that from wargames

#

Two years later, that classroom had a 'glass teletype' called Commodore PET iirc.

#

(it was a shared classrom by several small 'towns' which would have had a population, each, of about 8,000 to 12,000 people in them)

#

lol wow

#

It was like visiting Star Trek -- they had modern furniture we'd never seen, and all kinds of sciences were studied there by people < 18 years old in 'high school'.

#

It meant a field trip -- the entire class boards an autobus, drives 20 miles, and offloads to the science center, for an entire half-day.

#

first computers i saw in school were the 8086 ones

#

My first hands-on computer was my father's -- 4.77 MHz 8088 based I think.

#

lol computers came a lot sooner then anyone who understood much of them, and egos were completely out of control

#

Although we had a minicomputer from Hewlett Packard in the military; we'd play a game on it for 20 minutes when there was no other work to do.

#

like i had a teacher who knew how to turn one on and get a class full of kids to load a program in DOS and she considered herself 'the expert'

#

(About a 4" CRT display, round, if I remember)

#

so when i got in there and ran the setup for the program we were using and turn the intro music back on, she could not for the life of her understand how it happened lol

#

never thinking a student might figure something out on his own...

#

2 weeks later we were all playing leirure suit larry and she had lost complete control

#

lol did u have the green ones that gave everybody headaches?

#

We actually had to load the bootstrap program for one computer by hand, using a bank of 8 toggles.
When it ran, it read a mylar punched tape (BAUDOT or something like that -- 5 places to punch per character).
The punched tape was fanfold and a nice shade of sky blue.

#

lol wow

#

we had the 'boot floppy'

#

That was near state of the art in 1982. ;)

#

lol

#

Well, in a way since we had the HP mini which as far as I know had a real ROM inside for bootstrapping.

#

that was when i was drewling over the calculator watch, and the one that played pacman 😛

#

Boot floppies were used for many years after they were entirely necessary, to develop 'teaching' operating systems like Oberon.

#

i think my school was just too cheap to buy the computers with hard drives 😛

#

though we did have a few macs for specific stuff

#

(whatever interesting stuff allowed booting directly from a hard disk drive was too specific; the boot code from floppies was used, instead)

#

we got to use a mouse on those 😛

#

My dad's first PC was a dual-floppy unit - no hard disk.

#

1982-ish.

#

my own first pc was a p1 100mhz

#

hahaha.

#

inherited

#

i later upgraded it with a 200mmx and a 3d card

#

Those were right around the time that you had to start cooling them with fans.

#

yeah

#

I don't honestly remember what came earlier -- if fans were used besides the PSU exhaust fan.

#

then u got those stupid cpus in the carts

#

before that it was that massive ISA architecture

#

🔺 🔸

#

and it wasn't until 3d cards got some memory that we started cooling those

#

i think the first ones didn't have active cooling

#

A friend (unusually) drilled a hole in his computer's sheet metal, and laid it flat (most people stood them on end).
Then he ran a very expensive video card inside the machine, and set dual fans on the outside to exhaust, upwards. I think the fan cage just sat on rubber feet, unsecured.

#

my first pc was a flat model

#

kind of annoying to change anything

#

Haha.

#

it was build like a laptop, but bigger

#

but u had to remove x to get to y etc

#

I have a Mini-ITX type chassis right now (from 2012) that Dell made (Optiplex).

#

right now i have my first ever off the shelf pc

#

I don't even open the box anymore.

#

asus mini tower

#

well i did add an SSD and extra hd

#

that is replaced the dvd with the ssd

#

The Optiplex is about 183 cu. in. (3000 cc)

#

9"x9"x3"

#

my case is just a standard small upright model

#

before that i had a gaming rig, it was yuge by comparison lol

#

my next one though is prolly gonna be the size of a raspberry pi

#

I also have a Dell from 2010 that only has about 400 days' wear and tear on it that I could leverage if this one dies.

#

lol my desktop is a dual core at 3ghz and my phone is a quadcore at 1.8, i'm not sure which is faster 😛

#

This seems very reliable to put the system to sleep:
/usr/sbin/rtcwake -m mem -s 65399 > /dev/null 2>&1 &

#

lol i don't turn my computer off anymore

#

I don't remember what it does anymore, but it's always still asleep < 24 hours from when I put it to sleep this way.

#

i just put on the screensaver

#

The earlier method (also calling rtcwake) often woke up randomly.

#

no such thing as random with computers

#

did u check the mainboard's bios?

#

I think (bizarre as it still sounds to me) that the idea is that people wanted to put the computer to sleep, and have it wake up by itself (for reasons I haven't thought carefully about).

#

I just didn't care as the new method works.

#

yeah, prolly something in the bios then

#

This was the old method (I think):
/usr/sbin/rtcwake -m mem -t 1623783256 > /dev/null 2>&1 &

#

u on linux?

#

I could have played with the value following -t but was annoyed it stopped working when it used to work on an earlier machine.

#

yeah, linux

#

i never got into linux

#

Raspbian is linux as heck.

#

i know, i messed around with a pi a little once

#

and i tried things like gnome and redhat back in the day

#

Linux is hard for lots of people. I would not argue otherwise.

#

it's counter intuitive once u have grown used to windows

#

especially the file structure

#

It would be okay for someone's parents or grandparents who absolutely never change anything and just want it to work, and don't have friends brow-beating them into trying more new stuff.

#

I'm in a situation where I don't have to interact with other people based on compatibility at the operating system level.

#

yup, or a box built for a specific purpose like say an arcade cabinet

#

exactly.

#

Android is Linux. Some router firmware is Linux.

#

yeah i may still get into linux at some point cuz i love emulators and old games

#

Kindle's older operating system was Linux. I don't know about FireOS (I think that's what it's called).

#

iOS is basically Mac OSX I think.

#

and i want to get a handheld console that plays emulated games

#

The only reason (the only reason!) I run Raspbian on the Pi is that I already know Debian (Linux) and that's what Raspbian is.

#

Someday I might bare-metal the Pi and see what that's about.

#

I'll stop there, since ostensibly the staff here has to glance through this, probably, for various reasons; for them this is a flood and treating it as a chatroom. ;)

#

i thought we were kind back on topic with the linux talk 😛

real anvil Nov 26, 2018, 7:40 AM

#

on topic?...in #general-chat? 🤣

dusty citrus Nov 26, 2018, 7:40 AM

#

yeah i'm kinda confused now lol, but whatever

#

i should't even be awake right now

real anvil Nov 26, 2018, 7:40 AM

#

likewise.

dusty citrus Nov 26, 2018, 7:41 AM

#

mosfet mosfet mosfet

#

I look at it like this: flooding the chan is offtopic, if it's not solving a specific project's difficulties.

#

We do need a purely social context, but this place isn't it, as far as I can see.

#

lol i did notice there is a room for pet photos...

#

That's a flood of pix; and all about kittens and such, which don't even speak English. ;)

#

Adafruit has to be sure that everything here remains useful to all their customers; it's (this Discord Server's) first mission, I think, is to help the newcomer who is overwhelmed.

#

fair enough, but on the face of it i would assume off topic is a place for random chitchat so as to keep it out of the serious rooms

#

anyhoo, i do still have one question/curiosity

#

I'm just a voice and an independent opinion. ;)

#

we were talking about displays and animations the other day

#

yeah

#

what about the ST32?

#

STM32

#

I need more than that. ;) I'm Old Guy. (I have seen STM32 targets in several projects that run on hardware I have, so I Have a vague idea bout the chip itself)

#

https://www.ebay.com/itm/STM32F103C8T6-Micro-Mini-USB-controller-STM32-Development-ARM-Learning-Board/272826365928?var=571972615549

eBay

STM32F103C8T6 Micro/Mini USB controller STM32 Development ARM Lear...

1 x STM32F103C8T6 STM32F103 STM32 LQFP48 MCU ARM ST IC. Model: STM32F103C8T6. STM32F103C8T6 IC. Nano Sheild. OLED LED&RGB. Reset(POR/PDR). hope you could understand. - 26/37/51/80 I / O ports, all I / O ports can be mapped to 16 external interrupts; almost all ports can. | eBay!

#

aka the blue pill

#

it says it has sram, does that help? 😛

#

Well what's the question wrt animation?

#

well i'm still not entirely clear on what and how things are limited for speed

#

(I wouldn't click on an Ebay offer using YOUR mouse haha)

#

Oh are you flying toasters isn't resolved enough I want a fireplace -- person?

#

right

#

As far as I know, the bottleneck on on any microcontroller (that is the keyword) obtain.

#

these things are like $2 a piece so i'm gonna pick some up anyway

#

Microcontrollers are industrial chips meant primarily for being installed inside machines that do things that have very little to do with computers, per se.

#

Microprocessors are (in contrast) meant for a more direct computing context and tend to run operating systems.

#

here's the specs from that listing:

Kernel: ARM 32-bit Cortex-M3 CPU

Up to 72MHz operating frequency
Single cycle multiplication and hardware division
Memory
from 64K or 128K bytes of Flash program memory
up to 20K bytes of SRAM
Clock, reset and power management
2.0 ~ 3.6 V power supply and I / O pins
Power-on / Power-down Reset (POR / PDR), Programmable Voltage Monitor (PVD)
4 ~ 16MHz crystal oscillator
Built-in factory-adjusted 8MHz RC oscillator
Built-in calibrated 40kHz RC oscillator
the PLL that generates the CPU clock
32kHz RTC oscillator with calibration function
Low power consumption
sleep, stop and standby modes
V BAT powers the RTC and back-up registers
2 12-bit analog-to-digital converters, 1us conversion time (up to 16)
Conversion range: 0 to 3.6V
Double sampling and hold function
temperature sensor
DMA:
7-channel DMA controller
Supported peripherals: timers, ADC, SPI, I 2 C and USART
Up to 80 fast I / O ports
26/37/51/80 I / O ports, all I / O ports can be mapped to 16 external interrupts; almost all ports can
tolerate 5V signals
Debug mode
Serial single line debug (SWD) and JTAG interface
Up to 7 timers
3 16-bit timers, each with up to 4 channels for input capture / output compare / PWM or pulse count and
incremental encoder inputs
1 16-bit PWM controller with dead-zone control and emergency brake for motor control
2 watchdog timers (standalone and window type)
System time timer: 24-bit self-decrement counter
Up to 9 communication interfaces
Up to 2 I 2 C interfaces (SMBus / PMBus supported)
Up to 2 USART interfaces (ISO7816 interface, LIN, IrDA interface and modem control) Up to 2 SPI
interfaces (18Mbit / s)
CAN interface (2.0B active)
USB 2.0 full speed interface
CRC calculation unit, 96-bit chip unique code

#

Microcontrollers have peripheral devices inside the microcontroller chip.
Microprocessors (generally) do not, or are limited in certain ways with regard to peripherals on the chip itself.

#

ahh yeah i forget to make that distinction

#

assume i am always talking about microcontrollers

#

With that STM32 you're in the same ballpark as SAMD21 and SAMD51.

#

and mostly dev boards actually

#

not familiar with either of those, but i think i remember one of those being suggested

#

The real difference is in support. To get help with it.

#

The hardware is on par, but the software details are not.

#

same skillset, different specific knowledge.

#

right

#

You would be thrown back into the world of pre-Arduino advanced microcontroller project development.

#

well these boards do have some arduino support

#

Also no real gains, unless you happened to already have experience using the STM series.

#

Yeah but why even go there?

#

(other than maybe in yurrup they have a stronger following, if that is the case there)

#

i have no idea lol, i'm a child of the internet

#

hahah

#

I would either go SAMD21 or SAMD51 or some of the other offerings at Adafruit. There's Sparkfun and a couple of other vendors.

#

well for now i was planning on the 8266 based boards

#

SAMD51 will keep you waiting for development, unless you go CircuitPython (and maybe Makecode, I don't use it).

#

since it has a fair bit of support in arduino, and i could learn python

#

SAMD21 is mature and is accepted on arduino.cc.

