general-chat

[static flare]

My new hot air/soldering station is... so much better than the soldering iron i used to have

[quartz wren]

Oh no doubt and I plan to upgrade but my point is even good work can be done with crappy tools

[static flare]

it was only $90AUD, and it's both a hot air gun and a soldering iron, and it heats up so much quicker

[quartz wren]

I may need to.... Reshuffle my finances again and lean more heavily on currently held assets to get my game console going so I can invest in that

What's the model?

And is it available in the US?

[static flare]

it's a 8786D clone

[quartz wren]

I have nothing against clones... If the price is right

(and for small scale individual use, I'm pretty against it for mass scale purchasing but I digress)

[dusty citrus]

is your 1st language French ?

[quartz wren]

No my first language is 'Murrican

I'm a native speaker of American English I just play with my words before eating them

[dusty citrus]

yeah the sentencing structure seemed sorta French that's why I asked

I'm not sure yet about soldering iron and lab power supply...

[quartz wren]

I'm also extremely bipolar with schizoaffective aspects so it could just be that I frame stuff weird as a result of that

[dusty citrus]

insurance company says they need to be UL/CE certified and made in the US to cover damage if they cause it...

Had a tektronix soldering station in mind that cost 100$ or a hakko one that costs 350$ (they have UL/CE and not made up one/fake ones from corruption money from china...)

[lusty fossil]

There's being a dork, and then there's taking pride that Digikey Chat Support agents always pass you off to an applications support tech.

[dusty citrus]

There's also a pen one I could use meanwhile

[quartz wren]

No just real ones that fund corruption money in the west.

¯\_(ツ)_/¯

Not saying don't trust the real ones or that you should trust the fake ones, but the argument about corruption money is simply moot

The argument should be one of whether the cost you save by not getting a real certification is worth the lack of real certification

[dusty citrus]

Nah I mean like in China I saw many documentaries from DW / France2 etc where everyone seem to print fradulent labels like made in italy or CE/UL and the law doesn't care

[quartz wren]

It is generally not

[dusty citrus]

And when I see a 5$ charger from china and look at what is inside and it doesn't have even basic safety feature that tell me human life isn't value in such products

so I can't trust anything that is inherently dangerous from there like a soldering iron or power supply

[quartz wren]

Right, and as a result their products can be cheaper at the point of sale, but they're unsafe. Thing is, the regulatory bodies that make money off of the certification process don't make enough of an effort to inform the public of why real certification is important

[dusty citrus]

and even there are tests that says the design pass basic safety guidelines like UL and CE

and I've had a corsair HX 750 with electronic components from Japan for almost 15 years

[quartz wren]

So people say "oh why am I paying more for this one than this one with the same labels?" as an unaware consumer and end up making a market for it

[dusty citrus]

vs the no-name cheap one that advertising 750W but the components inside wouldn't go past 350W and broke in 1 or 2 years

so far that power supply cost me 9$ per year... vs 40$ a year for the "cheap ones"

so I had my lesson

[quartz wren]

Let's say I'm aware it's a terrible idea to buy power supplies from Chinese companies

I bought a supposedly 1KW PSU for my PC for cheap and it was uh

Not a good decision

[dusty citrus]

I mean you do what you want, not trying to influence anybody, just saying for me and for what the insurance company says and I have a small apartment and lots of tenants in the building so it doesn't work

I'd rather do what the insurance company says in the long run

and if a power supply last 1 millenia that's what I want 🤣

[quartz wren]

First off the fan bearing died in a month, kept resetting the system any time I pushed the GPU, ended up damaging the motherboard chipset as a result of undervolt during reset rather than a full disconnect and reconnect of the supply, etc.

[dusty citrus]

yeah gpu dying in a year was a common symptom of these PSU

[quartz wren]

But it was either that or a computer that didn't meet most of my needs

[dusty citrus]

or not powering the computer on at all when you added a a cd drive... even if it was far off the supposedly 750W

[quartz wren]

And I wasn't aware of the potential for problems at the time

[dusty citrus]

And I kinda see a power supply like a bike lock

You don't buy a 300$ bike lock to protect a 500$ bike neither do you use a 50$ bike lock to protect a 8000$ bike...

