general-chat

[lusty fossil]

Yeah my job I can sometimes do remote, but most of the time it makes sense to be on site.

[dusk oracle]

it doesn't... it ionizes it...

[late fulcrum]

Alas, there's no emoji for the BSD mascot so I used that one

[lusty fossil]

What do people mean when they say iOS/iPadOS are "closed ecosystems"?

[stray wind]

That you are limited to Apple-approved apps and so on. You can't very easily write your own, and "sideload" it, as you can with Android. So if you try to leave the Apple ecosystem, you basically lose all the apps you purchased, etc, because nothing will transfer to any flavor of Android. On some level, it's similar with Android in terms of transferring to Apple. But not so much the same in terms of usage etc. You're also limited to Apple hardware. Non-Apple hardware doesn't necessarily run iOS, etc, or at least not without a lot of shenanigans. There are TONS of options for Android etc, from tons of companies, including super cheap off brand whatnot.

[lusty fossil]

Ahh ok I thought it was along those lines. Thanks

[stray wind]

You're welcome

[lusty fossil]

macOS isn't as bad right?

[stray wind]

I mean.... kinda? It still mostly requires Apple hardware (again unless you go through some shenanigans) but there are a lot of cross-platform apps available. Some of them require purchase for a different OS if you're going to use it elsewhere, so while your data transfers easily, you're still paying.

You can write your own apps for Mac though, and not run into issues with using them.

If you wanted to go through all that, anyway.

[wooden schooner]

Ecosystem, though it's the usual term, is not a great metaphor because it implies reciprocity and sustainability. Empire would perhaps be a more accurate term.

[lusty fossil]

Heh

[stray wind]

A place I worked a billion years ago sold these little "ecosystems" in a glass ball. Which was clearly meant for neither reciprocity or sustainability. They were meant to sit on your desk until the little shrimps died, and you got bored with it.

[static flare]

video editing sucks

especially trying to cut out dead air

[lusty fossil]

Anyone speak German? I am 99% sure this is a cookies turn on/turn off notice but I don't know which is which? or if either is?

[lusty fossil]

Oh gosh, google translate, duh. Always forget about that

[edgy apex]

I used lens translate on the image, I love it.

[lusty fossil]

lens is neat

[edgy apex]

I used it to translate some family military history that was in french

[lusty fossil]

neat

[edgy apex]

My great uncle was in the OSS. A few months ago I got around 100 pages from the national archives and half was in french I tried different ocr software but had trouble, nothing it going to be perfect but at least I can read most of it with Google lens.

[icy spruce]

I'm curious, has anyone else's curated news feeds thrown the HaLow Wi-Fi stuff at them as an alternative to LoraWAN ?

[vagrant sonnet]

Never heard of it, no.

[lusty fossil]

They don't make "color neutral" UV lamps, right? Like ones that don't have that blue/purple glow?

[thick wind]

Quick google result: https://hardforum.com/threads/uv-lighting-without-the-purple-glow.1639719/

[lusty fossil]

Yeah that's what I found too thanks

[tardy badger]

I’ve too long missed the feeling of getting parts from Digi-Key

Just got a few resistors and some caps

[stray wind]

Still it's a whole experience. 😄

[tardy badger]

Yeah, it always is! I got the last few beans to finish some LED light controllers for lighting up under my kids beds

[stray wind]

Nice!

[weary fiber]

number 1 pet peeve:

documentation that only tells you how to install the libraries

like bruh, how am I supposed to start the app

it's just a go app from some friends

and this is a very general complaint

I encounter stuff like this a lot, where I'm forced to dig through lengthy makefiles or package.jsons & guess which command is the right one

I've already solved this for one app & am not intending to ask for help

I'm just stating a pet peeve

[dusty citrus]

It can be the difference between not publishing at all, and publishing a thing that works for the author in their own context.

[weary fiber]

that's actually a fair point, having the app at all is better than nothing

[dusty citrus]

When a user does write to the author, it's quite often asking for remedial help that's got little to do with the uniqueness that the author already bothered to put on github. ;)

I mean you could make a rule for yourself that says "my program's distributed files will always have these Makefile targets:"

'make' 'make clean' 'make install'

Then some environment would crop up where that's not allowed/supported &c.

_Invariably someone won't like to see a _ Makefile at all and in any context. ;)

For me, I would never run an install script.

Instead, I take it apart line by line, and see which lines I find useful.

[honest moth]

Mass Discord message purge underway, now to act extraordinarily out of character for every server I have joined.

[burnt tendon]

Someone should make this but for DigiKey: https://xkcd.com/576/

xkcd: Packages

Day six: 'The hell? Who mails a bobcat?'

[lusty fossil]

Digikey, free shipping?

[lusty fossil]

My dog: gets up and jumps off the bed.

Also my dog: whines to be let up on the bed 30 seconds later

[edgy apex]

I got this a couple weeks ago and I've been having fun with it.
https://flipperzero.one/

[static flare]

I love the amber screen

I wanna know where parts like that are sourced, so I can use them myself

[edgy apex]

The battery lasts 5-9 days depending on use

[static flare]

ooh

how much are they? id be curious to get one

[late fulcrum]

DigiKey offers free shipping in many countries

[lusty fossil]

Ooh I'm just unlucky then!

[late fulcrum]

Which country?

[lusty fossil]

Us

US*

[late fulcrum]

They offer free shipping in the US if you supply payment with your order

[wary herald]

Hmmm

[lusty fossil]

Oh right, send them a check with an order right?

[late fulcrum]

Right. It's on their "terms and conditions" page under shipping

[edgy apex]

they retail for $169 but arent on sale yet. they are going to be fulfilling kickstarter and preorders for a bit before they go on sale

[edgy apex]

I figured since now when you arent doing something with PiGlass v2 you are staring at a terminal, that you should be able to type into it so I added a bluetooth keyboard. I had an old wrist mount for it from another project so I dug it out and it works. It's rudimentary but it works

[dusk oracle]

horrid keyboard

[edgy apex]

I have other keyboards but they all have the built in mouse part

If i could i would get this one
https://www.ikey.com/product/ak-39/

[lusty fossil]

They don't make like Makita style battery powered sewing machines right?

[quartz wren]

Finally got the ceiling network cables run

I'm like actually ready to sheetrock now

Minus one lighting cable and one box

[spice moss]

something cool for retro as matrix awakens some materials released today as unreal engine 5 published so there is retro set from neo room for example

[burnt tendon]

rock the sheetrock

Get some gypsum

[quartz wren]

Gypsuuuuuum!

[tardy badger]

The economy just continues to surprise me.. bottles that cost $11 two and a half weeks ago cost $14 today, but we’re getting marked up to $18 on restock

Just wild..

“Inflation of 7%.” Laughable at best.

[lusty fossil]

I think I read that the 9% was driven heavily by just a few sectors

But I also think I read that the figure was adjusted higher

[tardy badger]

I think inflation is much higher than the reported numbers

My rent went up over 16%

[lusty fossil]

I think it'll shake out that way once all the analysis is done.

Everything I buy got more expensive

Gas is over 6 dollars a gallon now

[tardy badger]

Yeah, my income hasn’t grown at the pace needed to keep up with these costs.. I’m honestly terrified of federal student loan repayment in September

[lusty fossil]

Yeah it's a big time mess

I'm doing OK, but I can't handle much more increases in costs

I have to take my dog to the vet for example. I'm hoping those costs haven't skyrocketed too.

[tardy badger]

I was able to refine my car $200 cheaper every month which I’m very thankful for

[lusty fossil]

that's nice

[tardy badger]

Though downside, I have to pay $200+ more in taxes 🙃

Per paycheck so kind of erases the gains

[lusty fossil]

oof

Well, clearly comparable situation, Fusion360 changed the menu I use the most from how it looked/worked in EAGLE to some new monstrosity.

[blissful roost]

Looks like I might have a new job lined up. 😁

[lusty fossil]

yay!

[blissful roost]

Yeah .. got fed up with wasting my time here.

Going for a Linux SysAdmin/Ops role.

Looking at a minimum £700/pm increase, after deductions.

[tardy badger]

Nice!

[blissful roost]

Rather.

And that's apparently a "low-ball" figure... So, quite likely to be more.

[real falcon]

hope get new job 😄

[blissful roost]

Ohh... And work from home. 😁

[lusty fossil]

My job has ratcheted up the frustrating lately.

[blissful roost]

Same

[lusty fossil]

I have had to explain to management too often that certain technologies just aren't in existence, and if they were, wouldn't be in budget

I've also been told to make "Cheap, impressive, amazing" things

[blissful roost]

Well... I'm an experienced Linux SysAdmin... and my skills are not employed at all.

Ever.

The last two years have been a total waste.

[real falcon]

im wndering what I can do, job wise. I was cnc machinist, but im been permently dizzy and brain is noisy for 2 years. I'll never resume job at this rate

[lusty fossil]

what part of the world are you in?

[blissful roost]

To whom?

[lusty fossil]

I think you're in the UK, I meant xxcoder

[real falcon]

me, im at northwest usa lol (wa state)

[lusty fossil]

ooh my home country! I don't have any ins up there unfortunately.