#

I don't see a lot of support for 8266 as much as questions about it.

#

There's some but a lot more for SAMD21.

#

well there's a fair number of libraries

#

including ones for tft displays

#

Right but you'd have to seek elsewhere for support (If there is any).

#

Two kinds of support are very different: code, and expertise. ;)

#

The people writing the code aren't necessarily giving you access to their person, to field questions.

#

well if i were to go with python i'd just look up python tutorials and reference

#

I think Python today plays the same role BASIC did when I was learning -- fast track to success and building useable personal knowledge.

#

and what you call support, i tend to get it mostly through conversations like this one

#

Right, but people like me are all shrugs about 8266 ;)

#

I don't know any specifics about it. I'd have to sap my energy given to SAMD51 to take the time to learn it.

#

lol no worries, that d1 mini is popular enough that i feel i can find answers, and remember my needs are not that great

#

animation on micros is that great and to my knowledge hasn't been often demonstrated anywhere. ;)

#

i mostly make leds go blinky, this display stuff is about as complex a thing as i will attempt at the present

proven olive Nov 26, 2018, 8:02 AM

#

I'm going to go off topic of the current off-topic topic, but this is really neat: https://vimeo.com/182622205

dusty citrus Nov 26, 2018, 8:02 AM

#

haha.

#

well i ave seen a few videos of people doing animations on them

#

and again there my needs are minimal too

#

so learn from them and teach us! ;)

#

a good looking fire, a ligtning bolt... very basic animations

#

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6A0rwG39Jzk

YouTube

Matt Goldman

Vader Sessions

Torn by good & evil and an incestuous love affair, a lonely and depraved Darth Vader has a nervous breakdown. This is by far the FUNNIEST thing ever made thi...

▶ Play video

proven olive Nov 26, 2018, 8:06 AM

#

@dusty citrus I remember this from ages ago. Still awesome!

dusty citrus Nov 26, 2018, 8:06 AM

#

lol the music is a bit much on the one you posted lol

proven olive Nov 26, 2018, 8:06 AM

#

It is a bit much, but it's also a 1918 symphony that was never intended for it, so the fact that it works at all is amazing

dusty citrus Nov 26, 2018, 8:07 AM

#

I gotta back out of here. George Lucas rocked our world in about 1977 and we hadn't been rocked like that since Stanley Kubric with his 2001: A Space Odyssey.
cya.

#

kinda sounds like somebody made a bunch of loops from the explosion scene in aliens 😛

#

fades

#

o/ l8rz

spice moss Nov 26, 2018, 6:13 PM

#

https://twitter.com/SoVeryFinnish/status/1067059539768471553

VeryFinnishProblems (@SoVeryFinnish)

When you refuse to accept winter has arrived

Likes

133

jaunty jetty Nov 26, 2018, 6:19 PM

#

back when I worked retail we'd get hit by blizzards and I lived pretty close so I couldn't call in, and there's two kinds of customers you see every time it's that kind of weather. People who have realized the world is ending and decided that now is the correct time to prepare for it, and women wearing miniskirts with high heels

spice moss Nov 26, 2018, 6:28 PM

#

I used to even bike in deep snow

cursive pike Nov 26, 2018, 7:11 PM

#

Mars InSight EDL coming up

spice moss Nov 26, 2018, 7:28 PM

#

NASA have streams going

covert spire Nov 26, 2018, 7:55 PM

#

Greys, that seems to be true about everywhere

dusty citrus Nov 26, 2018, 7:56 PM

#

Five minutes to Mars atmosphere Entry

proven olive Nov 26, 2018, 7:56 PM

#

The most amusing weather people I saw were a woman with big rain boots, raincoat, etc. And with her was a guy with flip-flops, shorts, and a t-shirt.

dusty citrus Nov 26, 2018, 8:02 PM

#

8 G's deceleration was the peak

#

awaiting parachute inflation

#

1000 meters per second at present

#

parachute deployed! radar on .. heat sheild sep commanded .. (12 descent engines)

sick adder Nov 26, 2018, 8:04 PM

#

woo looks like NASA's InSight successfully landed.

dusty citrus Nov 26, 2018, 8:05 PM

#

alt. 400 meters .. 300 m .. 80 m 60 m 50 m constant vel. 37 m 30 m 20 m 17 m

#

touchdown confirmed (crowd goes wild)

#

🚀

dusty citrus Nov 26, 2018, 8:35 PM

#

.oO( .. yes, but what was Fermat's first theorem? )

#

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fermat's_Last_Theorem

grave crest Nov 27, 2018, 3:19 AM

#

Hmm...debating between the 12tb Ironwolf drive for $350 or the 10tb Ironwolf Pro for $369. Balancing between slightly lower cost w/ slightly higher capacity vs. longer warranty.

proven olive Nov 27, 2018, 3:59 AM

#

I'd go for the longer warranty.

grave crest Nov 27, 2018, 4:01 AM

#

@proven olive That's what I'm thinking myself.

cyan wadi Nov 27, 2018, 4:02 AM

#

id go for the higher capacity, idek why

grave crest Nov 27, 2018, 4:02 AM

#

3yr vs 5yr

cyan wadi Nov 27, 2018, 4:02 AM

#

maybe its just that in my experience products last a long time - as long as you have a basic know how of electronics and know how to service your own stuff

grave crest Nov 27, 2018, 4:03 AM

#

@cyan wadi SOHO hard drives aren't user serviceable. I really wish there was a DIY tutorial for fixing HDD sectors...

cyan wadi Nov 27, 2018, 4:07 AM

#

oh rip

#

well try looking up how long Ironwolf drives usually last

#

i mean if its above 5 years, theres no point in getting the longer warranty as by the time it breaks, itll still be out of warranty

dusty citrus Nov 27, 2018, 10:52 AM

#

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hTH0b_90cUA

YouTube

NotAnExpert

time for this one to come home.wmv

Favorite ending to an old cartoon.

▶ Play video

spice moss Nov 27, 2018, 8:13 PM

#

https://blog.twitch.tv/announcing-the-twitch-extension-challenge-powered-by-aws-ea539e6d77c0

Twitch Blog

Announcing the Twitch Extension Challenge Powered by AWS

Do you want to help build the future of live entertainment, but don’t know where to start? Or have you been wanting to build a Twitch…

jaunty jetty Nov 27, 2018, 8:14 PM

#

just keep in mind the platform is not your friend

karmic kite Nov 28, 2018, 3:33 AM

#

I'm curious how many professional designers here have used Solido/Mentor Machine Learning for chip design?

jaunty jetty Nov 28, 2018, 4:23 AM

#

chip design?

#

I desire many more words regarding this, because I don't understand the website at all

karmic kite Nov 28, 2018, 4:28 AM

#

like the volta V100 with billions of transistors, was designed with solido ml for doing rapid iterations

#

its for making and testing spice simulations on nanometer scales

dusty citrus Nov 28, 2018, 5:23 AM

#

A Tesla is a fancy computer with a car bolted onto it, to help it to go places. It will even carry a human passenger!

jaunty jetty Nov 28, 2018, 5:25 AM

#

is Tesla named after the inventor, the unit, one of the previous Tesla companies, the band, the town, the fault, the river, or the asteroid?

dusty citrus Nov 28, 2018, 5:26 AM

#

I think it's named after Nicola.

#

An homage to another eccentric genius who worked with electricity.

jaunty jetty Nov 28, 2018, 5:27 AM

#

that makes sense, but also the unit, which is secondarily the genius, is a big stonkin unit of flux

dusty citrus Nov 28, 2018, 5:29 AM

#

My guess is they recognized there's a huge cult following surrounding Nicola Tesla.

jaunty jetty Nov 28, 2018, 5:29 AM

#

meteors also have a lot of force behind them

#

and rivers too, literally nobody has ever survived a river

#

did we know about faults before the lifetime of Tesla?

dusty citrus Nov 28, 2018, 5:31 AM

#

As far as I know there was a real struggle between Tesla and Edison for primacy.

jaunty jetty Nov 28, 2018, 5:32 AM

#

there were a lot of struggles but I'm not aware offhand of a particular primacy dispute

dusty citrus Nov 28, 2018, 5:36 AM

#

It also sounds like Tesla worked directly on electric motor designs.

jaunty jetty Nov 28, 2018, 5:38 AM

#

if it had electromagnets, Tesla was probably into it

dusty citrus Nov 28, 2018, 5:41 AM

#

There's too much information on this. I had in my mind a cartoon notion that Tesla was a lone wolf claiming AC was better, and Edison had a huge stake in power distribution via DC.

#

That does not sound at all like the case, the more I read.
Westinghouse was fully aware of AC stuff and so was General Electric.

#

Consulting on Niagara
In 1893, Edward Dean Adams, who headed up the Niagara Falls Cataract Construction Company, sought Tesla's opinion on what system would be best to transmit power generated at the falls.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nikola_Tesla#Consulting_on_Niagara

jaunty jetty Nov 28, 2018, 5:43 AM

#

AC is the obvious choice because it's what the turbines put out, and it won because of other reasons AC is better for distribution

dusty citrus Nov 28, 2018, 5:43 AM

#

DC dissipates over distance.

jaunty jetty Nov 28, 2018, 5:43 AM

#

especially in a world that didn't have much use for DC yet

#

DC motors were at the time much less powerful than AC, and motors is mostly what electricity did

dusty citrus Nov 28, 2018, 5:44 AM

#

They had no practical means to bring the voltage back up after traveling over a long distribution bus.

jaunty jetty Nov 28, 2018, 5:44 AM

#

and rectification at that scale is hugely wasteful

echo agate Nov 28, 2018, 5:45 AM

#

Especially if you were using primitive rectifiers that look super cool but aren't so great

dusty citrus Nov 28, 2018, 5:45 AM

#

Even in the 1960's your best bet for increasing DC voltage (by a lot) was to turn it into AC, use a transformer on that, and then rectify back to DC.

jaunty jetty Nov 28, 2018, 5:47 AM

#

the more interesting but shorter story is why america uses 120V; because a legislator had stake in a massive copper mine that could churn out copper so fast that copper wasn't worth much; so if they used 120V instead of 220~240V, you needed thicker wire for all the electrical grids because the currents were all double to match, and so they sold a whole lot of copper and inflated the price

dusty citrus Nov 28, 2018, 5:47 AM

#

Haha.

#

I have a radio from the late 1950's that I think ran on 100 and 110 VAC.

#

I've run it down to about .. oh 88-92 volts or so.

echo agate Nov 28, 2018, 5:49 AM

#

At work we test AC power supplies down at that voltage because (from what I've heard) Japan has trouble with voltage in some places.

dusty citrus Nov 28, 2018, 5:49 AM

#

Yeah my parents had severe line sag even in an aflluent town near a large city.

#

My dad had to buy some kind of heavy gadget to bring up the computer's power supply line to specs.

#

(my line voltage here runs on the hot side at 126 VAC)

echo agate Nov 28, 2018, 5:50 AM

#

Modern power supplies are so forgiving when it comes to input. Some of the newer AC supplies I've seen also have HVDC input specs.

dusty citrus Nov 28, 2018, 5:51 AM

#

I keep one of those old TV repair shop transformers on hand. It can go pretty low, in 5V steps.

#

IsoTap I think it's called.

echo agate Nov 28, 2018, 5:52 AM

#

Miss having one of those

jaunty jetty Nov 28, 2018, 5:52 AM

#

Japan's powergrid is a mess and it's america's fault

#

After the war we 'rebuilt' the parts we destroyed

#

But we rebuilt it as our system

#

Which is 60Hz

#

The rest wasnt

echo agate Nov 28, 2018, 5:54 AM

#

These are also cool

📎 autotransformer.png

jaunty jetty Nov 28, 2018, 5:54 AM

#

https://static.scientificamerican.com/sciam/assets/media/inline/blog/Image/Power-Grid-Japan.PNG

dusty citrus Nov 28, 2018, 5:55 AM

#

http://knoppix.net/store/img-large/viz-isotap-ii-wp-27a-variable-isolation-transformer_323254653824.jpg

#

I need an autotransformer. ;)

#

Seems to me you could dial back your soldering iron with those!