[quartz wren]

I had $600 to work with to make a computer that could do GPU rendering in blender <2.8 (before my GPU wasn't supported anymore and I was sad)

Already had the GPU so the rest was a scratch build

[static flare]

it's a clone in the same way my lab bench power supply is a clone

[dusty citrus]

and I mean this isn't even about us/china/whatever it's more having real/verifiable certs that I can show my insurance company if something happens

Like "I did my job now pay up my claim"

[quartz wren]

Gotcha, I realize we were kind of talking from slightly different contexts, I was just saying that the reason a market exists at all for false certs is that the general consumer public aren't made aware enough of the importance

[dusty citrus]

Yeah I know that too, I've had the power supply argument before with peoples IRL and they didn't know until they invested in a good one

And didn't understand the "naive person" who spent 150$ for one (me)

And I mean even for me, the hardest one to buy with cert is a lab bench power supply if I ever need one

certified ones costs a fortune

[quartz wren]

After my incident with the PC supply I decided if I'm going to have a cheaply produced supply I'm going to learn to build it cheaply myself but verify the quality myself

Not for PC but for bench supply

[dusty citrus]

basic ones with mid-range volts/ampere from b&k starts at 400 US$...

When I bought for PC power supply there was a guy testing them with high-end gear

and the main thing in them besides the components being rated at what it claims is ripple/noise

something that need a lot of bandwidth to check and is into the realm of DSP, not really something an hobbyist can afford to do

[quartz wren]

Not something a hobbyist who's buying hobby gear at hobby prices with hobby timescales and time budget and at hobby knowledge levels can afford to do. 😉

[dusty citrus]

depends on the project

An e-bike starts at 3000$ where I am

If that is ever something I want to do and the total project cost is 800$ but I need a 800$ power supply or oscilloscope to do it correctly

I still save money

[quartz wren]

Yes but if you are dedicated you can build each component from raw material using 3D printed jigs for coil winding and such

And it's about a third of the price or less

But yeah if you're a standard hobbyist the limiting factor is actually time

I'm not a standard hobbyist

I have all the time in the world

So much so that I can make barely any money stretch across many projects

[dusty citrus]

yeah that's why when I show up at my fablab and they have 12 machines for construction work

and learning each take 2-3 months I get discouraged

[quartz wren]

(out of necessity in my case until I can manage to get self started)

I've been working with 3D printers for some 5 or 6 years now

I can level any printer I've come across just using my eyes

No leveling card

And it gives me better results than using a card

But I added automatic leveling to my printers just because like... Tedium

(yes, fully automated)

[dusty citrus]

I don't even know what a leveling card is

I just hope that before I did my time metal 3d printers are widely available for 500$ and you can order a furniture to print it rather than wait for it

etc

atm I'm very interested in experimenting in joysticks whatever the cost

plus maybe one day I can reuse it to drive an ESC on an r/c or an e-bike 😄

I really wish I had a tractor like dashboard with a new holland style sidewinder HOTAS for gaming...

good news is they apparently can be used on a microcontroller

[late fulcrum]

Hmm, 3D printed coil forms, that's a good idea

[quartz wren]

Well yeah, 3D printing has two main advantages over other manufacturing methods: if you keep within some fairly forgiving constraints they can manufacture shapes that are simply impossible using other methods, and you can iterate on things quickly

Turns out 3D printing is best put to use in a lot of cases as shape references rather than the actual object itself

[late fulcrum]

I agree. I'm tempted to try lost PLA casting.

[quartz wren]

I'm going to be helping my brother cast my old engine block into stuff with that method

(aluminum block)

[late fulcrum]

Excellent

The battery tray in one of my appliances broke, so I just 3D printed another one.

[quartz wren]

Another excellent use of 3D printing

OH!

my ruby nozzles arrived today

😄

[late fulcrum]

Nice! Those are good for abrasive filament

[quartz wren]

Not that I can make use of them right now since the tool steel ones work for the glow filament I have

[late fulcrum]

Heh, I haven't tried my glow filament yet, but I do have a steel nozzle I plan to use with it.

[quartz wren]

I mean I'm going to install them but I need to also install my 500C thermocouples and get some carbon fiber infused polycarbonate filament to fully put it through its paces

And glass infused nylon

[late fulcrum]

Those are some serious composites

[quartz wren]

Also got full self leveling on my printers

Have to tune stuff once I get the nozzles swapped but both proved that they work well enough to print

And the prints are gorgeous when I have it properly tuned in

With no user leveling option even available

Next step is to get a high temp heat break that a bowden tube won't degrade in, make a custom shelf with just enough operational space for all the printers I have planned, and run Teflon tubes to each printer spot from a common filament dry box

I still have to figure out whether I want my small printer to do 3 materials or my big one

I have a diamond head nozzle that can mix 3 plastics through the same output if configured correctly