[blissful roost]

Indeed, but planning the move to the US.

[lusty fossil]

Yeah! Welcome!

[blissful roost]

🤘😎

[real falcon]

nice

[blissful roost]

I was turned down for an Ops Engineer role, dealing with CI/CD infrastructure.
Very disappointed, as I've been working on my homelabs for exactly that.

But, still.. no point wasting time with this company.

[real falcon]

it sucks that most "work at home" results is just scams

[blissful roost]

Depends.
A lot of tech companies in the UK have moved to mostly WFH.

Saves on the expense of office space, insurance, etc.

[real falcon]

yeah though tend to need skills

[tardy badger]

Job hunting is kind of garbage anymore

In a lot of jobs, it’s usually the more middle of the road, great entertainers/testers who tend to get the great jobs

And good on them, interviewing is a hard thing and being good at it is an envy of mine

I feel like I’m a fairly competent person but absolutely suck it up in technical interviews

Like simple things like remembering terms like binary search 😛

Pretty sure I got docked big time for not remembering that. Or not being a particularly fast coder in coding interviews

If you’re good at those things, you should definitely hold your head high. I’ll get there one day

But yeah, job hunting sucks, interviewing sucks… but keep being persistent. Someone will see value in that and give you a chance

[lusty fossil]

The upside of my current position is nobody judges me on my code. The downside is there's nobody to judge me on my code, so it's harder to improve.

[tardy badger]

Yeah, that’s a tough situation to be in

Like no pressure but all the pressure at the same time

[lusty fossil]

Fortunately nothing I have to write so far has been terribly, terribly hard

[tardy badger]

That’s good

[lusty fossil]

And I can't explain easily what's wrong if there are delays.

[tardy badger]

In other news, I finally got the capacitor and resistor I needed to add the ambient light/proximity sensor to my treehouse terminal

[lusty fossil]

woot!

[tardy badger]

Reminds me of all the cell phones I’ve repair and destroyed the proximity sensors on lol

[tardy badger]

That seems like it could be very frustrating

[lusty fossil]

Yeah. 90% of the time I get left alone but my boss decided I was "using the computer too much" (you know, making sure that everything would fit together), so now I have 3 extra projects to do and I won't get any weekends until november

[tardy badger]

Massive oof

[lusty fossil]

But otherwise it's a great job

And otherwise a fantastic boss

[tardy badger]

I need my days off to recoup

[lusty fossil]

Yeah, I'm going to get 6.5 days on, .5 days off for the foreseeable future.

[tardy badger]

I work 4-10s and I need all three of the days

I’m salaried so I’m bound by the 40hrs because OT is paid

Has to have approval

[lusty fossil]

Yeah

[tardy badger]

Plus work is really slow right now

[lusty fossil]

Envious!

[tardy badger]

It’s really boring

[lusty fossil]

I may use some of my paltry vacation to see an author up in Portland next month though

[tardy badger]

My tasking right now is integrating clang-tidy into our CI/CD pipeline

[lusty fossil]

that sounds fun

[tardy badger]

It’s a change of pace from normal but it’s slightly mind numbing

[lusty fossil]

Oh not actually offtopic, but if I want to have 7 12-neopixel rings spaced out along roughly 48" of line, do I need to inject power along that line?

assume I want them all on at full blast

[tardy badger]

7x12 is 84? So assuming 60mA max draw each, 5A

Maybe two supplies

[lusty fossil]

Hmm

OK

[tardy badger]

One for one half, one for the other

[lusty fossil]

Hmmmm OK. Is that because of voltage drop?

[tardy badger]

Could probably get away with two 15W USB.

Distance and the wire needed for 5A

[lusty fossil]

Hmm OK.

I can't guarantee that someone won't program them to go full blast. So I need to design for it

[tardy badger]

18AWG for 5A, easily do 20 or 22AWG for 2.5

[lusty fossil]

I think I'll do 18 AWG AND two supplies, redundancy

[tardy badger]

Safe choices

I like it, Picasso

[lusty fossil]

When you don't have control over the product, assume the user will misuse it.

[tardy badger]

Yes, 100%

[lusty fossil]

When you do have control, assume they'll try anyways!

[tardy badger]

Even more 100% lol

I need to write a circuitpython driver for this ambient light sensor

I think I know what my Friday task is going to be

[lusty fossil]

nice!

[blissful roost]

Thinking that I'll start getting my PC upgrade parts if I secure this new job.

[tardy badger]

Nice

I love PC upgrades

[lusty fossil]

I just got a new work PC (personal purchase that I use only for work) but my gaming PC is languishing badly.

I need to upgrade the GPU, but that requires other upgrades and it's a whole, expensive mess. So I'm just not gaming right now

[small kite]

Would this ir blaster work?

[small kite]

@lusty fossil get geforce now or Luna or something

A cloud gaming service

We’re your able to play triple a games even on a bad pc

[lusty fossil]

Eh, I'm not into that kind of thing from what I've seen.

I'm an old timer, I'd rather just have a nice PC

[small kite]

Well it’s your best option tbh

Bc rn gpu EXPENSIVEEEEE

rn

Very high priced

[tardy badger]

I built a mediocre computer and then slowly upgraded it

[lusty fossil]

yea, I'm OK waiting

[small kite]

Same

I’m now running a ryzen 7 2700x Radeon 5500 xt 32gb ram 1tb ssd 4tb hdd

Very nice pc

[tardy badger]

Right now I have a Ryzen 5 5600, 48GB of RAM, SSD, and a RX580 8GB card

[small kite]

@lusty fossil how about you try a free trial of it then see if you like it

Give it a shot see if it good

[lusty fossil]

I am working a ton RN, I just don't have the time to game tbh

[small kite]

Oof

[tardy badger]

Xbox game pass ultimate has cloud gaming that’s pretty decent

[lusty fossil]

I'm either working, eating, walking the dog, or sleeping

[tardy badger]

And a pretty nice catalog of games too

[small kite]

@lusty fossil do you have Amazon prime?

[lusty fossil]

I do

[small kite]

Welll it includes a cloud gaming service called Luna at no extra cost!

[lusty fossil]

I'll consider it, but my PC has been untouched since december, and like will be until mid next year

[small kite]

What do you work in that leaves you with so little time?

@lusty fossil

[lusty fossil]

I work about 45 minutes away from my home, so 9.5+ hours are working/commute. Then there's making food/cleaning, and I need a lot of sleep right now, so it just doesn't leave a ton of time.

[small kite]

Oof

[lusty fossil]

Also lol, rather than futzing around with optimizing cables and buying expensive crimp tools, I'm going to just pay Samtec to do it for me.

[small kite]

Ah

[small kite]

Coffe

Lol

[lusty fossil]

I basically always make less than 5 of whatever I'm making, so Samtec is actually cheaper in most cases than dealing with making my own harnesses

[small kite]

Oof

A regular wage in the us is 36k a year

But like for most 35k of that goes into bills debt food etc

[lusty fossil]

yup

[small kite]

You ever thought about changing jobs?

Because jobs are hiring at very high rates due to covid

And surges in multiple things

And you could even negotiate a higher wage due to worker shortages

And due to increased inflation raises have become more common

@lusty fossil

What industry do you work in?

With electronics?

Or like restaurant

[lusty fossil]

I'm vague about my exact line of work. I make PCBs, I write some code, I do some design.

[small kite]

Ah so a little bit of all of it electric engineering and software design

[lusty fossil]

Those are strong words for what I do, but it's in the ballpark

[small kite]

Ye I don’t know much about that type of stuff but have always wanted to get into it

And I’ve gotten into it just it’s costly so not very far

I wired a light switch to a motor lol

@lusty fossil do you know how I would go about making an ir blaster with this ir diode I got from an old remote

I did this but I don’t know if it’s right

[lusty fossil]

What's an IR blaster?

[small kite]

Tv remote

Or control

Signal sending

[lusty fossil]

Do you want to send specific signals or just on/off?

[small kite]

I’m gonna use an ap to send specific signals

App

I just need it function with the rest

I got the software down

[lusty fossil]

Hmm, it's hard to say for sure but if you knew the voltage it took I'd wire it up with a transistor and use your MCU to toggle the transistor

[small kite]

All I have is w2n2222a transistors

But I do have 1/4 watt resistors

@lusty fossil would that work?

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B073ZC68QG/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_api_i_8ZTF5JCQETT9HWD5721J

I got this

[lusty fossil]

I'm about to drive home but I'd personally use an n channel mosfet to do low side switching. I can try to look at the transistor you have when I'm home

[small kite]

The transistors I have is the signal switching type

[blissful roost]

I need the core parts.. motherboard, CPU, RAM and cooler.
I'll aim to budget about £600 for Ryzen kit.

[lusty fossil]

Check this out. https://www.baldengineer.com/low-side-vs-high-side-transistor-switch.html

[small kite]

By the way intel cpus are cheaper than ryzen now

For higher power

It’s better for gaming to go intel

Go ryzen if you plan to do things that take lots of cores

Like 3D modeling and video editing

[blissful roost]

Much rather have the Ryzen. 😁

Kinda lost faith in Intel, after so many years.