#

(serious power handling)

echo agate Nov 28, 2018, 5:57 AM

#

I used it with a pedestal fan to vary its speed, worked pretty well!

dusty citrus Nov 28, 2018, 5:57 AM

#

Yeah the IsoTap steps by 25 volts (up to 125 volts) and you 'add' in 5 volt steps (right knob).

#

So it goes ridiculously low. Great for bringing up old equipment with bad capacitors.

echo agate Nov 28, 2018, 6:01 AM

#

Electronic AC sources are super neat as well, as far as newer stuff. Dial in your frequency and voltage to your heart's desire (some restrictions apply)

#

400Hz, oh yeah!

dusty citrus Nov 28, 2018, 6:02 AM

#

Yeah 400 Hz 3-phase is for aircraft I think.

#

I worked in avionics earlier in life. ;)

echo agate Nov 28, 2018, 6:03 AM

#

Cool! Love instrumentation and sensors and stuff, and avionics are that to the extreme

dusty citrus Nov 28, 2018, 6:04 AM

#

We has two people in high school who were really 'special' when it came to consumption and appliacation of knowledge of radio and electronics.

#

Everybody else was like me, or worse. ;) Kind of a rube character, but far more knowledgeable than the general population.

#

Even in the Air Force, we really only had that one fellow who knew a lot. They told me in tech school that if I ever met this man, to pick his brain. That's exactly what happened -- he happened to be assigned to my unit, when I graduated and got my field assignment.

#

This guy should have been an engineer working for the vendor. He was really good.

echo agate Nov 28, 2018, 6:08 AM

#

I've met quite a lot of people who got into electronics through air force service. Even a few that I went to community college with, haha.

dusty citrus Nov 28, 2018, 6:09 AM

#

I'm happy enough to keep repeating the lessons I learned before I was age 25 in electronics, as refresher, indefinitely. It's so much better standing on firm knowledge than not, for me.

echo agate Nov 28, 2018, 6:11 AM

#

The more natural it is, the better. Sometimes I still feel like I'm developing a better feel for how circuits work after being out of school for...7 or 8 years. Even simple stuff.

dusty citrus Nov 28, 2018, 6:11 AM

#

For me, and from experience -- I mean, I understood French (and spoke it) not badly at all, at age 17.

#

Now I just recognize the vocabulary -- that's about it.

#

(I don't remember the meanings, just recognize 'yeah that's a word and I can spell it').

#

I know how to apply Ohm's Law because I never stopped using it. Ever.

#

If you start throwing RMS at me I'm like "ut-oh". ;)

echo agate Nov 28, 2018, 6:13 AM

#

Oh yeah. I can tell you what RMS means in practical terms, but I'd need to look it up for a real answer.

vernal gale Nov 28, 2018, 6:14 AM

#

Richard M Stallman?

echo agate Nov 28, 2018, 6:16 AM

#

He prefers to be called GNU/Richard M Stallman

dusty citrus Nov 28, 2018, 6:17 AM

#

RMS is like a 0.707 thing.

#

1.4142 I don't remember.

#

oh square root of two probably

#

0.707106781187
1.41421356237

#

wiki
For alternating electric current, RMS is equal to the value of the direct current that would produce the same average power dissipation in a resistive load.

#

keyword is resistive load. oi!

echo agate Nov 28, 2018, 6:21 AM

#

If you want the power to be dissipated, it better be a resistive load!

dusty citrus Nov 28, 2018, 6:24 AM

#

Yeah your 120 VAC is 120 VAC RMS.
the peak value of the mains voltage in the USA is about 120 × √2, or about 170 volts. << wiki

echo agate Nov 28, 2018, 6:26 AM

#

Which also explains why power factor correction preconverter circuits use a 400VDC (or higher) capacitor. 240VAC gets you about 340V peak.

dusty citrus Nov 28, 2018, 6:27 AM

#

Yeah, and Peak-to-Peak of 170 is 340 VAC ;)

#

I read somewhere that your Schlumberger design power meter cannot measure some kinds of power draw effectively.

echo agate Nov 28, 2018, 6:30 AM

#

A simple meter might only produce a good reading with a really well-formed current waveform.

dusty citrus Nov 28, 2018, 6:30 AM

#

https://i.ytimg.com/vi/GvLrP0jcW5A/maxresdefault.jpg

#

I knew a guy had one of those mounted on a piece of plywood with a carrying handle and plug/sockets. ;)

#

Heathkit was associated with Schlumberger for a while.

echo agate Nov 28, 2018, 6:32 AM

#

I toured a company that makes a lot of modern power meter stuff. They had some really cool environment testing setups for seeing how that stuff handles rain and heat and all that.

dusty citrus Nov 28, 2018, 6:32 AM

#

Yeah a Bird wattmeter is all over the place if you have a dirty signal coming off your transmitter. ;)

echo agate Nov 28, 2018, 6:33 AM

#

Haven't touched one of those Birds since my TV internship. Miss that place dearly

dusty citrus Nov 28, 2018, 6:33 AM

#

https://www.martinrfsupply.com/assets/images/media/BirdMetersAccessories/bird_4314_color.jpg

echo agate Nov 28, 2018, 6:35 AM

#

During lab time in the RF comms class, we all got these old VHF TV repeaters to try to get them working and tune them up to produce an output signal with some amount of power. I managed to see about 3W coming out of mine on one of those meters since I had one or two dead preamps, hahah.

dusty citrus Nov 28, 2018, 6:35 AM

#

"Hey kids -- we used to repair those!" -- old tv repair guy

echo agate Nov 28, 2018, 6:36 AM

#

TV translators, rather. I've been out of that stuff for way too long

dusty citrus Nov 28, 2018, 6:36 AM

#

The translator took the signal in on one channel and put it out on another?

echo agate Nov 28, 2018, 6:37 AM

#

Righto

dusty citrus Nov 28, 2018, 6:37 AM

#

That is a repeater. ;)

echo agate Nov 28, 2018, 6:37 AM

#

Ah, gotcha.

#

They were a bunch of pulls from rural repeaters, some of them had awesome-looking tube power amps.

dusty citrus Nov 28, 2018, 6:37 AM

#

Like 146.19 146.79 for the input and output of a 2 meter FM repeater.

#

600 KHz split standard, there.

#

TV sigs are like oh 6 MHz wide channels (dunno the utilized bandwidth but the channel sep is I think 6 MHz)

echo agate Nov 28, 2018, 6:39 AM

#

I think it's 5.5MHz utilized?

dusty citrus Nov 28, 2018, 6:39 AM

#

Wow, that much.

echo agate Nov 28, 2018, 6:39 AM

#

That number sticks out for some reason. Could be wrong.

dusty citrus Nov 28, 2018, 6:39 AM

#

Could be right, too. Rare to have two strong stations assigned to nearby channels.

#

So if you have at least, say, 24 MHz separation between competing on the air stations nearby to one another, that's plenty of separation for the receiver's tuner to work with.

echo agate Nov 28, 2018, 6:41 AM

#

FCC is mighty picky about staying right in your band, too. Need sharp rolloff and a good reference oscillator for your carrier

dusty citrus Nov 28, 2018, 6:41 AM

#

adjacent channel rejection is a consideration in radio receiver design.

#

The thing I learned in high school is that it is much easier to design (or just build from someone's published plans) a radio transmitter, than it is to build and successfully tune a receiver. Much easier.
Receivers are difficult to homebrew! (the old school ones I mean).

echo agate Nov 28, 2018, 6:43 AM

#

Yeah, a receiver on a chip isn't much of a challenge 😉

dusty citrus Nov 28, 2018, 6:43 AM

#

Not today, but boy back when I was a kid and we walked to school uphill both ways, let met tell you .. yadda yadda

#

There was like a 50 Watt television station in Texas, not too far from where I lived.

#

They probably had a pretty lame transmitter. ;)

echo agate Nov 28, 2018, 6:44 AM

#

https://www.amazon.com/Elenco-Radio-Kit-Combines-Transistors/dp/B008515U1U We did these at school to learn about how ye olde fashioned style FM and AM reception and demodulation worked. Built stage by stage, analyzed along the way.

dusty citrus Nov 28, 2018, 6:45 AM

#

That sounds like a good study course.

echo agate Nov 28, 2018, 6:46 AM

#

It was so much fun. Really hard to probe in those circuits with the 80s test equipment we had to work with. The probe capacitance detuned whatever you poked so bad

dusty citrus Nov 28, 2018, 6:47 AM

#

haha yeah I remember that. I have to back out of here and see what's left of the (very early) morning.
Nice back and forth with y'all. ;)

echo agate Nov 28, 2018, 6:47 AM

#

Take care!

soft thicket Nov 28, 2018, 7:09 PM

#

I may or may not have a naming theme going on with the drives in my desktop......

📎 unknown.png

celest thicket Nov 28, 2018, 8:24 PM

#

I loved my wireless KB/Mouse combo (PID: 1738), but it looks like the wireless dongle has wandered off. Anyone know if there is a way to get a new dongle and reassign the hardware to it?

late fulcrum Nov 28, 2018, 8:36 PM

#

They changed suppliers for that in 2017, so the current dongles might or might not work anyway if you have an older unit. I'm guessing there's a way to pair them if you can get another dongle. Who made your keyboard?

celest thicket Nov 28, 2018, 8:41 PM

#

Unit was purchased in January of 2018. I'm not seeing and manufacturer info on the mouse or kb.

dusty citrus Nov 28, 2018, 8:48 PM

#

there must be some way of sniffing out the signal?

#

i mean, isn't it all radio in the end?

late fulcrum Nov 28, 2018, 9:08 PM

#

Probably FastRF, DCB, Bluetooth, Zigbee, or UWB. Which isn't much help, admittedly.

dusty citrus Nov 28, 2018, 9:15 PM

#

what i was thinking was to use some sort of radio receiver hooked up to a scope to see what is actually coming out of the mouse and keyboard

#

and reverse engineer that puppy

late fulcrum Nov 28, 2018, 9:17 PM

#

It would be fun to try that, there's a chance it's a trivial protocol. The name brand ones are generally encrypted, but we don't know who built this one, and it could be a simpler implementation. It might be illuminating to check the system logs from when the dongle was installed (if they're still available) and see what the vendor ID is.

dusty citrus Nov 28, 2018, 9:19 PM

#

also maybe good to open it up and see what's inside

#

maybe a chip with a number on it

late fulcrum Nov 28, 2018, 9:20 PM

#

I'm a big fan of opening stuff up, looking for clues.

jaunty jetty Nov 28, 2018, 9:24 PM

#

needs stealth box

#

does windows still let you put custom icons on your drives?

dusty citrus Nov 28, 2018, 9:25 PM

#

i'm sure u can do it

jaunty jetty Nov 28, 2018, 9:58 PM

#

somebody design build and forfeit to me a 2.5D CNC where a dremil moves along a cylinder that is rotated under it to carve various shapes

#

specifically I'd like to take PVC pipe and carve out a quarter of it plus some mounting holes, so it's a 3/4 circle but with fingers along one edge that I can bolt to the back bottom of my desk and run wires along

late fulcrum Nov 28, 2018, 10:04 PM

#

Basically an Eggbot?

jaunty jetty Nov 28, 2018, 10:04 PM

#

but like 4 feet long and with a dremil and it does kinda need the third axis but only about 2 inches of it

late fulcrum Nov 28, 2018, 10:06 PM

#

Ah, the Ostrich Eggbot Pro Plus Extreme XXL 4000.

jaunty jetty Nov 28, 2018, 10:06 PM

#

that is the most terrifying ostrich that has ever been imagined

late fulcrum Nov 28, 2018, 10:08 PM

#

If I saw that ostrich, I'd want The Hand of Man to spank it with!