And if I add another separate nozzle I can do a CMYK printer

I wish I'd saved for a 5 input nozzle though

[late fulcrum]

I ended up going with a titanium heatbreak, it seems to be working well

[quartz wren]

So I could do CMYKW

[quartz wren]

That's what I was thinking of going with

Actually... Shoot... What's a 5 input diamond head cost rn

[late fulcrum]

I have no idea

[quartz wren]

Oof

It's hard to find now because there's actual diamond tipped nozzles that dominated the SEO

[late fulcrum]

Heh, that's what I thought you meant

[quartz wren]

Did some research after finding them

Turns out 5 colors doesn't work very well

At least with that design

I need to design and have my own machined

To address the issues I've been reading about

Mostly it's heat management issues

And color purges

And mixing

Actually

If I use virtual foundries' metal infused filament

To print a nozzle

.....

I could totally have a printer print it's own new nozzle

Because the mixing chamber needs to be designed after a mixing tip on an industrial adhesive applicator

Which is hard to do with traditional metal machining

Otherwise you'll have the striped toothpaste effect I've been reading about

I may spring for some brass infused PLA to print my own printer nozzles (which is then sintered into a slightly smaller solid metal part)

Yo dawg I heard you like printer nozzles so I'm printing a printer nozzle with a printer nozzle

[honest moth]

BOOOYAH!!!

CPU TEMPS HAVE REACHED AN ALL-TIME LOW, WITHOUT a significant impact to performance!

Better yet, all while running Discord and YouTube and bloody system monitor.

42 DEGREES, AND 30-37 WHILE IDLING!!

YEEEEEEEEEHAAAAAAAWWW!!!

imagine what it could be on Void or Arch!!

[late fulcrum]

Or BSD

[honest moth]

meh, i've decided that it might not be for me after I did some digging.

cool concept and cool all around, no doubting that

but just not for me.

[late fulcrum]

Fair

[quartz wren]

I may be able to make a desktop SLS printer using a repurposed DVD writer assembly...

Keep it on its gantry, set that on a second gantry, remake the control circuitry, and add the powder bed system and you've got a tiny high precision selective laser sintering setup

Not sure if it could melt metal but if it can its built in gantry is big enough to 3D print 3D printer mix nozzles for FDM with baffles in the melt pot to properly mix the plastics

Could even do a helical baffle....

Heck with SLS I could do baffles of literally any physically realizable shape

I have a literal pile of DVD drives just hanging out on a shelf

Will get laser goggles before I play with it

I think I actually figured out a super simple solution to the mixing problem

Just a helix that twists a couple of times and reduces in size from the melt pot entry point to the nozzle exit

Basically a >45° from horizontal helical surface or series of baffles that forces the plastic to complete at least two twists before exiting

That way even if it isn't thoroughly mixed you at least get it mixed enough to trick the eye as well as pixels do

(that is, beyond a certain distance depending on the quality of mixing)

[quartz wren]

Oh yeah the lab also got a smoke detector yesterday

[dusty citrus]

When I was talking about soldering earlier it's mostly wishful thinking because I have too many smoke detectors/sprinklers for the size of my apartment. And I doubt they'd very like soldering

so I'm gonna go with that pen soldering thing atm

[spice moss]

https://tenor.com/view/porg-calling-starwars-gif-11150328

[left solstice]

Arduino ESP32 Version 2.0.3 is out!

The Arduino ESP32 version 2.0.3 based on the ESP-IDF v4.4 introduces the support for the ESP32-S3, new boards support, new APIs and refactoring improvements, and bug fixes.

https://github.com/espressif/arduino-esp32/releases/tag/2.0.3

[thick wind]

Oooh, exciting and hardly off-topic!

[storm pewter]

Yeah so today I got bored on my English classes and made this

https://soundcloud.app.goo.gl/aSzkTGgM2EcVLhwY7

Some lofi

My first track btw

[orchid zephyr]

Imagine boredom in English class being the exception and not the rule

I am making an esoteric programming language in English

[quartz wren]

That would be wonderful

Unfortunately this sentence can be modified by removing "English" and it makes no difference.

[orchid zephyr]

Yes

[storm pewter]

True

[quartz wren]

This is why I teach myself whatever I want to learn in the comfort of my own home using the internet

Well not my own home but within my own space

And now I have my own lab 🎉

https://media.discordapp.net/attachments/880575552807899156/967506190324097144/20220423_122331.jpg

Turns out building a lab is a lot of work even just at 120 square feet

But I have it now

I'm going to revolutionize self education if I can

[burnt tendon]

I dono, I've had some great English teachers when I was younger. We just don't give people who teach enough respect.