[small kite]

Ok then

Here’s a type

Tip

If you wanna go real cheap

[blissful roost]

Nah.
I got my budget set, so I'll drop the most I can up to that amount.

[small kite]

AMD Ryzen 5 5600G 6-Core 12-Thread Unlocked Desktop Processor with Radeon Graphics https://www.amazon.com/dp/B092L9GF5N/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_api_i_H4564ASAEQ2SJNKVGW3W

@blissful roost

It’s got good speads and can act as your graphics card until the prices for them lower

[blissful roost]

Definitely not a G chip.

[small kite]

Y

[blissful roost]

Got a 1050 Ti.

[small kite]

Oof moment

Well you already got the graphics card

Good

AMD Ryzen 5 5600X 6-core, 12-Thread Unlocked Desktop Processor with Wraith Stealth Cooler https://www.amazon.com/dp/B08166SLDF/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_api_i_J6NRAZTB7JZYHA65DJDC

@blissful roost

4.6 ghz speeds

For 200$

And 6 cores

And it comes with a nice cooler

TEAMGROUP T-Force Vulcan Z DDR4 16GB Kit (2x8GB) 3600MHz (PC4-28800) CL18 Desktop Memory Module Ram TLZGD416G3600HC18JDC01 - Gray https://www.amazon.com/dp/B08MF31FSZ/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_api_i_0K7V76QCVZ6CKDAHC2RW?_encoding=UTF8&psc=1

High speed 16gb of ram

Cheap for how good it is

And 16 is all you’ll relaly ever need

Really

[small kite]

I also bought it and it works amazing

So 264$ for a cooler a cpu and ram

ASUS Prime B450M-A II AMD AM4 (Ryzen 5000, 3rd/2nd/1st Gen Ryzen Micro ATX Motherboard (128GB DDR4, 4400 O.C.), NVMe, HDMI 2.0b/DVI/D-Sub, USB 3.2 Gen 2, BIOS Flashback, and Aura Sync) https://www.amazon.com/dp/B08KH12V25/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_api_i_QSGQTBTCBABXCPABDKPK

And this should work very well you’ll just need a Bluetooth/WiFi card

[blissful roost]

I'm looking at the 3600XT, Strix B550-E and Corsair LPX

[small kite]

TP-Link AC1200 PCIe WiFi Card for PC (Archer T5E) - Bluetooth 4.2, Dual Band Wireless Network Card (2.4Ghz and 5Ghz) for Gaming, Streaming, Supports Windows 10, 8.1, 8, 7 (32/64-bit) https://www.amazon.com/dp/B084JPFKQ5/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_api_i_QFMW1GZB00XH2BJ2B3RW

[small kite]

Good one

[blissful roost]

Strix board is a must.

[small kite]

Good mother board

[blissful roost]

Don't need wifi

[small kite]

Very good

How much it cost?

[blissful roost]

No idea.. haven't checked prices in months. Lol

[lusty fossil]

Do wolves crave routine the way dogs do?

[vagrant wolf]

Would anyone tell me the value of the resistor if possible

It's a bit hard for me to decipher it, thanks.

[thick wind]

I believe it's a 47ohm resistor, but I have no clue what the last black band is. Is that black? Best to just measure with a multimeter if you have one.

[vagrant wolf]

Ok thanks let me see, sorry for the photo quality.

[vagrant wolf]

I don't have a multimeter on me but it's yellow, purple, black , gold , black

also the internet here is super slow so I wouldn't be able to check so sorry.

[shadow siren]

according to my 5 band resistor color code card it's 0% tolerance

[vagrant wolf]

hm

never seen a resistor like this before

[shadow siren]

could be military grade

[vagrant wolf]

lol

maybe it's made by Nasa 👀

[shadow siren]

no I am series, they have some extra markings just for them

[crystal ore]

A quick search indicates the extra black band may indicate a "non-inductive wire-wound resistor".

[vagrant wolf]

Okay, thanks.

[deft yarrow]

ahh! missed the rpi drop 😦

😢

[vagrant wolf]

would you have any clue what the resistance would be?, thank you.

I think it could be 47 Ohms but I don't think so.

[shadow siren]

also that last band could also be temp coeficent or fail rate

[crystal ore]

I concur with the earlier 47-ohm interpretation... the extra band shouldn't affect the resistance.

[vagrant wolf]

Ok thank you.

[shadow siren]

https://eepower.com/resistor-guide/resistor-standards-and-codes/resistor-color-code/#

[vagrant wolf]

So would it be 1/4W?

[shadow siren]

most likely if it's fatter than the blue 5 band type resistors which are 1/8 watt

[vagrant wolf]

Ok thanks.

It's from an LED driver.

Thanks, just never seen a resistor like this.

[shadow siren]

I have seen them on Aliexpress

[vagrant wolf]

Do you have links for them,just need replacements?

[shadow siren]

no I just pass them when I am looking for generic parts to build up my parts collection

for example
https://fr.aliexpress.com/item/1005003087208676.html?spm=a2g0o.productlist.0.0.540d3417hTlDbY&algo_pvid=6f67ff8d-aecb-4e0d-8f8b-8cd1e1f1a0f7&algo_exp_id=6f67ff8d-aecb-4e0d-8f8b-8cd1e1f1a0f7-36&pdp_ext_f={"sku_id"%3A"12000023998607036"}&pdp_pi=-1%3B0.72%3B-1%3B-1%40salePrice%3BCAD%3Bsearch-mainSearch

[vagrant wolf]

Thank you.

[shadow siren]

sorry lately ali is putting me in French mode

[vagrant wolf]

Same

So I have some blue 1/4W Metal Film Resistors that seem smaller

Would these be fine?

[shadow siren]

something is mucked up in the language settings not sticking becuase sometimes I get random languages when I change pages

[vagrant wolf]

They're 47ohms

[vagrant wolf]

Exact thing happens to me.

[edgy apex]

I found my way into the matrix.

[vagrant wolf]

Quick question: I have a 1W resistor that I broke but I have another resistor (47R) that is 1/4W can I use this?

It's an Led Driver Board

[lusty fossil]

It really depends?

[thick wind]

If the current through it is low enough, sure. For a 47R, though, it's unlikely, as your limit for 1/4W would be around 1.7V instead of 6.8V...

If something originally needed a 1W resistor, chances are there was a reason for it.

[fair summit]

I highly recommend you buy an inexpensive multimeter (can be $20 or less), for checking your resistors and many other purposes.

[fair summit]

if you have some higher-value lower-wattage resistors on hand, you can parallel them. E.g. four 180 ohm 1/4w resistors in parallel would serve for the single 47 ohm 1w (resistance a little different, but probably doesn't matter)

[shadow siren]

Heh I forgot about the resistor parallel should have paid more attention to electronics class

[edgy apex]

We have been getting multiple calls a day on our landline from 800 Service. our phones only block numbers which they use a different one each time so i dug out an old project and the trap is set based on the name not the number
https://github.com/matt-desmarais/PSB-PiSpamBlaster

This is what it sounds like
https://clyp.it/fyohqjkj

[hasty wedge]

moar 8051 bs

(personal project)

[lusty fossil]

Anyone have an idea what the lowest power consumption color of a typical RBG LED like you might find in a laptop keyboard is likely to be? Or if there is a range of colors that are low?

Once I talk to support for either my laptop's company or the crummy 3rd party software that runs the keyboard, I'll figure out how to just have static keys

[honest moth]

I come bearing sad news. [semi-vent ig???]

The Datavault 1 has gone down under. [My second HDD that seemed to defy the laws of physics time and time again/the one that holds a lot of my backups, including the backups that wouldn't fit on OneDrive.]

until further notice, it will not be powered on until I have to time to attempt getting whatever I can off of it.

either via data recovery services or myself.

that is all. have a good day.

[tardy badger]

Usually they are not run very bright. Likely the 5-7mA per RGB led running

[lusty fossil]

Hmm ok, I can always just pick a color I can tolerate

It's the flashing/shimmering I object to

[edgy apex]

Got em!

[honest jolt]

Ah yes

[crystal ore]

These CAPTCHAs are getting ridiculous... 😉

[wary herald]

Does it work for you

Not tryin to hacc you

[blissful roost]

It's a URL

[wary herald]

Uh-huh

should direct to https://g3holliday.com

[blissful roost]

Yarp

[wary herald]

cool

[honest jolt]

i was expecting a rickroll

[blissful roost]

Likewise

[wary herald]

haha, I was tempted

[edgy apex]

I may have a "new" project soon. It's another pi zero w project with an pi zero 2 upgrade/revamp. I have the old version working pretty well but I have some new ideas for it, I'm going to go for the software part first because that's where I have the most fun.

[lusty fossil]

Nice!

[tardy badger]

Nice!

[edgy apex]

It's the reason no one wants to play nerf with me lol I like to make things that I would have wanted as a kid, it's only really good for juggernaut scenarios otherwise its kinda cheating

[tardy badger]

The joys of having a new baby, working while they fill their diaper laying on the guest bed lol

What an exciting morning already

[edgy apex]

I have blasted the 800 Service 5 times already today but they keep calling, if it keeps up for more than a few days I'm going to have to do something new like a nggyu hotline. I'm glad I at least I have countermeasures.