jaunty jetty Nov 28, 2018, 10:09 PM

#

learn from the emu wars, man is not meant to defeat bird

late fulcrum Nov 28, 2018, 10:09 PM

#

Okay, I admit it, I just want to play with The Hand of Man.

dusty citrus Nov 28, 2018, 10:40 PM

#

https://i.ebayimg.com/images/g/hMoAAOSwpHpbFKQJ/s-l1600.jpg

#

this is supposed to be a nodemcu board

#

but i don't see the esp8266 on there

#

what am i looking at?

jaunty jetty Nov 28, 2018, 10:41 PM

#

it's the chip under FR

dusty citrus Nov 28, 2018, 10:41 PM

#

no metal box?

jaunty jetty Nov 28, 2018, 10:42 PM

#

ESP MCUs typically come as modules, but they also come as not modules

dusty citrus Nov 28, 2018, 10:42 PM

#

ic

jaunty jetty Nov 28, 2018, 10:42 PM

#

exactly

dusty citrus Nov 28, 2018, 10:42 PM

#

lol

jaunty jetty Nov 28, 2018, 11:03 PM

#

@late fulcrum making those curvespoint at the center of the tube is wrong and one of the most convoluted things I've done in CATIA

📎 unknown.png

late fulcrum Nov 28, 2018, 11:06 PM

#

Tricky! Looks like a giant Velobind spine.

jaunty jetty Nov 28, 2018, 11:07 PM

#

you'd run wires along the tube, and then slot them between some fingers where you want to pull them out, so everything lays in place real good

#

but that curve would be a huge pain to make manually

late fulcrum Nov 28, 2018, 11:07 PM

#

Similar concept to a cable ladder.

jaunty jetty Nov 28, 2018, 11:07 PM

#

yep

#

and if I had an eggnormitron with a dremil I could mill it out of PVC pipe real cheap

late fulcrum Nov 28, 2018, 11:09 PM

#

Yeah, a rotary actuator seems like the way to go for this sort of thing.

jaunty jetty Nov 28, 2018, 11:10 PM

#

a stepper with gearing so the step angle is smaller would be good

late fulcrum Nov 28, 2018, 11:10 PM

#

As long as you deal with backlash carefully.

jaunty jetty Nov 28, 2018, 11:11 PM

#

I tend to use belts a lot

late fulcrum Nov 28, 2018, 11:12 PM

#

I'm fond of cog belts for that sort of use.

jaunty jetty Nov 28, 2018, 11:23 PM

#

I feel like if I could give this a budget, it'd probably be pretty cheap to build

#

the horizontal axis can be some steel flatbar bolted to aluminum extrusion with standoffs and the dremil carrier straddling the flatbar with groove bearings, then some kind of little Z axis mechanism; then the cylinder to be cut would be mounted like on a lathe between 'centers' using cones or plate jaws with a gearing reduction to the stepper; the rest is just framing I'd probably use cheap lumber

#

given none of this should need strong motors that's probably 20~30$ worth of metals, and maybe 40~60$ of steppers/drivers/supplies

#

it would be useful for projects like this if there existed a seesaw brand software suite to turn SAMD boards into motion controllers

#

generic stepper controllers accept input via optocouplers, the typical controller has step, dir, and enable, then in an ideal world the motion controller would monitor the coil leads via inductance to somehow watch for missed steps, or integrate an encoder to monitor actual motion. So a motion controller board for a single axis would need to generate pulses in various modes and offer acceleration curves plus homing

#

it'd of course be better to have a combined motion controller for any axis that are expected to be involved in the same motions, like drawing a circle, so that those maneuvers can be synced

#

at one end you could do a lot with any SAMD board and a specialized seesaw variant with features concerning the management of steppers, at the other end some circuitry would be really nice

late fulcrum Nov 28, 2018, 11:42 PM

#

I tend to use GRBL for that sort of thing.

jaunty jetty Nov 28, 2018, 11:43 PM

#

I don't remember what that is

late fulcrum Nov 28, 2018, 11:43 PM

#

G-Code interpreter for Arduino-like boards. Add something like a Quadstepper or some of those encoder-steppers and you're most of the way there.

jaunty jetty Nov 28, 2018, 11:45 PM

#

this is my stepper driver https://www.omc-stepperonline.com/image/cache/catalog/stepper-driver/main-pic/digital-stepper-driver-10-42a-20-50vdc-for-nema-17-23-24-stepper-motor-382-1000x1000.jpg
or at least one very similar

#

I'm not gonna walk 10 feet and read a thing to be sure

#

mine supports I think up to about 260 watts

late fulcrum Nov 28, 2018, 11:46 PM

#

That's way cheaper than a Geckodriver.

jaunty jetty Nov 28, 2018, 11:47 PM

#

gecko is expensive and good but their devices are essentially the same at the low end

#

they sell motion controllers, but that's not in the budget

#

I mean functionally not in terms of value

#

gecko has way higher value, at an appropriately higher price

#

this has inputs for current control and goes up to 80V but it's the same overall functionality and you interact with it in the same way https://www.geckodrive.com/media/catalog/product/cache/926507dc7f93631a094422215b778fe0/g/2/g201x-4.jpg

#

it's also 109$

#

which is over 4 times what I paid for mine, which works acceptably, and 3 times more than the total amount I have spent on drivers, given the first didn't remotely work

late fulcrum Nov 28, 2018, 11:52 PM

#

Looks like they don't make the Quadstepper any more.

jaunty jetty Nov 28, 2018, 11:53 PM

#

they have one for 65$ that doesn't have an enclosure and is probably lighter on the features, that's still a lot even when I had money

#

but~

late fulcrum Nov 28, 2018, 11:54 PM

#

The weird thing about the Stepperonline one is the "steps per revolution" setting. You can get stepper motors with step angles from 30° to 1.8°.

jaunty jetty Nov 28, 2018, 11:54 PM

#

these are all dumb drivers, they need to be fed steps, and controlling them that way is complicated and disruptive for a general purpose MC

late fulcrum Nov 28, 2018, 11:54 PM

#

It's probably just a microstepping setting but instead of giving the microsteps per cycle, it gives these numbers based on some sort of assumption about the motor hooked to it.

jaunty jetty Nov 28, 2018, 11:55 PM

#

yea, it's a chinese company

#

but their drivers and steppers are of a quality befiting their price, while not being bad

late fulcrum Nov 28, 2018, 11:56 PM

#

Weirdly, people try to run these controllers from PCs, which makes even less sense than using a dedicated µcontroller.

jaunty jetty Nov 28, 2018, 11:56 PM

#

the first driver I bought was 12$, no brand, and couldn't relibly rotate an unloaded stepper in the same direction

#

not these no

#

you control a motion controller with a PC, but also probably with a management board

late fulcrum Nov 28, 2018, 11:57 PM

#

Yeah, it makes sense to offload the timing to dedicated hardware.

jaunty jetty Nov 28, 2018, 11:58 PM

#

with drivers you give it a pulse and it moves a step, ideally, with a motion controller you can tell it "move 10 steps that way" and it'll tell you when that's done, or you can tell it "move counterclockwise at 10 steps per second" and it'll do that continuously

late fulcrum Nov 28, 2018, 11:58 PM

#

Or "go this far in this time, with this acceleration curve" for the fancier ones, which can also do coördinated motion of more than one axis.

jaunty jetty Nov 28, 2018, 11:59 PM

#

if it supports more than one axis or talking to other motion controllers

#

btw, geck's motion controller https://www.geckodrive.com/media/catalog/product/cache/926507dc7f93631a094422215b778fe0/g/m/gm215-6.jpg
155$, with a budget that could be reasonable

#

but imagine a world where you hotglue an itsbitsy to a 25$ OMC stepper driver and get a 40$ motion controller that works well enough to justify paying 40$ for it

#

btw I've been using this driver with one of OMC's steppers for over a year, and for the first 10 months it was running off 2 laptop powersupplies in series, and that worked

#

let's see that's the 23HS33-4008D NEMA 23 uni/bi 2.83Nm motor and DM542T 4.2A 20-50VDC driver

late fulcrum Nov 29, 2018, 12:03 AM

#

Earlier you mentioned watching the inductive EMF to detect missed steps. While I assume this is possible, I think the usual approach is position encoding. Closed-loop steppers like the Mechaduino work this way.

jaunty jetty Nov 29, 2018, 12:04 AM

#

yea, encoding is definitely possible and it'd probably work better with an MC, but it's not always practical to strap an encoder onto a project, just physically

#

what I really worry is that it may be possible to detect that steps were missed, but there's probably no way to track position once they have been in that way, while an encoder on the shaft is gonna keep track regardless

late fulcrum Nov 29, 2018, 12:06 AM

#

I'm fond of the teeny magnetic encoders, they'll fit nearly anywhere.

dusty citrus Nov 29, 2018, 12:07 AM

#

that sounds interesting, got a link to those?

late fulcrum Nov 29, 2018, 12:09 AM

#

I've seen two kinds. There are the absolute ones that tell you the current angle directly https://ams.com/as5048a and the quadrature ones that just give pulses showing the speed and direction of rotation https://www.pololu.com/product/3081

dusty citrus Nov 29, 2018, 12:09 AM

#

thanks 😃

jaunty jetty Nov 29, 2018, 12:11 AM

#

so that'd be a resolution of 0.0219 degrees

#

that's probably more resolution than is worth looking at, I wonder what the noise looks like. 5$, nice, for 500 units, pass but neat

jaunty jetty Nov 29, 2018, 12:43 AM

#

even without absolute feedback it'd be really useful

grave crest Nov 29, 2018, 1:21 AM

#

Anyone have experience using this specific rotary tool? I'm considering getting it as a portable dremel-like rotary tool...

https://www.homedepot.com/p/Milwaukee-M12-12-Volt-Lithium-Ion-Cordless-Rotary-Tool-Tool-Only-2460-20/203111683

The Home Depot

Milwaukee M12 12-Volt Lithium-Ion Cordless Rotary Tool (Tool-Only)...

Milwaukee Lithium-Ion Cordless Rotary Tool is ideal for maintenance contractors, electricians and plumbers. Delivers exceptional performance.

karmic kite Nov 29, 2018, 1:26 AM

#

no but thats tempting

#

I've been using a die grinder as a dremel lately... goes through bits really fast

vestal phoenix Nov 29, 2018, 2:28 AM

#

@grave crest I can attest that Milwaukee tools are good. I use the M12 drill driver and impact driver all the time. I would say that is probably a ruggedized version of the Dremel portable "uncorded battery" tool I have - variable speed. The Dremel did a good job of cutting off a rusty padlock. For any high speed rotary cutting tool, eye protection is a must.

grave crest Nov 29, 2018, 2:30 AM

#

👁 But....my pirate costume?

vestal phoenix Nov 29, 2018, 2:30 AM

#

Order an extra hallowing?

dusty citrus Nov 29, 2018, 2:32 AM

#

pirate protip: if u wear an eyepatch you only need half the eye protection 😛

vestal phoenix Nov 29, 2018, 2:35 AM

#

welder's pirate protip: if u weld and wear a pirate outfit, make sure they are made of a suitable nonflammable material.

proven olive Nov 29, 2018, 2:37 AM

#

@vestal phoenix Are you speaking from experience?

vestal phoenix Nov 29, 2018, 2:38 AM

#

@proven olive I try. The rest I google. Nope. Can't say that I even have a pirate outfit.

dusty citrus Nov 29, 2018, 2:41 AM

#

i have a pirate hat AND a skull ring 😛

vestal phoenix Nov 29, 2018, 2:43 AM

#

I do participate in Speak like a pirate Day.

dusty citrus Nov 29, 2018, 2:44 AM

#

lol that's kinda where i draw the line 😛

vestal phoenix Nov 29, 2018, 2:46 AM

#

Arrrr, Speak Like a Pirate Day was the 19th of September. The tide already rolled out on that one.

late fulcrum Nov 29, 2018, 3:04 AM

#

Whereas I do have a pirate outfit

📎 pirate-spam-600.jpg

dusty citrus Nov 29, 2018, 3:04 AM

#

lol

#

i done got outpirated 😛

vestal phoenix Nov 29, 2018, 4:17 AM

#

@late fulcrum Is that regular everyday dress or just for business casual Fridays?

grave crest Nov 29, 2018, 4:52 AM

#

you dress for the job you want.