One of them made fun of English majors as people who studied the heck out of Shakespeare yet never wrote a single bit that was anywhere near as good.

Also, I have glass-fiber nylon and carbon-fiber nylon and I have yet to crack them open and try them out.

[quartz wren]

I'm not saying good teachers / professors don't exist I'm saying it isn't the norm and that's unfortunate

And there's a good argument to be made that it's because the incentive structure in the education system itself is to blame

[burnt tendon]

Yeah, some of the best teachers on the college levels were the non-tenure-track lecturers.

[quartz wren]

My best English professor ever was a total hippie and told me exactly how things go behind the scenes and effectively talked me out of continuing formal education because I do better outside of it

I didn't follow through on the advice I was given until two quarters later when it just became all too clear he was right

I'm pretty sure I only passed that class because I was willing to go to the professor with my concerns and he fudged things because he understood my perspective

I'm great at formulating arguments, I just don't like the idea that something is only valid if it's a properly formatted argument.

And I "suffer" from a combination of ODD and bipolar

In reality everyone else suffers from it but I'm the one who has them

The ODD makes it effectively impossible to conform for conformity's sake. If the reasoning to do something doesn't make sense to me then I'll do something that does. Period.

And because of the bipolar, during the high periods I get interested in things and I'm conforming to satisfy the interest, then the low point hits and I can't even make myself do stuff I want to do but I've got obligations that I made while I was in a high state that require me to conform just to do something I now don't even want to do during a period where I can't make myself do most things even if I want to

It's a struggle and it's impossible for me to fit into either the education or employment structures that currently exist so I'm making something that can accommodate what I deal with, having margin for differences, because I know there are others similar to me though the likelihood of someone needing exactly the same accommodations is nil so it needs to be flexible

If you want the basic concept of what I'm shooting for, it's a charitable design, prototyping, and inventing firm. I don't need more than what will allow me to survive, though I have the skills to make plenty if I could manage to conform to certain systems just long enough... But I'm eligible for disability (and several people over the years including two therapists independent of one another have been telling me that it makes sense to leverage in my position) so I'll use that to survive and then design open source inventions that I think humanity needs

[lusty fossil]

Anyone know much about pipe fittings? This is a 1/2" pipe and flange, can't seem to twist it past where you see. Might be because my carpal tunnel is real bad today and I can't grip anything. I'd unthread it an examine the hole/threads but...carpal tunnel.

Thoughts?

[quartz wren]

Do you have a pipe wrench?

[lusty fossil]

Maybe

[quartz wren]

If so you can put screws through two opposing holes into something well anchored, then turn the pipe against that using the wrench for leverage

[lusty fossil]

I wasn't worried about getting it out so much, but thanks. I work with non disabled people. But should it go further is the main question i should have posed.

[quartz wren]

Oh if you're mounting it on a wall or floor you want the pipe to be flush with the flange base

Otherwise it'll damage the surface as it's attached

[lusty fossil]

I want the flange to be further down the threading

As far down as possible

[quartz wren]

Then you'll need a relief hole for whatever length of pipe goes past the flange base

In the surface you're attaching it to

[lusty fossil]

We are miscommunicating, I'm just trying to get the flange down the pipe right now. I know how I'm going to attach it to the surface it's for. I'm wondering if what I'm trying to do is impossible

[quartz wren]

Oh on pipe fittings they're tapered iirc

[lusty fossil]

It seems like it is

Hm ok

I'll have to figure something else out

[quartz wren]

Yeah as you put it on further the clearance gets tighter

So that you can seal for fluids if I'm remembering the explanation I got about this years ago

[lusty fossil]

Yeah that sounds familiar

[orchid zephyr]

i would screw it off and then tap the threads in the flange

like retap them

if you have a tap that wide

[quartz wren]

Actually that'll do it

[lusty fossil]

Most of what I learned about pipes in school wasn't practical

[quartz wren]

You just need the flange to make a tight seal at the wide side of the taper

[lusty fossil]

I was considering that, i don't, but depending on cost it might work

I'm actually not using this for fluids at all

So I don't care about seals

[quartz wren]

Meant for mechanical strength

[orchid zephyr]

if you dont care about it that much you could grind it down and weld i guess

[lusty fossil]

Removability is useful

[orchid zephyr]

ah

what is this for?

[lusty fossil]

A thing for work, he says mysteriously. Everyone who'd know about pipe fittings is off doing things

[orchid zephyr]

wait did your boss tell you to do that?