[edgy apex]

Why would this be happening?

[dusty citrus]

Yooo is this on github?

[edgy apex]

Yes, there are 2 text file block lists one for names one for numbers
https://github.com/matt-desmarais/PSB-PiSpamBlaster

It also records activity in blockedCalls.txt
Modem output to modemOutput.txt. When my situation is over I will post my logs

[wary herald]

That's lit

This mug lol

[dusty citrus]

AliExpress today

[lusty fossil]

Oof, I forgot I agreed to give platelets tomorrow.

[burnt tendon]

Sounds like a clot of fun

[lusty fossil]

It's so unpleasant. Idk why I agree so easily.

[tardy badger]

Playing with the ambient light and proximity sensor I’m writing a driver for

[quartz wren]

I've begun to sheetrock

[tardy badger]

Just watched sonic 2 in theatres

Definitely missed going to the theatres to see movies

[lusty fossil]

Good?

[tardy badger]

I liked it better than the first

the story was much better composed and Idris did a great job as knuckles

[crystal ore]

By a weird coincidence I also went to the theater today. "Everything Everywhere All At Once" is unreal...

[tardy badger]

it was my son's first time going to the theatres ever and he just loved it so much

it's also his birthday so things went so much better than I expected

[burnt tendon]

I guess taking him to Sonic was.... a sound idea.

[tardy badger]

It was lol

[crystal ore]

It was a safe choice... good way to hedge your bet.

[honest moth]

Kingston SSD [SSDNow variant] thermal throttle bypassed, new record speeds achieved.

...seriously why does this exist at low temperatures?

[stoic mesa]

congratulations!

[honest moth]

Indeed, congrats!

[tardy badger]

I’ve been able to safely kindle a love for certain things with my son through indirect means

So it made it really safe

[honest moth]

progress 👍

[lusty fossil]

It's so hot that my dog has decided that her side of the bed is just fine.

[wooden schooner]

The implications of this are adorable

[lusty fossil]

She is very into cuddling

[wooden schooner]

Jelly

[lusty fossil]

She's a good dog

[wooden schooner]

You seem like a really loving dog owner

[static flare]

I'm very excited, my first YouTube video will be releasing in about 10 minutes :3

[edgy apex]

I think the 800 Service gave up, they were leaving hangup voicemails everytime they called so I started blasting, a total of nine times and the calls seem to have stopped

0406 - 1615 - 8445412448 - 800 Service
0406 - 1756 - 8339903612 - 800 Service
0406 - 1822 - 8339904238 - 800 Service
0407 - 0953 - 8339901977 - 800 Service
0407 - 1023 - 8339904161 - 800 Service
0407 - 1100 - 8445413061 - 800 Service
0407 - 1156 - 8554430297 - 800 Service
0407 - 1159 - 8445413074 - 800 Service
0407 - 1526 - 8445412479 - 800 Service

[static flare]

https://youtu.be/0dxqBssDtP4

[lusty fossil]

Best decision I ever made

[lusty fossil]

Platelet donation remains awful. Why did I agree!?

[stray wind]

Because you're a caring, generous person. That or you're a massive sucker. Or whomever asked you holds some kind of special power over you.

[lusty fossil]

It's one of those!!

What's awful is 1 handedly browsing for ICs

[late fulcrum]

Better than abject boredom and nothing to think about but cold fluid flows.

[lusty fossil]

True

This time is better than usual so I can deal

[static flare]

I haven't ever been eligible for blood donation, I don't think

[lusty fossil]

Whole blood is a breeze

[burnt tendon]

Clearly platelet donation is disarmingly easy then

[brisk spire]

Just got this, longshot but any idea what they might be? It was cheap so probably just a calibration/test piece

[late fulcrum]

Doesn't look like a test coupon to me. The narrow irregular rectangles look like ROM or possible random logic, and the groups of squarer regular shiny rectangles look like RAM. Could be something like a video CODEC. I'd peer around at the edges for clues like bond pads, logos, part numbers, etc.

[blissful roost]

Looks like industrial-scale farming. 😛

[brisk spire]

oh, neat! edges of the chips, right? not the wafer? there's a barcode and number on the back but im guessing that's some internal factory scan that doesn't mean much to anyone else.

Couldn't find anything resembling text or logo. did get these photos though which are neat

[spice moss]

Ax-1 mission approach and dock stream spacex stream is on the private space mission new era

[spice moss]

https://axiomspace.com/

[spice moss]

history moment

[quartz wren]

Well... Turns out trimming hardy board is really hard...

But it's ready for the abutting sheetrock panel

[honest moth]

580 Terabyte Magnetic Tape: Exists.
My dumba$$: MeGa fLoPpY-

||[I am aware of the ways people used to use magnetic tape rolls back in the day, which begs the question as to why my first thought was "mega floppy". Eh, probably due to the similarities between materials being used.]||

[wanton thistle]

Hey whats that site where people can buy you a coffee or something? Not Patreon, the other one

[lusty fossil]

BuyMeACoffee

[wanton thistle]

thats it, thanks!

[lusty fossil]

np!

[honest jolt]

I love it when JavaScript doesn't complain when I try to do something like my_array[466.62047621794045] and just returns undefined
It's gotten me about 8 times so far 🤦‍♂️

[crystal ore]

I think we can prove that time travel doesn't exist, because nobody showed up from the future to fix the Javascript language design before it got entrenched in every web browser...

[lusty fossil]

Time travel isn't precise really. You get a wide window. Javascript was made so fast that you can't really get there in time.

[crystal ore]

Maybe they had to pick their battles, too. You never know what disaster some alternate timeline might have ended up with instead of TCP/IP...

[real falcon]

thankfully we had a bunch of protocols. tcp/ip ate them all

so if it was flawed, probably end with other one taking over

[fiery hearth]

speaking of time travel, why couldn't the romans be logical about their numbering system?
https://github.com/TheMindVirus/macropad/blob/archive/sketches/RomanTally/README.md#screenshot

[real falcon]

every country have something weird

for usa, its measuring system

[lusty fossil]

I feel, as a USAian, it's a couple of things

[real falcon]

sure

[static flare]

kofi?

[vernal yoke]

That's because JS's, er, indexing(?) operator is a little ambiguous of sorts

I guess I should call it the member expression or something?

Oh

Computed member expression?

Anyways

If you do arr[1], you're really just getting/setting the property "1" to it

Which allows you to do arr[-1]

In other words, JavaScript doesn't really have a true indexing operator

So naturally, nonsense like that happens

Oh, I also forgot to say that the properties of objects must be strings or Symbols

So JS doesn't care if you do arr[{}] or arr[{a: 1}], you'll probably just end up adding some "[object Object]" property to it

[honest jolt]

So...JavaScript arrays are just maps?????????

[wanton thistle]

This is also it too. Thanks! 🙂

[drowsy zephyr]

guys, question, would it be safe to power an arduino using mini solar panels?
i've been thinking of the method on how to do so, but i don't know whether it would be safe or not
would it be as simple as plugging in a battery parallel to a pre made charge controller as well as an arduino board?

so basically we'd have a solar panel that would charge the battery with solar energy while the arduino is doing its thing

[crystal ore]

Yes, generally having the Arduino powered by the battery at the same time the solar-panel controller is charging it should work, assuming the battery voltage is compatible to start with.

[drowsy zephyr]

would it be safe though?

like if i were to use this as a charge controller, would it work?

since the solar panels are tiny

[crystal ore]

Is that a solar-panel controller or a more generic battery charger?

[drowsy zephyr]

a generic one

[crystal ore]

I can't say offhand how well that'll work with a solar panel, then. The voltage and current can vary a lot with the amount of sunlight and the load on the panel, so normally you'd want a circuit designed to deal with that variability.

(Unless the panel already has its own controller built in.)

[vernal yoke]

That's the thing, it's not

[vernal yoke]

Because this

It's a map between strings/Symbols to any object

If the key you provide isn't a string, JS converts it to a string

If the key is an object, for example, the .toString() method is called

If that doesn't return a string, then the computed property access throws an error (I think?)

By the way, Symbols are a primitive type that you get from calling the Symbol() function (not constructor)

Each Symbol you get from that function is guaranteed to be unique from the others

[dusk oracle]

it recently hit me while watching how to make solar cells how cheap and easy they were made using a fine deposit of sprayed material on glass how large i could make a even more efficient cell using some cheap chemical processes my dad shared when he was still around.

[wary herald]

Metric system for life - also a citizen of the USA

[edgy apex]

im still getting 800 Service calls but they seem to have backed off a bit. so now is the opportunity to step my game up. I ordered a U.S. Robotics USR5637 and found this software, it looks good so ill start there
https://lennytroll.com/

Hello you have reach Matt the Maker please hold while we connect you... Then a good old rick roll.

[umbral phoenix]

I forward my old landline number to my cell via an API that lets me get call metadata (incl. spam ratings), reroute the call or return an out-of-service, etc.

[edgy apex]

Sounds good was it easy to do?

[late fulcrum]

I wrote one a while back that would say stuff like "Please listen to all menu options, as the menu options have changed", followed by ten choices of word salad like "Press 1 for vertically integrated solutions, 2 for business improvement practices, 3 for synergistic vision paradigms". Whatever they pressed, they got ten more random choices.