#

Which is why I go to work every day in an NASA EVA suit.

#

It helps with the pollution too.

vestal phoenix Nov 29, 2018, 5:15 AM

#

It helps to have 4-wheel drive on the car to navigate the moon-craters were have here for road obstacles.

grave crest Nov 29, 2018, 5:58 AM

#

The moon rover was actually tested on the Cross-Bronx Expressway. [no, not really]

#

Dual-fold testing -- navigating craters, and situational testing in case they meet aliens who drive like maniacs.

covert spire Nov 29, 2018, 6:03 AM

#

Wasn't there a street legal replica of it tho?

#

Twst it in Michigan in May, real craters to find yourself avoiding

karmic kite Nov 29, 2018, 3:07 PM

#

looking at the capacitive touch options with the playground express, a project idea for a gift could be a teddy bear with silver threads through out it that makes noise as someone holds it:P

jaunty jetty Nov 29, 2018, 3:55 PM

#

I think you need to expand that with behaviors that couldn't be achieved using a ball switch or an accelerometer, for maximum cool

karmic kite Nov 29, 2018, 3:59 PM

#

true, I feel like the softness of thread vs a pushbutton would be nicer to touch

jaunty jetty Nov 29, 2018, 3:59 PM

#

ball switches are very rough orientation/isMove sensors

#

there's a ball in a tube with some contacts, in rest position the ball is shorting the contacts and if you tilt or shake it the ball moves

karmic kite Nov 29, 2018, 4:13 PM

#

fair enough, maybe slightly haptic feed back or activate handwarmer inside the bear while its being held

jaunty jetty Nov 29, 2018, 4:29 PM

#

maybe some kind of less creepy teddy ruckspin thing; but to me the idea of putting a heating element in a teddybear sounds.... darwinian

vestal phoenix Nov 29, 2018, 5:55 PM

#

@karmic kite There have been projects I've seen with "conductive fur". You use conductive thread or yarn to act as strands of hair. One of the holy grails is to replicate a true touch tactile feedback surface.

jaunty jetty Nov 29, 2018, 6:50 PM

#

I'm not sure of the durability, but for short term projects you could probably mush activated charcoal (carbon dust) into the fur to extend the contact area of the conductive thread, and if your'e careful you could sew the thread under the fur instead of on top so the thread is much less visible

late fulcrum Nov 29, 2018, 6:52 PM

#

It might work to spray it with a static guard type product to make it somewhat conductive, but I'm not sure of the durability of that either.

jaunty jetty Nov 29, 2018, 6:54 PM

#

oo yea, because that's particulate silver

#

and that wouldn't make the fur very dark, and rub off visibly on your fingers

late fulcrum Nov 29, 2018, 7:01 PM

#

I thought it was ditallow dimethyl ammonium chloride.

jaunty jetty Nov 29, 2018, 7:04 PM

#

apparently http://content.rpgov.net/dpw/right_to_know/Borough Hall/Static Guard.pdf

#

it's always amazing how little of the useful thing needs to be in products like this, less than 2% ditallowdimonium chloride

#

pfff

📎 unknown.png

dusty citrus Nov 30, 2018, 7:01 AM

#

im so scared today i'm in for a shoulder replacement

dusty citrus Nov 30, 2018, 11:57 AM

#

auch

covert spire Nov 30, 2018, 2:44 PM

#

Why?

karmic kite Nov 30, 2018, 8:04 PM

#

Interview scheduled with a chip design designing company!

echo agate Nov 30, 2018, 8:11 PM

#

Sounds exciting! Best of luck 🤞

grave crest Nov 30, 2018, 8:24 PM

#

Good luck! It's time to bring in some fresh ideas to the industry -- we need more than just Sour Cream & Onion....or Mesquite BBQ.

karmic kite Nov 30, 2018, 8:25 PM

#

no no they design stuff so you can design stuff 😛 new chip shapes if you will

echo agate Nov 30, 2018, 8:26 PM

#

I was getting bored of all the old shapes anyways

grave crest Nov 30, 2018, 8:27 PM

#

Sounds delicious 😃

#

In all seriousness, good luck @karmic kite -- I hope it goes well.

karmic kite Nov 30, 2018, 8:30 PM

#

are square chips just crackers?

#

thanks!

grave crest Dec 1, 2018, 2:53 AM

#

Hope everyone is enjoying their Friday!

vestal phoenix Dec 1, 2018, 3:59 AM

#

@grave crest

📎 SparkyMrCertainly.mp4

grave crest Dec 1, 2018, 4:03 AM

#

@vestal phoenix That's wicked awesome

#

I love, it, thank you.

vestal phoenix Dec 1, 2018, 4:05 AM

#

It's just an empty takeout soup container with some neopixels...

grave crest Dec 1, 2018, 4:16 AM

#

Irreverent DIY 😃 Even better.

dusty citrus Dec 1, 2018, 3:10 PM

#

anybody here know anything about chemistry?

#

https://youtu.be/jnC6cvqty7M?t=287

YouTube

physicsfun

AMAZING Physics Toys That You Will LOVE!

Hi Everyone :) Welcome back! I get asked often: "Where did you get all this stuff?" My goal is to share the real magic of science and physics- and to this en...

▶ Play video

#

in that video is a lavalamp with ferrofluid that reacts to magnets

#

i want to know what the liquids are likely to be

vestal phoenix Dec 1, 2018, 3:48 PM

#

@dusty citrus You can pick any one. https://www.instructables.com/howto/ferrofluid/

dusty citrus Dec 1, 2018, 3:49 PM

#

well yeah i know how to make ferrofluid

#

but i specifically want to know how to suspend it in oil like that without things mixing

#

remember that movie 'the blob' ?

#

i want to make an animated blob with electromagnets

vestal phoenix Dec 1, 2018, 3:52 PM

#

the oil is suspended in water without things mixing

#

a lava lamp is really a waxy substance that is melted or heated up

dusty citrus Dec 1, 2018, 3:53 PM

#

so the ferrofluid is oil suspended in water? not the other way around?

#

yeah but judging by the light i don't think there's heat involved in that one

#

not much anyway

vestal phoenix Dec 1, 2018, 3:55 PM

#

experiment with some kind of iron dust sludge in water

dusty citrus Dec 1, 2018, 3:55 PM

#

anyway i don't want it to move without the magnets

#

i have a thing of printer toner, that works

#

it's just that the toner mixes with both water and oil

vestal phoenix Dec 1, 2018, 3:57 PM

#

I guess you will have to find some kind of oil to make a toner particle paste or blob

dusty citrus Dec 1, 2018, 3:58 PM

#

i have some thing i can try, but if i mix the toner with the oil first, it won't mix with the water then i drop the oil/toner mix in there?

vestal phoenix Dec 1, 2018, 3:59 PM

#

Experiment and observe

dusty citrus Dec 1, 2018, 3:59 PM

#

i guess lol

#

i never got chemistry in school...

vestal phoenix Dec 1, 2018, 4:00 PM

#

ah, form your hypothesis - I've got an idea that might work. Should work.

#

prove your hypothesis right or wrong. Adjust and try again...

dusty citrus Dec 1, 2018, 4:00 PM

#

well in this case we have a working example

#

ill figure it out

vestal phoenix Dec 1, 2018, 4:01 PM

#

well, that's half the fun in trying to reverse engineer something

dusty citrus Dec 1, 2018, 4:01 PM

#

lol true

karmic kite Dec 1, 2018, 7:33 PM

#

wireshark has usb packet exploring?

silver shale Dec 1, 2018, 8:03 PM

#

look at the name of this

📎 RobloxScreenShot20181201_113334724.png

jaunty jetty Dec 1, 2018, 8:10 PM

#

yanno what's cool? this https://www.adafruit.com/product/3589
I don't think I've seen it before, looks good

Adafruit PiUART - USB Console and Power Add-on for Raspberry Pi

Here's another super handy add-on for your Raspberry Pi computer, perfect for 'head-less' setups! The PiUART adds a MicroUSB to serial connection so you can use any serial port ...

#

I am interested in the decision to use an SMD pin header and have plated through holes appropriate for using through hole headers, maybe so you can slip this 'shim' on long headers between boards? maybe because it'd be difficult to use that molten solder pen machine to solder the through hole pins upside down? very interesting~

jaunty jetty Dec 1, 2018, 8:48 PM

#

hey, did you know that the first rover ever landed on mars without destroying itself was part of the USSR's Mars 3 lander, it was named Prop-M, and it's this wonderful nonsense http://planetary.s3.amazonaws.com/assets/images/spacecraft/2013/20130412_Mars3_RoverAnim.gif

#

unfortunately it was dependent on the Mars 3 lander via a cable, and the lander died shortly after landing

#

it used the two bars on the front to detect obstacles and route steer around them https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/5/5a/Mars_propm_rover.jpg

#

Mars 3 landed December 2nd 1971

#

tomorrow is this beauty's 47th year on mars

#

if you have the capacity, why not build one in celebration~

tender nimbus Dec 2, 2018, 6:56 AM

#

😱 That is soo cool

buoyant cradle Dec 2, 2018, 10:06 PM

#

That is a very simple method of locomotion 😃

grave crest Dec 2, 2018, 10:14 PM

#

Launched in 1971, so it was probably under development back in the late 60's. I'd give them a pass on the simple design for their first time going to another planet 😃

karmic kite Dec 2, 2018, 10:15 PM

#

the kiss design method is never a bad plan

vestal phoenix Dec 2, 2018, 10:31 PM

#

if you fail to plan, you plan to fail.

soft thicket Dec 2, 2018, 10:32 PM

#

I plan to plan. but life gets in the way lol

vestal phoenix Dec 2, 2018, 10:32 PM

#

a bad plan is better than nothing?

#

but I love it when a plan comes together - A-Team

soft thicket Dec 2, 2018, 10:34 PM

#

Oh DEFINITLY

covert spire Dec 2, 2018, 11:09 PM

#

"As you can see, I don't just make one plan, I have many of many." Leverage

jaunty jetty Dec 2, 2018, 11:13 PM

#

"that was plan C, we're on plan F now, keep up"

main kiln Dec 2, 2018, 11:23 PM

#

My only argument is that there seems to be a huge correlation between "I have planned for this failure, and it has happened". I often have not found my plans for failure haven't resulted in the failure occurring, and with how little unplanned for failures I have had, I seem to think that I am inducing a failure to justify my plan...

languid pagoda Dec 2, 2018, 11:31 PM

#

Hey guys!

grave crest Dec 2, 2018, 11:38 PM

#

I haven't failed, I've just found many ways that don't work.

#

Lots...of ways.

languid pagoda Dec 3, 2018, 12:02 AM

#

LOL

proven olive Dec 3, 2018, 1:10 AM

#

It's not failure, it's a learning experience.

ocean sigil Dec 3, 2018, 1:12 AM

#

Experience is being able to recognize your mistakes when you make them again 😉

grave crest Dec 3, 2018, 1:14 AM

#

And just to be on the safe side, we issue nametags with breakaway lanyards.

#

In case we didn't recognize them at first.

jaunty jetty Dec 3, 2018, 1:20 AM

#

this seems like it'd be pretty approachable to build out of adafruit products and some 3D printed parts https://youtu.be/iv8ryVux6eQ

YouTube

Techmoan

Fixing Mr Dengon

An unusual vintage voice recorder from Japan. ---------------SUBSCRIBE------------------ http://www.youtube.com/user/Techmoan?sub_confirmation=1 ------------...