[lusty fossil]

It's more my interpretation of a general desire she expressed.

[orchid zephyr]

lol

https://tenor.com/view/no-gif-12921606

[lusty fossil]

Thats how it works around here

[orchid zephyr]

use wd 40

its always the solution

[lusty fossil]

I don't think even WD 40 can handle mechanical interference on this scale

[orchid zephyr]

use wd 41 lol

[lusty fossil]

A tap is 10.50 at home despot, I think I'll try that first

[orchid zephyr]

Sounds good

Make sure to oil the heck out of it,when taps get stuck it’s a massive pain to resolve

[lusty fossil]

Oh yeah

Been there

[tardy badger]

😮‍💨 just did a technical interview for an embedded engineer role

[lusty fossil]

woooo

[tardy badger]

I did great on the “what’s the difference between these two things” question and the hypothetical “how would you handle this” scenario questions

C Code part I was a bit rough on though but that’s what you get when you use C++ more than C

https://tenor.com/view/uhhhh-steve-buscemi-uhm-stare-confused-gif-17035459

I also rarely ever use type defs in my current job so it came up and I was like

Complete brain fart lol

[late fulcrum]

I found out the hard way that the Arduino flavour of C causes some typedef constructions to break.

[fossil scaffold]

2 years of an ESP32 weather monitor :)
Has gone down a few times but that's about it.

It used to use IFTTT but that eventually stopped working. Found a fantastic way to use Google App Script to receive the HTTPS requests and that has run nearly nonstop for a year.
https://github.com/FevenKitsune/ESP32-Google-App-Script-Climate-Monitor

[orchid zephyr]

I mostly use c# because i took a class in it once in middle school and am too lazy to learn anything else. I should use C tho because I never really take advantage of OOP

[tardy badger]

Lol

[tardy badger]

Lol

Yup

[lapis bluff]

I find that knowing a variety of computer languages helps me enormously in picking up hew ones. I can get a read-only feel for most new languages in seconds to minutes, can be modifying programs in less than a day, and writing new code in about a day (although expert code usually takes a bit longer). Of course, this is accumulated skill from about 60 languages learned over half a century.

[tardy badger]

true, I can use most any language with enough time to review it's basics or look at what someone else is doing

[wooden schooner]

What does this mean

Unreasonable macros defined in the Arduino library?

I was shocked that the Arduino lib defines min and max as macros that output a ternary expression, so that min(expensive_thing1(), expensive_thing2()) evaluates three expensive expressions not two

Min and max are in no way specific to arduino, and this seems like yet another attempt to force the compiler to inline things when in reality the compiler probably knows better - and in this case the macro version had a big obvious downside

Ok, rant over... I had that one saved up.

[wooden schooner]

C += 2

[dusty citrus]

;)

[brisk spire]

Ended up picking it up 😁😁

[dusty citrus]

Somewhere between 8.2% and 15% of households in the USA had a computer at home in 1987, when that oscilloscope was made. ;)

🔸
https://www.statista.com/statistics/184685/percentage-of-households-with-computer-in-the-united-states-since-1984/

Since it has an LED on the front panel, it couldn't have been a whole lot older. ;)

[static flare]

My scope is from 89, but I bet you can find more about yours than I can mine haha

[lusty fossil]

Mine is a 90s job

I plan to get a nice new one as soon as I learn 1) What this carpal tunnel will cost me 2) If I'll be retaliated against for filing worker's comp over it.

I want one from the last like...10ish years

[static flare]

my cheap handheld one is coming today with the probes (the main reason I wanted it)

[lusty fossil]

nice

I want a handheld as well

My current scope is fine, but it needs new probes and they'd have to be calibrated and it's a whole thing where I'd prefer to just get a scope that has a support process

[static flare]

I have some BNC RCA adaptors I used to visualise Tchaikovsky with, but other than that I have had no real way to use my scope

i thought scope probe calibration was fairly simple?

[lusty fossil]

Yeah but I don't wanna

That's the important part

I also want something with modern features

[static flare]

I thought calibration was something you have to do with any new probe, regardless of the oscilloscope

[lusty fossil]

I think you're right, I mostly want one with probes that aren't from a random bin and were meant for the machine and also with neat features/functions

[static flare]

i mean, that's fair, it's why i want 2 scopes

an analogue one (which i have) for XY mode, and for general waveform analysis, and a digital one more for the snapshot stuff and the like

[late fulcrum]

Not really calibration, but frequency compensation. Fortunately, it's pretty easy.