[umbral phoenix]

not bad, the API is pretty good (twilio)

[edgy apex]

I use twilio for the food pantry ordering system and our freezer alarms, I never really got deeper into it but I guess now I'll have to look.

[late fulcrum]

I've done stuff like that with both Twilio and Intelepeer

[edgy apex]

Oh no, I found people that understand

Imagine if this phone stuff was happening to my grandma or something. They would have no idea what to do

I want to provide relatively easy solutions for lots of problems and I know I'm not the only one. I'm a little broken with a propensity to go a little coocoo but my intentions are good.

If you haven't lost your mind how can you be sure you have one?

[burnt tendon]

Huh, I wonder if the USR little modem thing has an ARM on the inside like the larger USB modems.

[hasty wedge]

just painted something with a set of open source software

https://mobile.twitter.com/LovelyA72/status/1513687425624772615

Kashouryo Official (@LovelyA72)

绫绫生日快乐！Painted fully with #krita on #Ubuntu
https://t.co/GRsb0AUSW9

Twitter · Apr 12, 2022, 1:16 AM

Painted with Krita on Ubuntu using OpenTabletDriver

Like and retweet appreciated!

[quartz wren]

that's the thing though, you can't be sure you had one until you've lost it but only because you don't know what you've got until it's gone...

[edgy apex]

For me it's more like when you find it you realize you missed it

[quartz wren]

when I lost my mind I found my self

[edgy apex]

Basically yeah

[quartz wren]

good news

the sheetrock is almost done in the lab

I'll film a walkthrough video once I've got it all paneled in

then probably do a video of finishing up the sheetrock work (mud+tape, sanding, and painting)

[edgy apex]

I had a high school kid show me some glasses he was working on, I like him and what he's doing. He couldn't find a pi zero 2 so I'm overnighting my last extra one to him for being awesome. I made him promise me to get a gamepad and put my software on it so I know he will enjoy what he has made.

When you see someone that reminds you of yourself you want to help them.

[quartz wren]

I feel this. A lot.

[tardy badger]

Ya know, @late fulcrum made a comment a couple months back about liking JST/Molex type connectors over screw block terminals and after spending time with the TreeHouse Terminal I made which used screw block terminals, I 100% get it. So much so I changed the design to use JST-PH connectors lol

I’m contemplating making a variant of my PixelLeaf 5x10 RGB matrix boards that has JST-PH/XH connectors on them for easy chaining

For now, I solder pig tails to the header holes

[burnt tendon]

Would you say that they are JST right?

For me, it's mostly that making up my own cables really puts a crimp on my style.

[stoic mesa]

Screw terminals are only usable if you use ferrules on the wires before inserting them. I strongly prefer other connectors - be it JST, Molex, or XT30/60

[thick wind]

I wouldn't say only, but ferrules are strongly recommended and are absolutely the "proper" way of installing wires in those terminal blocks. Extra care should be taken when inserting stranded wire, but most screw terminals are able to accept stranded wire.

[burnt tendon]

I got a ferrule crimper and my rate at perfectly-crimped ferrules is much higher than my rate of even vaguely OK molex connectors.

[lusty fossil]

Screw terminals are so tempting, but so rarely worth it

[tardy badger]

Yeah, the price actually wasn’t that great comparatively. I don’t feel like I got as much utility out of them. The JST-PH connectors are going to be much better, I’m confident

[static flare]

I'm very much one to try to reuse components, especially big valuable ones, so I have a few Honeywell Series 10 switches, and I'm not sure whether I should wire up like, spade connectors to each of the terminals so I can disconnect and reconnect wiring to change functionality as I see fit

(if you couldn't tell, i also hoard a bit, cause one thing or another might become useful later)

[quartz wren]

All the sheetrock is in

🥳

[lusty fossil]

Gahhh I really want to listen to a new episode of this podcast on my way home from work. But spotify is hanging at 98%, and I can't figure out how to restart the download!

Also RIP Gilbert Gottfried.

[blissful roost]

That's a shame.. what a great guy. 😟

[lusty fossil]

Yeah. Major bummer.

[static flare]

oh dear

[blissful roost]

I did some work for him, quite a few years ago..
I doubt he would have remembered me, but I sure remember him being a wonderful person.

[edgy apex]

Isn't that the goal? You don't want someone to remember you for being something other than wonderful

[wooden schooner]

Wow, what kind of work?

[blissful roost]

Me, personally... ?
I don't much care how people feel about me.. but that's not really want you're getting at.

Of course you're right.

[blissful roost]

Simple stuff.. some cabling, IT and home AV kit.

[edgy apex]

I don't care either, I know I'm wonderful so I don't sweat it

[wooden schooner]

@blissful roost Wild. Landed that one just by coincidence?

[blissful roost]

Yeah.. didn't even know he was the client.
I believe it was some rental apartment he took in NYC for a few years.

Didn't ask.. not my business.

Something like.. I want to say, around 2007-8(?)

[lusty fossil]

I am not super intimately familiar with his work, but every time I've seen him in something, he's improved it noticeably.

[blissful roost]

I certainly recall his wit.. very quick.

He roasted me, so bad... It was hilarious. 😁

[wooden schooner]

Wow, wish I had been there for that one

[blissful roost]

Ohh, for sure.

I think I'm about done with today...
I'm going out to buy some tobacco.

[tardy badger]

Got one of the best emails you can get your Adafruit order has shipped!

[lusty fossil]

woooo!

[tardy badger]

Nothing fancy though, just connectors and pigtails that I can’t really find anywhere but Aliexpress

[burnt tendon]

So... the hookup hookup

[static flare]

It's been a while since I've placed an Adafruit order tbh

[tardy badger]

I hadn’t ordered in probably 6 months

[lusty fossil]

I just did one!

[static flare]

I wonder if anyone makes card edge connectors to the specs I need

If they don't, it's not like I can afford to get some specced up, I have zero dollars, so I'll just wire to the card edge, but ideally the option would be there

[late fulcrum]

There are a few standard spacings, and the usual 1.6mm thickness, after that it's not very encouraging

[tardy badger]

I started a star fruit tree from seed 🙂

[static flare]

Does anyone know what company this is? I found it a lot in the box I tore down

[tardy badger]

But yeah, Pokémon Legends: Arceus is great fun

[lusty fossil]

It looks neat.

I may be able to swing it in a few paychecks

[tardy badger]

I thought I’d miss not having gyms but it’s really nice

[lusty fossil]

Oh interesting. Yeah, the main game is getting...stale after all these years.

[tardy badger]

Yeah, I hope scarlet and violet continue the progress

[lusty fossil]

we'll see. If they get increased sales and positive feedback, maybe. I only have nintendo products for pokemon games really, so I don't buy every new nintendo product. But this is tempting.

[tardy badger]

PLA is definitely worth it

[lusty fossil]

Yeah, 350 is a non-negligible amount of money though. And that's just the console

[tardy badger]

The mass outbreaks and massive mass outbreak mechanics make Shiny hunting lots of fun

I liked Sword and shield too

[lusty fossil]

I found Sword and Shield barely good enough to justify the investment.

[tardy badger]

Plenty of people hated it, but it was pretty good fun

[lusty fossil]

Oh wait

I didn't play sword and shield

I played the ones before that

B&W2

[tardy badger]

It’s a switch title

[lusty fossil]

I have a 2DS

[tardy badger]

Nice

[lusty fossil]

so I played the last DS game.

I don't like 3D really at all, so 2DS just made sense

[tardy badger]

Brilliant Diamond and shining Pearl were a bit disappointing but they are faithful remakes with a few extra bonus Pokémon

[lusty fossil]

That's good.

I felt like BW2 were like..lackluster given how far games have come. It felt weird that we didn't have a 3D PM game by then.

[tardy badger]

I never got to play the original Diamond and Pearl so I was okay with the games

[lusty fossil]

I didn't either

I've come and gone from the series

[tardy badger]

I just got Diamond today so I plan to play that probably this weekend

[lusty fossil]

Nice

[tardy badger]

I’ve gotten back into card collecting and building decks

Pretty excited because my son is really into Pokémon so I’m really enjoying the process

But I’ve spent.. far too much on Pokémon cards lately lol

[lusty fossil]

yeaaahh pokemon cards were always a trap for my parents too

[tardy badger]

I’m teaching my son to play the card game and how to battle

[crystal ore]

It looks to be RadioSpares, which morphed into today's RS Components, I think. https://www.mercurymagnetics.com/brands/#Radiospares

[late fulcrum]

Nice find!

[lusty fossil]

See I only ever coveted collected.

[static flare]

I thought so, but I could never find that logo in research

[static flare]

any recommendations for a cheap starter hot air station?

[late fulcrum]

I went with the AdaFruit one, it seems fine to me.