▶ Play video

#

although I'd want to make those cards identifying , maybe using conductive pads with pogo pins in a sort of QR code layout and a scanning grid arrangement

#

the M4 Neotrellis can accept a mic input, pretty sure that uses I2S and the M4 Feather is supposed to have I2S so maybe it's working now, that could be used to record and play back short audio messages, the cards act as a key (I guess NFC would be easier than pogo pins) to record over or read back the stored message. Then it just needs some kind of visual flag for an unread message

dusty citrus Dec 3, 2018, 2:53 AM

#

Can someone tell me a nice way to learn electronics?

#

I know basics

#

But...I'm bad

#

I want to be, "good"

#

Ummmmmm..that's really all I can say, lol

jaunty jetty Dec 3, 2018, 2:55 AM

#

projects

#

think of a thing, start doing it, get stuck, figure it out

dusty citrus Dec 3, 2018, 2:56 AM

#

Thanks

#

I'll keep that in mind

#

I'm not much of a project guy, but that seems like a good plan

karmic kite Dec 3, 2018, 2:56 AM

#

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c0bsKc4tiuY

YouTube

TED

Why you should make useless things | Simone Giertz

In this joyful, heartfelt talk featuring demos of her wonderfully wacky creations, Simone Giertz shares her craft: making useless robots. Her inventions -- d...

▶ Play video

dusty citrus Dec 3, 2018, 2:56 AM

#

Wow

karmic kite Dec 3, 2018, 2:56 AM

#

^ watch

dusty citrus Dec 3, 2018, 2:56 AM

#

For me?

#

Well, I mean...nvm

#

Ok

#

Wait a second!!!!!

#

It's her!!

#

I know I've seen her before

karmic kite Dec 3, 2018, 3:02 AM

#

shes pretty popular, but her story has helped me a lot

#

Im trying to find the exact quote but trying to fail allows you to just play with the things

jaunty jetty Dec 3, 2018, 3:02 AM

#

is that TED talk before or after the tumor?

karmic kite Dec 3, 2018, 3:03 AM

#

before iirc

jaunty jetty Dec 3, 2018, 3:03 AM

#

ah, she's only gotten more impressive

karmic kite Dec 3, 2018, 3:09 AM

#

that wasn't the talk I was thinking of apparently but she designs things to fail, and if they actually work then awesome

jaunty jetty Dec 3, 2018, 3:10 AM

#

I wouldn't say she designs things to fail, but she designs them to be dumb because the task is to make the thing not to make a good thing

#

btw, this is great https://youtu.be/-lpvy-xkSNA

YouTube

Simone Giertz

How I managed to meditate every day for a year

Check out the Every Day Calendar on Kickstarter! This link will magically transfer you there: 🌟https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/simonegiertz/the-every-da...

▶ Play video

#

she reveals about half way through that it's entirely solid state, a huge PCB with capacitive buttons and the light is shining through the PCB, that's such great design

#

I'm really impressed that she was able to get a PCB of that scale manufactured, but also the premise of backlit PCB capacitive buttons offers a lot of design choice for small interfaces, especially if they're neopixels

karmic kite Dec 3, 2018, 3:13 AM

#

it was a quote from her somewhere

proven olive Dec 3, 2018, 3:13 AM

#

@jaunty jetty Yeah. Backlit capacitive PCBs.... ooooh

dusty citrus Dec 3, 2018, 3:16 AM

#

I find it pretty annoying when I'm making something, and then I learn about something else, and I want to make another thing, so I end up making a part of the second thing, but then that repeats, and all of my "projects" just die down

jaunty jetty Dec 3, 2018, 3:16 AM

#

organize

dusty citrus Dec 3, 2018, 3:16 AM

#

I need to control myself

#

Yes, consistency

jaunty jetty Dec 3, 2018, 3:16 AM

#

nah not even

#

make sure every project you start the files are all organized, annotated, collected, and labelled so that if you come back in 6 months you're capable of figuring out what you were up to

#

take notes, write down design goals and things you learned

#

some projects die, it happens

#

and then yea, organize your effort, work on sticking to things and being critical of new projects when there are old projects, but at the same time be critical of continuing projects that seem like they aren't working out

dusty citrus Dec 3, 2018, 3:19 AM

#

I see

proven olive Dec 3, 2018, 3:19 AM

#

Don't force projects just to finish projects.

dusty citrus Dec 3, 2018, 3:20 AM

#

Yeah, that's a nice thing to have in mind

proven olive Dec 3, 2018, 3:20 AM

#

At the same time, finishing projects feels really good

jaunty jetty Dec 3, 2018, 3:20 AM

#

if you spend time on a thing, walk away, and lose everything because it's a mess that you wouldn't be able to get back into; and you didn't learn anything from it, then that was unproductive time and it better have been fun because if it wasn't fun, and it wasn't useful, it was wasted

dusty citrus Dec 3, 2018, 3:21 AM

#

That's...wow

karmic kite Dec 3, 2018, 3:22 AM

#

I think one of my favourite ones I did when I first started was a magic mirror

proven olive Dec 3, 2018, 3:22 AM

#

Also, following what @jaunty jetty said: Keeping notes and stuff is great because if you stop due to lost interest, you can easily pick up again when you go "Hmm, I want to work on that"

dusty citrus Dec 3, 2018, 3:22 AM

#

To reiterate, I have only done this for 3 years, and I feel like for those 3 years, I know way too little

proven olive Dec 3, 2018, 3:22 AM

#

I've had projects I've wanted to work on again, just to go "Oh, I have no idea what's going on" and drop it.

karmic kite Dec 3, 2018, 3:23 AM

#

the problem with learning more is you learning about more things and realize you don't know anything

dusty citrus Dec 3, 2018, 3:23 AM

#

Exactly!!!

proven olive Dec 3, 2018, 3:23 AM

#

@dusty citrus Try not to compare yourself to others. Not only is the way people learn different, the resources - especially time - that can be spent by you and others are different

dusty citrus Dec 3, 2018, 3:23 AM

#

And the way Greys talks really fuels that, XD

#

I understand

karmic kite Dec 3, 2018, 3:25 AM

#

a fun site if you just wanna build some boards for fun is kelvin electronics or canakits, they both offer super cheap projects that are easy and can teach you alot

#

klein electronics are definitely not cheap I mispelled:P

grave crest Dec 3, 2018, 4:42 AM

#

I second the necessity of creating proper documentation.

Life gets busy. We get distracted. If we take excellent notes, pictures, document our code -- it'll make it easier for us or others to pick up where we left off.

At first, doesn't matter how you do it. To borrow from Nike: Just do it.

I personally take tons of photos and use Microsoft OneNote to organize/sync/share my project notes. It works for me. You'll grow into your own system. But you have to start somewhere.

#

....photos are so easy because I have a phone with an AWESOME camera within arm's reach at nearly all times. Photos + videos can be done easily, in no time.

In the past, we used to break out our AA-powered point-and-shoot cameras. Then have to copy those files over to a computer, edit & sort them, etc.

vestal phoenix Dec 3, 2018, 4:45 AM

#

Are you documenting the necessity of creating proper documentation?

grave crest Dec 3, 2018, 4:45 AM

#

@vestal phoenix Don't laugh. I've had to do that for coworkers.

vestal phoenix Dec 3, 2018, 4:46 AM

#

Duly noted.

dusty citrus Dec 3, 2018, 12:47 PM

#

Hahaha

#

Nice

soft thicket Dec 3, 2018, 1:10 PM

#

I think this is SUPER COOL. but I wish it wasnt soooo expensive. https://www.amazon.com/Hakko-C1390C-Omnivise-PCB-Holder/dp/B00IX2H050/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1543842456&sr=8-1&keywords=omnivise

Omnivise PCB Holder: Amazon.com: Industrial & Scientific

jaunty jetty Dec 3, 2018, 1:41 PM

#

https://i.ytimg.com/vi/OAwdKvbRiUY/maxresdefault.jpg

#

Its basically a cylinder with a threaded hole, a bolt, a washer, and some rubber layers

#

Useful I agree, but not 65$

late fulcrum Dec 3, 2018, 1:44 PM

#

This one is nice: https://www.elektor.com/eleksfix-magnetic-pcb-holder

EleksFix - Magnetic PCB Holder - Elektor

Tired of the whole mess, when soldering? Having to hold your board with one hand and assembly it only with the other hand? EleksMaker delivers a high-quality product to suit your needs elegantly.

jaunty jetty Dec 3, 2018, 1:45 PM

#

I'd pay 50$ for that one

late fulcrum Dec 3, 2018, 1:45 PM

#

This one is also quite handy. https://www.aventools.com/product/adjustable-circuit-board-holder/

Aven Tools

aventools

Adjustable Circuit Board Holder

#

Full disclosure: I own both of those.

jaunty jetty Dec 3, 2018, 1:47 PM

#

Good decision

#

so on the omnivice, nerr as I can tell the knobby bit is just a latched raiser mechanism to lift the black cylinder, so that's nice but optional and the way they've done it would need a forth live forth axis which is probably why this thing costs so much

#

if you had a drillpress you could drill and tap a hole in aluminum rod, and importantly have it well parallel with the side of the rod, add 2 sheets of maybe 2~4mm rubber sheeting cut to fit, a bolt, a washer, yer done

#

the hard part will be getting smooth ends on the rod, that are perpindicular to the rod axis

#

if you have a lathe you can probably make these and sell them for like 12$ each so if you need some cash~

#

here's a visually appealing video about making functionally the same thing in a few ways https://youtu.be/DRJwCWFe_jA

YouTube

This Old Tony

Lazy MACHINISTS' JACKS

Machinists' jacks are useful everywhere and can be a great lathe project: turning, threading, knurling, etc. Took the easy way out this time and used threade...

▶ Play video

late fulcrum Dec 3, 2018, 2:03 PM

#

You could also just have a row of holes and spring latches.

jaunty jetty Dec 3, 2018, 2:03 PM

#

then if you have a mill you could make the latch lift mechanism by drilling holes at the end of travel and milling slots , the walls of the slots will be pointing the wrong directions, but it'll work; oh and you'll need a lathe to get a pretty tight fit between the piston and the cylinder walls or it'll be all wobbly

#

yea detents aren't that hard to make

#

This Old Tony has 2(?) videos about them, you need a steel ball, a hole in the pistol the ball fits in, holes in the cylinder the ball doesn't fit in, and a spring

late fulcrum Dec 3, 2018, 2:06 PM

#

Or the even easier way with tapped holes or through holes and clevis pins.

jaunty jetty Dec 3, 2018, 2:07 PM

#

blind holes, a steel pin, glue magnets in the bottom of the holes

#

so many solutions!