[static flare]

they call it calibration though

[orchid zephyr]

Once tried to buy an oscilloscope on Craigslist and I got ghosted

[static flare]

I buy most of my vintage tech on Marketplace

[late fulcrum]

I get most of mine from yard/estate sales, swap meets, and hamfests.

[orchid zephyr]

I don’t have a job because I am a youthful lad, most of my money comes from soldering stuff for a teacher of mine

[late fulcrum]

Been there, done that. I'm a fan of getting test gear on the cheap, even if I have to fix it up.

I have trouble resisting stuff like this

[static flare]

I know what you mean

[late fulcrum]

Heh, I've seen your power supply chassis, that's a good find

[static flare]

The project one I abandoned?

[late fulcrum]

I didn't know it was abandoned, but yeah, that thing. I tend to think of such objects as "temporarily abandoned" or "waiting for the right project"

[static flare]

oh, it's not permanently abandoned, don't worry, i just don't trust myself with high voltage

[late fulcrum]

That makes good sense to me.

[static flare]

you know what happened last time I tried powering it on

[lusty fossil]

Anyone do model trains? I'm looking to shop for just the decor, not the tracks or trains. Where's a good place to do that online?

Like miniature buildings, trees, people. Essentially like 40K but more Americana

[static flare]

I wanna do that, my wife is very into 40K

[lusty fossil]

I want to make something for my coworkers

It's a scene on top of a PCB with an MCU on the bottom controlling the lights

I can easily do up to 64 cathodes

[static flare]

nice

[lusty fossil]

But I'm unfamiliar with this world.

I think 40K is too big scale wise

I don't want like a 24 in square PCB heheh

[crystal ore]

Why not make the train track with a PCB too! https://www.teenytrains.com

[lusty fossil]

Hee hee hee

[static flare]

huh this is tiny

[drowsy zephyr]

idk why but im obsessed with the idea of upgrading a swamp cooler with copper tubing
i wonder how it will turn out
what do you guys think?

[tardy badger]

It might work

[edgy apex]

Im going to have some fun soon. My phone is integrated with home assistant and has very many sensors including sleep confidence and next alarm. My laptop has 21 sensors although some of the sensors are useless to me. I am going to try to see what I can come up with different time/sensor triggered automations using my data from my laptop/phone. I use sleep confidence to turn all my stuff off if it thinks im sleeping

Also a big thing is I can track, view and analyze my habits across my phone and laptop which is why I like home assistant so much, it's easy and all of my data is under my control because I would not want anyone else to have access to it. It is very useful to me in many ways.

[lusty fossil]

Anyone know much about pipe unions? I've got two .5" nipples on either side of a union, but on one side of the union, the nipple turns in noticeably farther than the other. Is this normal?

NPT

[tardy badger]

Ahhh I’ve been so anxious waiting for an email on if i will move forward for the embedded engineer role. Finally got it and it’s positive 🥳

[lusty fossil]

yaaay!

[tardy badger]

Thankfully all the work I’ve done with electronics making boards for people and contributing to circuitpython has paid off

[stray wind]

That's so great to hear!

[orchid zephyr]

So I leaned back in my chair, and felt it collapse under me. I took it apart, and I found out that all my weight is supported by two bolts. They sheared straight in half. This is the worst possible place to cost cut. Keep in mind, all this is beneath a layer of unremovable plastic.

Cost cutting is evil

[lapis bluff]

"Cheap at any cost"

[orchid zephyr]

The curse of cast zinc

Update I had two screws that match in the box that I have to pay homage for the stuff I disassembled for no good reason

Weird luck

If you put weight on one side of the rest more than the other, it places torsion on the screw, obvious design flaw

I’ll make a cross brace for it

I have shop class tomorrow actually

Nice

[tardy badger]

Yeah, it helped me get past my technical interview and onto the “let’s continue the conversation email” it’ll be full circle when I have an offer 🙂

[orchid zephyr]

Oh nice job!

[tardy badger]

It’s great that all the work I’ve done with I2C and SPI made it so that I could confidently talk about and talk about how I would implement solutions to situations

[lusty fossil]

I feel like this is a silly question, but they don't make a Millicandela Simulator do they? Some way to get an idea of how bright an LED will be?

[tardy badger]

Not that I know of; but that sounds like a cool idea

[lusty fossil]

Yeah I'll make an offering to the software gods and see what happens. I have to calibrate though, last time I did this we got Twitter.