[static flare]

Quick question: Are NeoPixels bright enough to do face lighting for video creation? And if so, do they have RGBW ones? If not for either, are there any suggestions for RGBW LEDs? (I don't need them to be addressable, cause I don't know if I'd ever want them to be more than one colour for filming, at least pointed at my face

Wanna design a work light thing for to camera shots as well as be useful at my bench

(and sure I don't need colour, but it's useful to have)

[crystal ore]

Yes, there are RGBW Neopixels. The overall brightness you can get just depends on how many you use. There are also extra-bright ones like https://www.adafruit.com/product/4544

The ring-light form factor might be useful to you: https://www.adafruit.com/product/3042

[static flare]

Thank you ^^

[burnt tendon]

The CRI on most of them isn't super-great so you might be happier with any of the COB white strips, which tend to have a specified higher CRI.

[honest jolt]

Does anyone know of a site for good icons in like, PNG or something? (Specifically, I'm looking for zoom in/out/reset icons)
Was wondering if anyone knew off the top of their head and had a good recommendation

[tardy badger]

W3school has some svgs maybe png versions

[tardy badger]

First pass, enclosure base is too narrow. Second pass should be better

I’ve never made an enclosure like this so I’m excited

[blissful roost]

I need to get a custom case for my Pi Zero 2W

[burnt tendon]

I can see you can barely contain your excitement.

[tardy badger]

Lol

[dusk oracle]

@tardy badger well done

[quartz wren]

rule of thumb, when 3D printing an enclosure for electronics, give the board about a mm more edge clearance than you'd expect

makes it slide in and out so much easier

[blissful roost]

https://tenor.com/view/oh-my-george-takei-wink-gif-5296452

[quartz wren]

https://tenor.com/view/lenny-face-meme-lenny-intensifies-shaking-gif-17071970

[blissful roost]

I'm wondering if these are worth anything to collectors..

[tardy badger]

Yeah, I’m just testing tolerances on my printer to see what I can get away with. Also use up brittle filament lol..

[quartz wren]

Ahhhhh okay that makes more sense

[late fulcrum]

I have some filament like that too. It gets used for various oddball and test projects.

[tardy badger]

when it prints, it's great

it's a "transparent black" which ends up more like a transparent gray

but for some reason its more brittle than the other filament from the same company I have

I have some black and white spools that sit out open air and are still pretty good

[late fulcrum]

I have a blue spool from some off brand that just tends to print brittle for some reason. That "transparent black" sounds like some I have, it's kind of cool for certain effects.

[tardy badger]

Of course I said it was brittle and checked the print and it was ghost printing lol

[late fulcrum]

Uh, what does "ghost printing" mean in this context?

[tardy badger]

Printing invisible filament

[blissful roost]

As the filaments are some kind of thermoplastic (?), would it be effective to warm them up after print to maybe even out/strengthen bonds?

[thick wind]

Probably moisture. I hear filament dryers do wonders for those...

[tardy badger]

Yeah, I need a dehydrator like madbodger has. Though it’s pretty dry where I live

[thick wind]

I'm just waiting for summer so I can throw a giant plastic tub of brittle filament into my car with a bunch of dessicant haha

[tardy badger]

Hahaha

[coarse iron]

so... after fiddling with getting back into electronics as a hobby for the last few years (I have a couple "as seen on show and tell", etc along the way), I've started going back to school for an Electrical Engineering degree at 50 years old. I'm definitely taking the long way around to what I should have done 30 years ago, but I'm excited to see how the next few years go. Adafruit has been a big part of how and why I decided to do this. Thank you for being here!

[tardy badger]

Congrats on the decision! It’s a hard journey but definitely worth it! One of my friends was in his late 30s making a career change after getting a bachelors in graphic design, went back for Computer Engineering and he is doing better now than ever.

[coarse iron]

I tried going back for CS in 1997, but that died on the vine when I moved from Cleveland to Chicago. I'm avoiding that mistake this time by doing ASU's Online program. Fool me once, and all that. 🙂

[dusk oracle]

anyone ever built their own multimeter?

i mean for voltages ect it's pretty basic with just a voltage ladder or a few

[honest moth]

I had to move drives, I was not about to take any more risks with HDD's.

Here's the story; Had an oldie begin to have it's platters scrape against the read/write head, which then prompted me to shut it down and develop immense paranoia about my main system/OS. Here's the thing, the aforementioned system/OS is loaded on a SLIM HDD, meaning that if the head were to ever crash in that thing, it's game over. I booted up my only remaining option, that option being the 20+ year-old HDD which is suffering from magnet failure, but here's the risk factor for you; The drive had begun to experience data loss of the highest order, with the only remaining components being the bare minimum, including a system UI, GParted, a broken System Monitor, and the Terminal. Luckily, GParted had every component of itself intact and ready to go, which prompted me to finally begin the move. Ironically, due to all the experimentation done to the still-functional HDD, copying the system to an internal SSD I planned to use for Arch worked without a hitch, while still leaving some space left over, so dual-booting is a possibility in the near future. For the time being however, no data loss has been detected, everything works as it should, and the only casualty is a now defunct 20+ year old HDD... [i'll miss you old friend.]

[late fulcrum]

Yeah, it's just a meter with (series) scaling resistors for voltage or (parallel) scaling resistors for current.

[dusk oracle]

i need advice on testing capacitors, diodes, and resistors.

i think no multi tool must be without all the testing tools i can sneak in

[late fulcrum]

Diodes are fairly simple, you set up a current limited supply (basically a voltage source and a series resistor) and set it up with the diode in series. In one direction, you'll see full voltage as the diode is blocking the flow, in the other direction, you'll see the diode's forward voltage as it conducts (there are additional things that happen with things like zener diodes).

With resistors, it's similar, but you measure the current through the resistor and then work out the resistance from the resulting current.

Capacitors are ... more complicated.

[dusk oracle]

i was hoping to do something a bit cooler do you think it's possible to set and graph break down voltage drops over diode so you can get a idea on how they might act?

[late fulcrum]

My capacitor tester is a Tel-Ohmike TO-5, basically a relic, but a useful one for certain kinds of jobs.

[dusk oracle]

good lord she truly is a relic

i have no idea whats in that thing

[late fulcrum]

Yes, it's possible. There are Arduino based component testers that do part of it, you'd just have to add stepwise tests and logging to graph stuff like that.

[dusk oracle]

cool

[late fulcrum]

You can find the Tel-Ohmike manual here if you're curious (it contains a lot of useful information)

http://www.mcmlv.org/Archive/TestEquipment/Sprague_TO5.pdf

In the old days (when it was current), the main capacitor parameters people cared about were capacitance (obviously) and leakage. These days, many circuits depend on capacitors having low ESR, or various figures of dielectric loss, voltage sensitivity, and that sort of thing. There are tests for all of those things.

[dusk oracle]

i am drawing up a schematic for auto ranging on the voltage testing so far it's quite simple,
i have a higher resolution adc setup to look at the main high tension ladder.

it has a few points where it goes up and a few where it goes down

i added fine tuning for each ladder with a pot top and bottom

i have a box full of mixed ones

but i think it's overkill now that i have a real reading on what my resistance should be

however the main ADC watching the main ladder

is a keeper

[dusk oracle]

i can see now that capacitance testing has many facets from yield, to insulation and leak..

yeah not getting that in a smd form soon

[edgy apex]

at the food pantry during the start of covid, we were doing drive throughs with everything prepacked based on family size which was a burn on our inventory and a waste of food, if people can pick what they want it saves inventory. I made the system to replicate what we used to do on pre-covid on paper. the system has gone down a few times and we can still operate off paper if we need to its just my system is more convenient.

When on paper the number machine is used to print out the numbers even though the other services may be down and the sign still works too

If you are volunteering to do something you are either going to burn out or get really good at it

[lusty fossil]

Anyone have an idea as to why the TI forums, of all places, would have an experience/level up mechanic?

[late fulcrum]

To encourage ... people to ... something?

[lusty fossil]

yeah it's a bit baffling

[crystal ore]

Maybe a higher rank gets you more attention from TI reps when you have a question or need samples, etc.

[lusty fossil]

hmm, don't love that?

[wooden schooner]

I would be extremely surprised if anything other than having money (incl representing a company that TI does business with) can get you that

My guess is that when they were choosing which forum software to use, the person in charge of choosing had a personal fondness for level up mechanisms (maybe they played video games or something), so they chose the one that has it.

[crystal ore]

Yeah, I have gotten an extremely different reception from TI reps as myself versus when I was a Googler. Now they don't even want to bother with NDA paperwork for datasheets, sigh.

[wooden schooner]

Meaning they don't give you the datasheets?

[crystal ore]

Correct. Or rather, they would be happy to, if I had an NDA. Which I can totally get if I ask my assigned account representative to convince the TI legal team to send me one... if I had an assigned account representative. 😅

[wooden schooner]

Gross

That seems pretty anti-competitive

[crystal ore]

And I even have my own company, so it's not like I'm emailing them from [e-mail] or something like that.

[wooden schooner]

Is that taken because I want it

[crystal ore]

Oh, well, I reverse-engineered the chip anyway, and now I don't have to keep the info secret. 😁

[wooden schooner]

As the name of my company

[wooden schooner]

Yes, luckily no DMCA for this one

So they sell the chip to the public and keep the docs secret except to their whitelist of big companies. That is really bad

[crystal ore]

Yeah, doesn't make much sense honestly. Probably just some legacy oversight in their documentation system, but try getting that fixed...