#

but like if you wanted to make really nice looking ones that were in no way functionally better but people would buy at a higher price, you'll need a lathe so you can make everything concentric, add knurls, polish it up, etc

#

the only way to make it cost 65$ is with that live 4th axis toolpath

jaunty jetty Dec 3, 2018, 2:26 PM

#

for those without a background in CNCs, on a mill you've got 3 axis, left, up, and back, the spindle spins but you only control speed so it doesn't count. A fourth axis is like here, where you mount a chuck on the bed, it holds the part and can rotate it, but a Live 4th axis is special. Normal 4th axises have to rotate into position and then engage a pneumatic brake to hold them in place while you're milling, or they'll shift and your endmill will explode and your part will be destroyed because it has bits of endmill stuck in it and endmills can't mill endmills. A live 4th axis is strong enough that not only is it able to work without a brake, but it can intentionally move while you're milling

📎 maxresdefault.png

#

the toolpath of that height adjust involves inserting the endmill into the pipe, and then rotating the pipe to cut the arms, which isn't useful but looks nice

#

the cost comes in that having a 4th axis is expensive, and keeping it operational is time consuming, and designing code for it is expensive and time consuming due to the frequency of exploded endmills when you did something wrong; running the program doesn't take that long and won't be particularly more expensive electrically, but because of the investments time on that mill is worth more than time on other mills

karmic kite Dec 3, 2018, 2:44 PM

#

When I'm using a rotational axis, I prefer the manual mill so I don't have to figured out the g code 😛

#

except on our laser cutter, the rotational axis replaces the y axis

jaunty jetty Dec 3, 2018, 2:44 PM

#

you have a rotational laser cutter? that sounds awesome

karmic kite Dec 3, 2018, 2:45 PM

#

its an attachment for our flatbed

#

https://fslaser.com/Product/Pro4836 we have the friction and chuck attachments

Full Spectrum Laser

#

what I did before that was fill my lines with gradient values, so the laser would change intensity as it went along the edge. Actually worked pretty great

jaunty jetty Dec 3, 2018, 2:47 PM

#

nice

#

it's interesting how in practical applications there's almost never cause to move on more than two axis at any given time, and you can usually figure out a different way to get back down to two axis

#

they do exist, but boy is it rare that you'd actually have to do that

karmic kite Dec 3, 2018, 2:50 PM

#

again design with the kiss protocol and your life is a lot easier

jaunty jetty Dec 3, 2018, 2:52 PM

#

even when Frank Howarth did that big depthmap milling operation, the mill scanned over the wood in lines, the lines had width and depth, it was just a series of 2D profiles

karmic kite Dec 3, 2018, 2:54 PM

#

Running through image processing, I still get tripped when you have [x,y] array of [r,g,b]. It sounds simple in theory, in practice 5 vectors is weird to work with.

jaunty jetty Dec 3, 2018, 2:56 PM

#

https://youtu.be/Z0A03jskWVg?t=622

YouTube

frank howarth

Making Mount St. Helens

We went for a day trip to Mount St. Helens. I wanted to do a project that could find its inspiration in that trip. I thought it would be nice to carve a terr...

▶ Play video

#

how adjustable is the power level of your laser?

karmic kite Dec 3, 2018, 2:57 PM

#

I can cut 60lb paper to 1/2" plywood

#

and engraving as well

#

I like how simple his cnc is,

late fulcrum Dec 3, 2018, 3:05 PM

#

I usually remap the [x,y] vector into a one-dimensional one, containing [r,g,b] data as structs/tuples/whatever.

karmic kite Dec 3, 2018, 3:05 PM

#

the one I've been doing for sake of effiency is convert to one long numpy array and then reconvert it back after

late fulcrum Dec 3, 2018, 3:06 PM

#

I looked at fslaser, as they have a US depot and support some useful additions on top of the generic Chinese K40 type lasers, but their software is DOS-only. I offered to write support for modern operating systems, but they weren't interested. No sale.

jaunty jetty Dec 3, 2018, 3:07 PM

#

so much stuff in the CNC space is built on 40 yearold concepts

karmic kite Dec 3, 2018, 3:07 PM

#

I can't recommend them. last bulb replacement we had to do, took them 2 years to ship it to us

late fulcrum Dec 3, 2018, 3:07 PM

#

I'm glad I just spent $600 on a generic K40 and upgraded it myself.

jaunty jetty Dec 3, 2018, 3:07 PM

#

like you load programs onto CNC through a non-addressable serial protocol, so you have to have physical routing if you have multiple CNCs

karmic kite Dec 3, 2018, 3:08 PM

#

why change what works:P

jaunty jetty Dec 3, 2018, 3:08 PM

#

because DOS has been over for so long, and there are so many addressable serial protocols

karmic kite Dec 3, 2018, 3:09 PM

#

if you don't mind me asking, how much did that cost for the K40?

#

When I started my degree, we had a 8'x8'x12' CNC that was accurate to +/- 1/2". It originally took punch cards, until someone made a usb>punch card adapter so we could program it with gCode

jaunty jetty Dec 3, 2018, 3:15 PM

#

.... +-0.5"... that's no CNC...

#

that's computer numeric suggestion

grave crest Dec 3, 2018, 3:15 PM

#

@late fulcrum How do you feel about that magnetic PCB holder?

karmic kite Dec 3, 2018, 3:16 PM

#

it worked for foam, doing molds for carbon fibre. We put it out of its misery in my 2nd year

late fulcrum Dec 3, 2018, 3:16 PM

#

I spent $600 for the K40.

karmic kite Dec 3, 2018, 3:16 PM

#

not much more then a table saw... I might consider this for my own collection

grave crest Dec 3, 2018, 3:23 PM

#

@jaunty jetty That machinist jacks video was very uplifting.

soft thicket Dec 3, 2018, 5:57 PM

#

Ughhhhhhhhhhhhh.... I wish i took my phone outside with me!!!! 4 Chinooks just flew over my house and they were SUPER LOW!!!!!!

grave crest Dec 3, 2018, 6:05 PM

#

Man, I bet the pigeons were really confused.

#

When they flew over, things were looking up in your life 😃

silver shale Dec 3, 2018, 10:25 PM

#

what is this logo?

📎 DSCF3556.JPG

karmic kite Dec 3, 2018, 10:26 PM

#

which board is that? gut tells me a motor of some kind

silver shale Dec 3, 2018, 10:27 PM

#

i have seen this logo before on a Intel single board pc

#

arduino sheild for 3d printer

jaunty jetty Dec 3, 2018, 10:29 PM

#

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Open-source_hardware

Open-source hardware

Open-source hardware (OSH) consists of physical artifacts of technology designed and offered by the open-design movement. Both free and open-source software (FOSS) and open-source hardware are created by this open-source culture movement and apply a like concept to a variety ...

patent ibex Dec 3, 2018, 11:43 PM

#

😂 😂 😂 😂

📎 Screen_Shot_2018-12-03_at_5.38.53_PM.png

#

@jaunty jetty artifacts ? 😂

jaunty jetty Dec 3, 2018, 11:57 PM

#

?

patent ibex Dec 3, 2018, 11:59 PM

#

"Open-source hardware (OSH) consists of physical artifacts of technology designed an" in the description from wikipedia

jaunty jetty Dec 3, 2018, 11:59 PM

#

I ain't wrote it

patent ibex Dec 4, 2018, 12:01 AM

#

just though it was funny, it's right from wikipedia right?

jaunty jetty Dec 4, 2018, 12:01 AM

#

discord generates the embed yea

#

https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/artifact#Noun

artefact (plural artifacts)
1    An object made or shaped by human hand.

2    (archaeology) An object, such as a tool, weapon or ornament, of archaeological or historical interest, especially such an object found at an archaeological excavation.

3    Something viewed as a product of human conception or agency rather than an inherent element.

4    A structure or finding in an experiment or investigation that is not a true feature of the object under observation, but is a result of external action, the test arrangement, or an experimental error.

5    (biology) A structure or appearance in protoplasm due to death, method of preparation of specimens, or the use of reagents, and not present during life.

6    An object made or shaped by some agent or intelligence, not necessarily of direct human origin.

7    (computing) A perceptible distortion that appears in a digital image, audio or video file as a result of applying a lossy compression algorithm.```

artifact

proven olive Dec 4, 2018, 12:09 AM

#

https://laughingsquid.com/turning-plywood-boards-into-geodesic-spheres/ This guy had a ball making these

Laughing Squid

Lori Dorn

Timelapse Showing the Intricate Process of Turning Plywood Boards ...

Woodworker Keith Williams shared a remarkable timelapse showing how he transforms flat plywood boards into gorgeous geodesic spheres of different sizes.

grave crest Dec 4, 2018, 12:13 AM

#

He really was on a roll.

#

Really put a new spin on things.

tame saddle Dec 4, 2018, 12:26 AM

#

@proven olive check out the folks doing Yosegi veneer work. Beautiful.

karmic kite Dec 4, 2018, 12:40 AM

#

Do most companies in the states consider programmers to be engineers?

jaunty jetty Dec 4, 2018, 12:46 AM

#

unless your company has positions that are actually engineering, your company does not understand what an engineer's role is

#

irrespective of what is being engineered, there are programming roles that would fall under engineering, there's also Systems Engineers, Network Engineers, etc

karmic kite Dec 4, 2018, 12:47 AM

#

I'm just applying for places right now

jaunty jetty Dec 4, 2018, 12:47 AM

#

most companies label most positions using words they don't understand how to use

karmic kite Dec 4, 2018, 12:48 AM

#

I've only met one network engineer who's actually an engineer. the rest were programmers in 5 years of industry

jaunty jetty Dec 4, 2018, 12:48 AM

#

example, in many companies Technical Support is a Sales position, because they don't know what technical support is supposed to be

#

what's an <adjective> Analyst?

karmic kite Dec 4, 2018, 12:48 AM

#

me 😛

jaunty jetty Dec 4, 2018, 12:49 AM

#

network analyst, database analyst, system analyst, support analyst, and all of the above can also be technicians, doesn't mean anything

karmic kite Dec 4, 2018, 12:49 AM

#

I was a programmer analyst for 3 years, which meant peer reviewing code

jaunty jetty Dec 4, 2018, 12:49 AM

#

that sounds rough

karmic kite Dec 4, 2018, 12:50 AM

#

it paid for the tuition

jaunty jetty Dec 4, 2018, 12:50 AM

#

nice

#

you shouldn't expect that to be consistently what a programmer analyst position is expected to do though

karmic kite Dec 4, 2018, 12:51 AM

#

been out of programming for a year and time to get back in. Technical interview with one company tomorrow but trying to keep options open

jaunty jetty Dec 4, 2018, 12:51 AM

#

in my eyes a network engineer is a position that is expected to be capable of starting from a position of not having a network, and then cause a network to exist

#

in a lot of companies it's unclear if a network engineer is above a network administrator and if a network administrator is above a network technician, and if a network analyst fits in here anywhere and is it the network technician's job to fix the cloud?

karmic kite Dec 4, 2018, 12:53 AM

#

Every network "engineer" I've talked to talks about their hell month every few years of network upgrades, then smooth sailing for a few years

jaunty jetty Dec 4, 2018, 12:53 AM

#

it's kind of like, if I have a pi, what's the name of the formfactor of a board I put on it

karmic kite Dec 4, 2018, 12:54 AM

#

I think network engineers of a campus network would be neat to meet. for ours it was 40k people connecting to 4 networks

#

on a daily basis

jaunty jetty Dec 4, 2018, 12:56 AM

#

last place I worked the network administrator's job was to answer the phone at 3AM when the network went down; and the network engineer's job was to complain to your boss when you called them because the network administrator doesn't answer the phone outside of business hours

grave crest Dec 4, 2018, 12:59 AM

#

@karmic kite Every position I've held, it's been called an "engineer".

Even entry-level customer service roles that had NOTHING to do with STEM. Pretty much amounted to a colorful 10cent title.

But please remember, in some parts of the world, "engineer" might carry special meaning such as "Doctor" or "Lawyer". Just because we're casually imprecise here in the States doesn't mean it reverse-carries over back to the rest of the world.

If you misuse the title "engineer" without the proper credentials in some countries, it may carry serious penalties.

jaunty jetty Dec 4, 2018, 1:00 AM

#

oh yea, even in america there are some kinds of engineer that are legal

#

you need a license to do civil engineering

karmic kite Dec 4, 2018, 1:01 AM

#

North of the 49th we consider it a professional organization, which is why I was curious

#

We're starting to regulate coding the same

grave crest Dec 4, 2018, 1:02 AM

#

I was just thinking that -- we've been told that "any Canadian employee cannot call themselves an engineer unless they are certified and accredited as such by -insert list of organizations here-"

jaunty jetty Dec 4, 2018, 1:02 AM

#

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/morning-mix/wp/2017/12/08/criticizing-red-light-cameras-is-not-a-punishable-offense-oregon-concedes/?noredirect=on

#

guy sent a letter to his local government that a traffic light timing was bad with some statements about traffic engineering or whatnot, government tried to sue him for engineering without a license

karmic kite Dec 4, 2018, 1:03 AM

#

P. Eng is a title with a lot of weight, but there is the odd association, with no offense meant typically american ran, that uses the "engineer" title inappropriately

jaunty jetty Dec 4, 2018, 1:04 AM

#

good news, they lost, he's allowed to say whatever he wants as long as he's not getting paid or such

grave crest Dec 4, 2018, 1:07 AM

#

In the States, there's a history of "puffery" -- making outlandish, hyperbolic claims that no reasonable person would assume to be true.