[tardy badger]

Lol

[wary herald]

Hey, that's a good find

[wary herald]

https://tenor.com/view/fireworks-well-done-good-job-colorful-celebrate-gif-17240767

[tardy badger]

Thanks 😊

[dusty citrus]

gratz, are those screws supposed to rotate or to hold the backseat in place ?

[orchid zephyr]

they are supposed to hold it in place. thats not fully tightened, just wanted to demonstrate that they have a massive amount of force going perpendicular to them

[dusty citrus]

I see, my local shop use standard big screws so I bought the most solid (young modulus etc) I could find and didn't even bother with their and just used my screws over 3 chains already 😄

If it was possible I would have gotten titanium screws

[brisk spire]

Is this kind of fuzzy trace typical when you're approaching the edge of the scope's frequency range? This is 0.5us per div, on a 20mhz scope. Or is this just the kind of thing you get from a 35 year old piece of equipment? Lol. I can't figure out how to slow down the signal to check. Being generated on an esp32 so could it be an artifact of an 8-bit DAC? (Also a 10x zoom)

[dusty citrus]

I'd say the top one show 4 enemy aircraft

[late fulcrum]

That looks like the wave is varying somewhat, you can try adjusting the sweep frequency, trigger level, and trigger holdoff to freeze a more stable subset of the wave. The scope appears to be working nicely.

That looks a whole lot like mains interference, your connection to the signal source may not be properly referenced.

[brisk spire]

This is my first scope so It's all very new to me and ive got lots of questions... what is the sweep frequency doing? is that "SWP VAR"? It seems to stretch out the wave horizontally but im not sure if that's it or it just appears to be it. Near the center of the knob, I see a single wave, but towards either end I see two waves just about out of phase.
What is trigger holdoff? I dont seem to have that knob unless it's called something else. I've been playing with all of em but I can't seem to get a clean wave, other than reducing the time/div. Or, when I touch signal clip, it gets cleaner..

[brisk spire]

It's currently alligator clipped onto a jumper wire soldered to an esp32 header, so not exactly scientific grade connects here...

[late fulcrum]

There should be a click-stop knob to set the sweep frequency in steps, and a variable control to adjust it between steps

That scope may not have trigger holdoff (a feature on some fancy scopes)

With that hookup, I would fully expect hum pickup like that.

[brisk spire]

Switched to a frequency generator kit that I built a while back, much much cleaner signal

[lusty fossil]

Idk what English learners mean when they say it's confusing "8 square inches" and "8 inches square" meaning completely different things makes total, total sense.

[honest moth]

Bonus: You don't have to pay more money to maintain your machine!

half-sarcasm

[slim shard]

I've done this for more than one marginal machine, in one case apparently the system cooling was dependent on graphics drivers I didn't have handy?

[orchid zephyr]

i want to try lapping a cpu and heat sink, not to the point of using thermal grease, but to the point of guage block like accuracies, and then wringing them together

[static flare]

completely unrelated, but nice flag

[wise wyvern]

I am just watching The dropout series. It is about Elizabeth holmes and The Theranos.
Look what I spotted, check out the code. This scene take place around 2006, they testing a protoype of a machine, which test your blood. 😄

[late fulcrum]

Metal-to-metal contact is best, but I'm not sure most CPUs and heatsinks are rigid enough to maintain the required flatness. Another approach I've seen is liquid metal (gallium, indium, mercury, etc.) as thermal filler, giving metal-to-metal contact.

[fair summit]

yes, that looks a lot like a slightly varying frequency

[tardy badger]

Wow.. I did it

I got the job 🤯

[blissful roost]

Well done

[tardy badger]

I credit my success to Adafruit

And the community here

Without y’all, I wouldn’t have had the confidence in the areas of the interview that mattered most

[blissful roost]

Do tell, what's the job?

[tardy badger]

Senior Embedded Engineer with a startup called Spark Grills

[blissful roost]

Noice

I'm considering a move back to hosting, but I don't want a customer-facing role.

[tardy badger]

Nice! I hope you can find a great role

[wooden schooner]

I recently replaced my HDMI audio extractor (HDMI input --> HDMI video-only output + S/PDIF or RCA audio) with a newer model. The old one works perfectly fine, but supports HDCP only up to version 1.4, so it can't play some DRM-protected content, particularly from Disney's streaming service.

Is there any good use I can put the old device to, including giving it away to someone who has a use for it?

[wooden schooner]

Congratulations!!!!

[tardy badger]

Thanks 😊

I’m still kind of in shock

[burnt tendon]

It's OK, I ended up accidentally referring a adafruit discord friend and now she's a coworker. Not doing electronics tho, LOL.