[wooden schooner]

So you think it's not intentionally anti-competitive?

I guess it's not totally clear how they benefit from the secrecy in this case, since they have more manufacturing capital than anyone not on their list

[crystal ore]

Possibly they want to avoid making it easy for someone in China to make a cheaper pin-compatible clone chip? Just guessing.

[late fulcrum]

Wait, I can get cheaper pin-compatible clone chips?

[lusty fossil]

hissssss

jk

[honest moth]

PROJECT BLACK-FIRE LIVES...I think? Idk, it went from Black-fire to White-fire [the names of the OS's], but I digress, having any functional OS on this thing is so relieving...even though it's Ubuntu, but hey! It works, and I can do most menial tasks on it, even the boring/long and drawn-out ones. But hey! No more problems...right? Glances nervously at empty space waiting to dual-boot Arch ...r-right? �-fire?

[tardy badger]

I have a friend who works at TI, they said they can direct colleagues of theirs to my posts if I let him know that I posted lol

[umbral phoenix]

taxes done and ready to mail 🗓️ :wipes brow emoji:

[lusty fossil]

Just in time!

[umbral phoenix]

can postmark until Monday, but this means a no-stress weeknd 🙂

[lusty fossil]

those are nice. I'm looking at fewer and fewer of those for the next little while

Treasure yours!

[late fulcrum]

Doing my taxes, I discovered that my company had sent my state witholding to the wrong state!

[lusty fossil]

oops!

[tardy badger]

My company didn’t withhold NC taxes

So I owe NC monies 🙃

[late fulcrum]

Ouch

[tardy badger]

And there is no recourse even though I sent NC tax forms two or three times

[lusty fossil]

oof

I'm sorry

I'm pretty sure I need to have a conversation with our HR person. I think that even at CA rates, my take home is lower than it should be

[crystal ore]

I've been nagging one of my clients about correcting an incomplete 1099 form since early February, and they finally sent it to me yesterday...

[lusty fossil]

gosh

[wooden schooner]

What would recourse be in this case? Your company paying you to apologize for the error?

[tardy badger]

What I mean is no legal recourse because nothing legally will happen to them for not properly withholding taxes from my check. So it doesn’t save face for anyone who starts the way that I did

[wooden schooner]

Ah. But you don't personally pay penalties for their error, do you?

I understand that even so, it throws a wrench in financial planning etc

[tardy badger]

I’m fortunate that I can use my entire Utah state return to cover the taxes owed by I won’t probably see that money for weeks because they flagged my tax return for potential identity theft and I had to prove my identity and provide proof I paid taxes

And the $1800 in owed taxes is owed by April 18th

[wooden schooner]

yeah, sucks to have a sudden surprise fee

[tardy badger]

Talk about a pickle that my employer faces no penalty for and I suffer all the liability for even though I provided the right tax forms on multiple occasions

[wooden schooner]

yeah. In a just world, you'd at least have a shoe-in case for getting an extension on the deadline, since the error wasn't yours...

[lusty fossil]

I love Samtec so, so, so much. They are just grand

[static flare]

I'm always appalled at the US tac system

[umbral phoenix]

yes, intentionally overcomplicated

[lusty fossil]

Idk I feel like our tachometers are pretty good...

In so much as we have a system for them, I'm for it

:P

[umbral phoenix]

the analog ones especially

[dusk oracle]

@late fulcrum i took another think at the capacitor tester, possible using a digital variable load and a adjustable boost converter.

one day on a bigger multitool budget

[quartz wren]

Got everything booked for going to DEF CON this year 🎉

[dusk oracle]

nice i wish i lived close enough

[quartz wren]

I live a few states away, it's only barely feasible for me right now in life haha

But it's all set up and now I just have to go

[dusk oracle]

You know what is probably the coolest game i ever played filling the engineer and sci-fi trek roles?

System Shock 2

man

[quartz wren]

Hmm, haven't played it, but now it's on my radar

[dusk oracle]

when it came out everyone was playing half-life

it was ahead of it's time

the modding community has done great work to keep it alive

if the graphics bother you

the mods are a good update to it all

[quartz wren]

I play minecraft, graphics don't bother me

[vagrant sonnet]

Shame about System Shock 3 falling apart

[dusk oracle]

i believe tencent bought it due to them having similar content in a video game of their own, sadly you can imagine ss3 in the wrong hands = dead space with kittens

ss3 was supposed to be throwback to ss1

[blissful roost]

How-to kill a game: Tencent.

[dusk oracle]

but we already have nightdives ss1 remaster to look forward to

god i love ss2

i love the looking glass games like thief

ss2 was the one that blew me away

i have never had a friend do the entire game coop with me

i'm writing a game based on the pico-8 for fun

[tardy badger]

doing some 3D design today 🙂

[late fulcrum]

That was me recently when the battery tray for my water filter broke.

[haughty wave]

https://www.instagram.com/p/CcYSrj9rt1O/?igshid=YmMyMTA2M2Y=

intrnl.exe

"SYSTEM CONTROL"

🌐 WWW.INTRNL.NET 🌐

LINK IN BIO

.
.
.
.
.

Instagram

Who likes decoding hexadecimal 😁?

[late fulcrum]

Not much to it: HYPER ANALYZER

[lapis bluff]

"Time flies like an arrow" a phrase to challenge computer parsers. How many readings can you find?

[late fulcrum]

Fruit flies like a banana.

[tardy badger]

First time making a snap fit enclosure

[slim shard]

hmm! I should find an excuse to make one

[static flare]

ngl I like how simple snap fit is, but I hate them

[vagrant sonnet]

Nice! STL?

[vagrant sonnet]

What about them do you hate? Fiddliness? Fragility?

[static flare]

Mostly the fiddliness, especially in consumer products

I have coordination issues and I get shaky sometimes as it is

[vagrant sonnet]

Now that you mention it, a snap fit kickstand on a thermometer I was just trying to get situated had both axis posts snap off entirely.

Ah, that makes sense too. I hadn’t thought about that.

[static flare]

Usually 3D printed snaps are made better, for necessity's sake

Bigger tolerances to put a pry tool in without ruining it all

[late fulcrum]

I made a 3D model of a servo horn and subtracted that from my robot leg, it gives really strong engagement.

[static flare]

oooh

I just got my 3D printer up and running

Sometimes I wish I could just design something, send it to a box, and out comes a perfect print like, 99% of the time, and the other 1% it tells me what's wrong so I can fix it

Currently it's design something, send it to the printer, have it inevitably fail like, 3 hours in, and just... have no clue why

[tardy badger]

3MF actually

[static flare]

Aaand the test print both had warping and bad bed adhesion

I guess that ticks painters tape off the list of things to try

[vagrant sonnet]

Ah, okay. Care to share?

[static flare]

I am officially out of ideas

[vagrant sonnet]

I mean, if you’re in a position to throw money at the problem, once I got the Z height set properly, this is the experience I’ve had with my Prusa Mini+. The only failures that come to mind are when I printed something small and tall without a brim, and adding a brim fixed it.

[static flare]

I have zero money

[vagrant sonnet]

That does make it harder. I essentially broke my Ender 3 Pro by trying to improve its consistency and bed leveling. :/

There are just So. Many. Variables.

[static flare]

I have a flashforge finder, so that makes it even more difficult

cause it's all one box unit with no customisable options

Almost considering just... taking out the motherboard

and designing something myself

But like, also probably too much work

[tardy badger]

Yeah, I’ll put the files here in a bit

I print my stuff on an Ender 3 Pro

[static flare]

At least everything is just... plugged into the board, and it's mostly labelled

it even has spots for stuff it doesn't come with

Gonna try some z height calibration

on top of levelling

I really should have done that earlier

tbh i thought the bed levelling did that for me, but now I'm not too sure

I... think this fixed the warping

the nozzle at 0 was 1.2 units away from the build surface

ish

I did the thing with a piece of paper, went until i couldn't move it out, and then went 0.1 units back

it looks like the warping is completely fixed

[vagrant sonnet]

If you end up still having issues, may I suggest refining the paper technique result based on what the first layer of a box looks like? They have a lot of descriptions and pictures here https://help.prusa3d.com/en/article/first-layer-calibration_112364/

[static flare]

It feels like that's specifically for Prusa ones, at least from looking at it

This is working and I'm not touching the settings again until I put it somewhere else

I just needed to wait more

it failed again

[vagrant sonnet]

The interaction with the firmware is, but I’d expect the behavior of a first layer being too close/far to be universal to FDM printers.

[tardy badger]

@vagrant sonnet here's the 3mf file.

I love 3mf because it allows for putting multiple models in a file that can be individually manipulated

and I think it supports parametric scaling but don't quote me on that

[vagrant sonnet]

Thanks! Yeah it’s definitely the preferable format

I still remember printing a Lego-style figure from STL and I ignored the slicer’s warning that it looked like it was in inches. 15 seconds later I had an impressionistic blob of a figurine.

[late fulcrum]

I sent a DXF file for laser cutting, and they said it would be $46, which seemed really high until I realized it had assumed the units were inches. When I set it to millimeters, it became a $1.50 job.