So when someone casually drops the word "engineering", it's usually the casual meaning -- not a strict definition.

#

I do it.

patent ibex Dec 4, 2018, 1:07 AM

#

a friedn of mine needs to switch on and of 60 amps with a specific direction, any mosfet suggestions ?

jaunty jetty Dec 4, 2018, 1:08 AM

#

60 amps is a lot of amps, what voltage?

wicked spindle Dec 4, 2018, 1:09 AM

#

Is there a kind soul here that may want to help with a small project of mine? I'm fairly new to using microcontrollers and am having a hard time understanding where I would get some information.

jaunty jetty Dec 4, 2018, 1:11 AM

#

the possibility exists, but it's hard to say sight unseen

patent ibex Dec 4, 2018, 1:11 AM

#

3cell lipo

wicked spindle Dec 4, 2018, 1:12 AM

#

Do you know where I could ask? I probably have some simple questions but I'm clueless as to where to start

jaunty jetty Dec 4, 2018, 1:12 AM

#

ask what?

wicked spindle Dec 4, 2018, 1:13 AM

#

For help, sorry

stray wind Dec 4, 2018, 1:13 AM

#

@wicked spindle #help-with-projects would be a great place to ask for assistance with a project. 😃

wicked spindle Dec 4, 2018, 1:13 AM

#

Thank you!

jaunty jetty Dec 4, 2018, 1:13 AM

#

so 11.1V 60A that'd be according to my math here soooooooo muuuuuch waaaatts

#

mosfets that can handle 666 watts are probably chassis mount, and that chassis better be a pretty big heatshink

soft thicket Dec 4, 2018, 1:17 AM

#

my little 2.5inch quadcopter can draw somewhere around 40+ amps in a high throttle punch out. Im pretty sure its more like 50+ amps but i cant remember, i gotta get out and fly more often.

#

Also this....

#

📎 wav.gif

patent ibex Dec 4, 2018, 1:19 AM

#

@smoky wedge thank you

#

i'll talk to him about it

jaunty jetty Dec 4, 2018, 1:24 AM

#

@soft thicket at what voltage?

#

those little quadcopters are usually a couple or so

soft thicket Dec 4, 2018, 1:27 AM

#

3s lipos. So 11-12v. And my 5inch quad runs on 4s and pulls just as much

jaunty jetty Dec 4, 2018, 1:27 AM

#

this one will do 339 watts https://www.digikey.com/product-detail/en/rohm-semiconductor/SCT3022ALGC11/SCT3022ALGC11-ND/6204893

SCT3022ALGC11 Rohm Semiconductor | Discrete Semiconductor Products...

N-Channel 650V 93A (Tc) 339W (Tc) Through Hole TO-247N

#

you must be talking about a different kind of inch than I was thinking

soft thicket Dec 4, 2018, 1:30 AM

#

The size refers to the diameter of the props

#

What were you thinking of?

jaunty jetty Dec 4, 2018, 1:31 AM

#

actual size of the quad

soft thicket Dec 4, 2018, 1:32 AM

#

Ahhh

jaunty jetty Dec 4, 2018, 1:32 AM

#

@patent ibex the big obvious question is would a relay be acceptable

patent ibex Dec 4, 2018, 1:32 AM

#

@jaunty jetty that might just work if there is a p type counter-part. thank you!

jaunty jetty Dec 4, 2018, 1:32 AM

#

relays are very stable, easy to use, and can switch extremely high loads cheaply

#

they're bad at proportional control or running on batteries

patent ibex Dec 4, 2018, 1:33 AM

#

i was thinking about relays and diodes but it's for an h bridge !

jaunty jetty Dec 4, 2018, 1:33 AM

#

you can H bridge relays, that's just a shape that allows you to reverse the current flow

#

you won't be able to do effective speed control is the thing

#

it'll be on in one direction, on in the other direction, or off

patent ibex Dec 4, 2018, 1:34 AM

#

rc drones, do they need variable speed? (yes right?)

soft thicket Dec 4, 2018, 1:35 AM

#

Yeah they do.

#

We use electronic speed controllers (ESCs) to control each motor

jaunty jetty Dec 4, 2018, 1:35 AM

#

ESC are worth it

#

is this 60 amps on a single load or 60 amps total among several motors?

#

mosfets that can handle 20 amps are easier to come by than mosfets that handle 60

soft thicket Dec 4, 2018, 1:36 AM

#

My ESCs are like $10 each but they are only capable of like 30 amps each

patent ibex Dec 4, 2018, 1:37 AM

#

hmmmmmmm

jaunty jetty Dec 4, 2018, 1:37 AM

#

that one mosfet I linked is 42$

soft thicket Dec 4, 2018, 1:38 AM

#

You don't really find any ESCs that support above 40 amps. Im pretty sure I haven't seen anything above 40 amps

#

If my motor draws above 30 amps I'll blow them up

jaunty jetty Dec 4, 2018, 1:39 AM

#

a thing you can do, but is prone to catastrophic failure, is use mosfets in parallel to distribute the amp load among them

soft thicket Dec 4, 2018, 1:39 AM

#

I was wondering if that would be viable

jaunty jetty Dec 4, 2018, 1:40 AM

#

but if one fails closed, the current will pass through the survivors, surely causing the next to fail, and distributing the same current among still fewer, and so on

soft thicket Dec 4, 2018, 1:41 AM

#

That may be what they do for the ESCs

#

I dunno

jaunty jetty Dec 4, 2018, 1:41 AM

#

probably in the cheaper ones

#

there's a large difference in mosfets between 20 amps and 60 amps

#

it's not just 3 times harder

soft thicket Dec 4, 2018, 1:42 AM

#

This is what I use: https://www.racedayquads.com/collections/32-bit-escs/products/rdq-32bit-esc-30a-3-6s-dshot1200

RaceDayQuads

RDQ 32 Bit ESC 30a 3-6S - DSHOT 1200

Get great power, performance, and value with the RDQ 32 Bit ESC 30a 3-6S. This DSHOT 1200 ESC took our team a whole year to prototype, test, and roll out to market.

jaunty jetty Dec 4, 2018, 1:42 AM

#

there's 6 mosfets on it

#

3 phase, each phase needs to be reversible

#

it's a 3 phase H bridge

soft thicket Dec 4, 2018, 1:43 AM

#

And this is basically how all of the ESCs are for this type of mini quad

#

Ahhh. Yeah I can reverse the direction of the Motor if I want too

jaunty jetty Dec 4, 2018, 1:43 AM

#

each phase has two mosfets, one for each direction, no redundency

#

the coils are reversing several times every rotation

#

what you can do is change the phase firing order, which then changes which direction the spindle is driven

soft thicket Dec 4, 2018, 1:44 AM

#

Interesting

jaunty jetty Dec 4, 2018, 1:44 AM

#

the phases are 120 degrees apart, and you're changing "for a given direction of rotation, which phase is next"

dusty citrus Dec 4, 2018, 1:45 AM

#

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lYf9HK-rI1s

YouTube

Afrotechmods

Raspberry Pi "overclocking failure"

12V lead acid batteries are useful for powering many things. But not Raspberry Pis. Check out my other videos for more fun with electronics! http://www.afrot...

▶ Play video

#

Can someone sue this man?

jaunty jetty Dec 4, 2018, 1:45 AM

#

why would they?

dusty citrus Dec 4, 2018, 1:45 AM

#

I'm joking

#

Such violence

jaunty jetty Dec 4, 2018, 1:46 AM

#

one of the many fun things about 3 phase motors is that swapping any two phases will reverse it

#

another is that 3 phase motors in a Wye formation don't pass any current on the neutral leg

soft thicket Dec 4, 2018, 1:49 AM

#

I suck at doing it but it's possible to fly upside down. I can find a video of that. It's crazy awesome

jaunty jetty Dec 4, 2018, 1:50 AM

#

this is the common arrangement, White (Blue) N is neutral. In some terminology neutral is considered a phase and so is ground. In single phase applications you have to pass current on neutral, it's a big loop

#

but because on a three phase wye the phases are out of phase by 120 degrees, they just shift electrons back and forth amongst each other, with no current flowing on the neutral http://power.apitech.com/images/engineering/3phase_wye.gif

#

neutral not shown because it can actually be removed in many cases https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/4/48/3-phase_flow.gif

#

so the real trick with quad copters and ESCs is that what an ECS actually is, is a 3 phase high frequency PWM AC rectifier

#

one mosfet connects a coil to a positive voltage, the other mosfet connects it to a negative voltage, and you rapidly turn the mosfets on and off with constantly varying timing to create an approximation of a sine wave that, because of the two voltages, crosses 0 and is therefore AC

patent ibex Dec 4, 2018, 2:00 AM

#

okay...

jaunty jetty Dec 4, 2018, 2:00 AM

#

http://www.vanatoo.com/uploads/images/class-d.jpg

patent ibex Dec 4, 2018, 2:01 AM

#

ah, 👌

jaunty jetty Dec 4, 2018, 2:01 AM

#

because of the two mosfets and voltages it's actually more like this http://www.theorycircuit.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/04/pwm-inverter-sinewave.png

#

inverter... not rectifier

#

the opposite of a rectifier

#

a directifier

patent ibex Dec 4, 2018, 2:02 AM

#

dectify

#

?

jaunty jetty Dec 4, 2018, 2:02 AM

#

so TG, is this a single 60 amp load, or several smaller loads?

#

there are litterally thousands of mosfets that can handle 20 amps, for several dollars each, on digikey https://www.digikey.com/short/j14cr0
better link

Transistors - FETs, MOSFETs - Single | Discrete Semiconductor Prod...

Discrete Semiconductor Products – Transistors - FETs, MOSFETs - Single are in stock at DigiKey. Order Now! Discrete Semiconductor Products ship same day

patent ibex Dec 4, 2018, 2:05 AM

#

ah, so three?

jaunty jetty Dec 4, 2018, 2:07 AM

#

20 is just a number, some of these are actually 43A

#

60 is just a lot harder

#

gotta figure out if you're switching one motor or more than one motor

#

more than one is inexpensive and easy

sick adder Dec 4, 2018, 3:30 PM

#

ooh got my hacktoberfest t-shirt yesterday

jaunty jetty Dec 4, 2018, 5:24 PM

#

just did some stuff in excel, looks like this is the cheapest source of female 0.1" pin sockets on digikey at 2.73 cents per pin; that are roughly the same size as one I had, in low volume, with a minimum pin count of 5
https://www.digikey.com/products/en?keywords=HDR100IMP40F-G-V-TH-ND

#

I should just buy a dozen of them

#

the header I actually have is closer to 8mm insulation height, this is 8.51mm, but to get 8mm starts at 5.62 cents per pin

jaunty jetty Dec 4, 2018, 5:46 PM

#

it almost seems like the price of these things isn't driven strongly by any factor

📎 unknown.png

#

there are 661 items on the graph

late fulcrum Dec 4, 2018, 9:19 PM

#

I needed some odd-size headers for a project once, and saw DigiKey offered them as "value added". A little research showed the 50-pin version wasn't "value added", and the other (shorter) lengths were, which implied DigiKey was cutting them for the other sizes. The added value wasn't too expensive, so I ordered some. They were really well done, looked almost like factory, with smooth ends, and the spacing was right, they could be arranged end-to-end and still fit 0.1" holes. And that order shipped in about 20 minutes, so they were fast too.

grave crest Dec 4, 2018, 9:40 PM

#

"value added"?

echo agate Dec 4, 2018, 9:42 PM

#

The addition of value to a product by some service. I worked at an LCD company briefly and our "value add" for a lot of modules was US-based support and better datasheets than the factory provided.