[tardy badger]

Wow crazy

[real falcon]

lol that'd be a huge surpise on delivery LOL

[late fulcrum]

Yeah, I'd be expecting something I could hold in my hand, and get this big piece almost as tall as I am.

[real falcon]

https://tenor.com/view/john-jonah-jameson-lol-laughing-hysterically-laughing-out-loud-funny-gif-17710543

[burnt tendon]

Like in Spinal Tap.

[tardy badger]

https://tenor.com/view/kronk-its-all-coming-together-gif-15058130

Literally and figuratively

[glad plover]

Hello

Is this public discord server I can safely visit

[real falcon]

define safely visit

[tardy badger]

Very family friendly

[real falcon]

it should be yes

[glad plover]

Alright

https://tenor.com/view/lets-go-princess-peach-mario-party-spooky-maniac-gif-12642095

[edgy apex]

Its safe here, they run a tight ship

[glad plover]

Sorry for dumb question by the way.

I am very sceptic.

[edgy apex]

Of what exactly?

[glad plover]

I am sceptic of everything.

[edgy apex]

So am I, give it some time and you will become a believer

[glad plover]

https://tenor.com/view/princess-peach-mario-smash-bros-biddybotitty-wink-gif-13269717

[edgy apex]

I know better than to swear here lol

[tardy badger]

Check out the progress

Lightssss

Finish cover for the light will be transparent so it illuminates better

[glad plover]

Good. Did you use circuitpython? :confused:

[tardy badger]

Yeah

Super easy to test the RGB matrix using the neopixel library

[glad plover]

I prefer C to make microcontroller projects.

But circuitpython is good too.

[tardy badger]

C is fine but I use C++ everyday at work

[glad plover]

I might make microcontroller projects for my future scientific C raster graphics editor just to make touchscreen tablet connection.

Also I love coming to actual community servers.

Thats why I am here. 😉

[glad plover]

By the way when you use C++ at work?

[tardy badger]

I’m kind of a communications/embedded software engineer so lots of C++

[glad plover]

Nice.

[tardy badger]

Circuitpython makes embedded hardware projects more fun because you need less time doing setup

So it’s great for little side projects

Arduino is great too

[glad plover]

Arduino is good but Raspberry Pi Pico is better.

[tardy badger]

Pico sdk?

[glad plover]

I think Adafruit also supports RPI Pico.

[tardy badger]

It’s pretty great, yeah

Ah the RP2040

Yes, I admire the RP2040 a lot

Even designed a number of boards around it

These for instance

Big photo, standby

[glad plover]

But Trolls. They might come here without knowledge of technology. They will troll.

[glad plover]

15 oaks?

[tardy badger]

Oak was the name of my company

Or the short name

Oak Development Technologies

[late fulcrum]

If they troll, they will be removed.

[tardy badger]

As for trolls, exactly what madbodger said

Closest acceptable trolling we have are our master punsters

[glad plover]

I know but sometimes my quite eccentric behaviour will cause people to think I am "troll".

I am trying to be careful to not to hear another "troll" word.

[tardy badger]

Best thing to do is relax, be respectful of peoples experience levels and try to be helpful

[blissful roost]

Do want. 😁

[glad plover]

Okay. I will do it.

[tardy badger]

I may make a panel to use what I have left

[glad plover]

Developing OS is ×1000 harder than making embedded projects.

[blissful roost]

I only want one.. lol

[glad plover]

Embedded is acceptable.

[tardy badger]

Sure, OS development is hard

[glad plover]

Agreed.

I also draw paintings. Can I show them?

[honest moth]

GUESS who SOMEHOW forgot swapfiles existed?

[late fulcrum]

Someone used to core memory machines?

[blissful roost]

Imagine using swap...

[honest moth]

...and entire flash drives formatted to just swap space alone.

[blissful roost]

Wut......

[glad plover]

I never forgot swap existed. They function like Extra RAM.

[honest moth]

Ik ik, but the fact I forgot that the swapfiles themselves were a thing is highly embarrassing...considering how much trouble it would have saved me, while also meaning I wouldn't have to waste a perfectly good flash drive.

[burnt tendon]

I was discussing CircuitPython vs Arduino with a mermaid a few weekends ago.

[late fulcrum]

I normally avoid swapfiles, as they're inefficient (but sometimes convenient)

[blissful roost]

I always create a swap partition, but it's pretty much never used.

[honest moth]

depends on your drive I guess. All I know is that I am loaded with a Samsung SSD, not sure what kind, but it works.

[glad plover]

If I had 16 gb ram with 512 gb Nvm.e, I would add 16 gb swap file.

But you are right. Swap files are not so useful.

[late fulcrum]

eyes my computer maxed out with 768B of RAM

[honest moth]

I have to ask however; Inefficient in what way?

[glad plover]

Sorry but can I show my magazine right now?

[late fulcrum]

Instead of writing swap data directly to a drive, a swapfile sends it to a file on a filesystem which the driver then spools out to disk, allocating blocks on the fly as needed.

[blissful roost]

Best way to do swap... Create a ramdrive and put swap in there. 😁

Hehehe

[honest moth]

Now I'm curious; Did you configure the vm.swappiness and vm.vfs_cache_pressure variables in the sysctl.conf file accordingly?

[tardy badger]

Did they flip flop on which was better?

[honest moth]

or was it just a problem completely unrelated?

[honest moth]

I...might not get how this makes it inefficient.

maybe it's due to the drive types and how quickly each one can read/write stuff, but idk

[blissful roost]

I do actually have a proper SATA RAMdrive, so... Technically..

[late fulcrum]

It's just the additional layers of processing and abstraction slow everything down: the opposite of what you want with swapping data.

[honest moth]

ooooohhhhhhhh...got it. 🤦‍♂️

[late fulcrum]

Yow, those are rare. SATA is a little slow for a RAMdrive, most RAMdrives use faster interconnects.

[blissful roost]

Yarp.. it's old. DDR2.

[late fulcrum]

Kewl

[honest moth]

sorry for my language

[glad plover]

We should talk other else. Ugh.

[honest moth]

but dang

that is old

[blissful roost]

Lol

[honest moth]

Been eyeing RAM drive configurations for a while now, and have been half-tempted to get one time and time again but idk if I should anymore now that I'm relearning how to manage my system.

Plus, most of them are outdated last I checked. Do you have any good recommendations, users of the Adafruit Discord?

[glad plover]

I don't know.

[late fulcrum]

I had one idea of using a Thunderbolt eGPU housing to install a PCI RAM card, but then I realized the card I was looking at was just using PCI as form factor and power but was just a SATA connection, making the whole notion an expensive and complicated exercise in pointlessness.

[vagrant sonnet]

The card… exposed RAM over SATA??

[late fulcrum]

Yeah. Gigabyte GC-RAMDISK card. Silly thing. "up to 150MB/s" which is positively leisurely for DDR RAM.

[lusty fossil]

I have an issue. I can't figure out for the life of me how to actually download an .SVG from wikipedia. They have a download button, but it just leads you to a page where you can, presumably, R-Click to download. Then when you do, the "save as" option doesn't save the .SVG as an SVG! It saves it as a web page!

Anyone know the secret that I am ignorant of?

[lusty fossil]

I learned it! I was being obtuse. There is a way

[edgy apex]

I fixed up a T400 today so I have a laptop ready to go the next time a friend needs one.

I got everything for free minus the battery and ssd which cost a total of $70, I recently got a little money I wasn't planning on so I made sure to do good things with it.

[honest moth]

Blimey...ok, decision time. Void Linux or EndeavourOS?

[late fulcrum]

How about BSD?

[honest moth]

umm...what?

[late fulcrum]

There are some lovely BSD based operating systems to choose from

[honest moth]

i only just now discovered what that is

ehhhhhhhh...

idk, I think I'm still going with either Endeavour or Void.

oh forget it, I'll give one a try and see how it pans out.

[vagrant sonnet]

Do you have an OpenBSD distribution to recommend perchance? I’ve long admired it for choosing security and correctness instead of Just Speed like Linux seems to.

[glad plover]

https://tenor.com/view/cia-terry-terry-a-davis-terry-a-davis-got-the-moves-cool-dance-gif-14065988

I admire Terrance Andrew Davis. He was a great programmer with genius mind.

Though he had eccentric behaviours.

[honest moth]

found some new brackets. 〔〕

〔I'm definitely using these.〕

[wooden schooner]

Oh wow, good find

Apparently they are called tortoise shell brackets

[honest moth]

〔Huh, cool!〕

[dusk oracle]

i like e'm better already

[edgy apex]

I am using one of these for a project
https://www.adafruit.com/product/4463
I was having trouble detecting my i2c devices so I read the part docs, realized it was friction based so I used a stacking header to bend half of the pins a little to create more friction and viola it works better now

[late fulcrum]

It depends on what you're doing. There are three major flavors, OpenBSD, FreeBSD, and NetBSD, each with their own strengths, as well as variants like Darwin.

[tardy badger]

Happy Easter or Sunday of Easter isn’t your thing!

Check out the final product

For the light part that is

[umbral phoenix]

nice, 3D print seems to make a good diffuser

[tardy badger]

I designed it to be like a mini shop light