The power of some dedicated screwing around with stuff cannot be denied.

(Also, the power of answering questions and having the answers be right enough, LOL)

[thick wind]

Congrats! Don't know you personally but you definitely deserve it haha

[tardy badger]

Thanks! Adafruit and those community deserves so much credit for helping me develop the knowledge I used in that interview. It just adds so much to the value of not just doing things yourself in terms of hardware/software in your home. But the skills that are directly industry applicable. Amazing

Adafruit, helping prepare the next generation of engineers

[dusty citrus]

congratulations from me as well

[lusty fossil]

Anyone good at painting? I'm bad at scale. If a person's head is 12 in wide at the widest, how would I figure out how far apart their eyes should be to not look weird?

[lusty fossil]

e.g is this right? so an eye would be 12/5" wide? and spaced with the center at 18/5" in from either side?

[dusty citrus]

what do you need to do?
you can figure it out by observing the subject, there are variations
though a third eye in between it usually works
to get more correct measurements you can use your pencil as a meter, while closing one eye, and using your pen as a xy axis
or experiment untill it doesn't look right

[lusty fossil]

I'm not doing the drawing, I just need to know how far apart the eyes should be (and ideally how far from either side of the head), if the head being drawn is 12" across

[dusty citrus]

when i drew cats before i required a live cat so I cpuld put a paper in their face and get the head shape and mark their eyes position with an highliter (so it wouldnt go throught the piece of paper by accident)

but was difficult because cat would either kit it away most of the time ruining the shape or come sniff it while it wad near my drawing 🤣

I miss having a cat 😢

[dusty citrus]

what are you doing? datasets? for for what do you need it?

if you're drawing you can also use the mouths ends, they usually coincide with the eye's center

[lusty fossil]

No, I'm not doing the drawing. I just need the information about a single figure. It's not drawn yet, or I'd just measure, so I'm hoping there's a rule of thumb I can use.

[orchid zephyr]

What is this

[wooden schooner]

Polarized capacitor?

[honest moth]

[...sorry admins.]

[dusty citrus]

;)

I wonder how much a 18-karat gold non-hollow cylinder this size would cost 😄

[late fulcrum]

It's still good for audio from older devices, or non-DRM ones (like computer outputs).

[late fulcrum]

Roller? Pinback? Standoff? Coupler? Old style switch terminal? I used some brass bits like that to repair my glasses once.

[static flare]

huh, neat

[real falcon]

neat'

[dusty citrus]

I still think it's a MONSTER gold HDMI capacitor 🤣

[honest moth]

i can't

decide

which flippin' linux distro out of my biggest three [four] to try. [Void, Arch, Endeavour, and Fedora.]

[orchid zephyr]

Build your own distro

I want to try building my own distro this summer

[honest moth]

i don't want to risk frying my only remaining machine since my PC died.

I mean yeah, it sounds like fun, but I have never done it before.

[orchid zephyr]

Ah

Go with arch then

[wooden schooner]

Yeah. I have approximately 1 device in my home, is the thing.

Maybe I can find some 2-device friends who want it, but they might be out of my league.

Twice as many devices

[honest moth]

even though it might seem a little overrated and/or memed to he77?

ah whatever, i've had my eye on Arch for a while now, so I'd might as well.

but first...

I need to do some more research before I make my final verdict.

[static flare]

watching the new Marvel movie!

[honest moth]

nice

[orchid zephyr]

Oh I just think it looks the cleanest and has the least garbage

[honest moth]

ah, that's fair

i personally don't know having never used it, aside from the memes

[gusty pilot]

Put all four ISOs plus one of Ubuntu on a UFD with Ventoy and just do one. If you don't like it, try another.

[dusty citrus]

when can't find a decent electronics box, buy one for fishing 🤣

[late fulcrum]

I've done that

[dusty citrus]

Will have it in a couple of day was 18$. Electronics box from dubious brands were 40-120$...

colors aren't the best but that can be fixed by sticking carbon sheets and rpi/arduino stickers 😄

also got 0.6mm solder lead in this package and that led/magnifying glass plastic "helmet" thing

going to go donate my printer to staples as well soon even if it still "works" take up some space

time to do some spring cleaning and maybe get some space for a peg board with a solder station... because my community electronics lab won't be able to solve that problem

[late fulcrum]

I use tackle/craft boxes too, and the creative storage units offered by the Plano Molding Company and so forth.

If I had more room/money, I'd be tempted to buy one of those over-the-top ScrapBox folding storage cabinets: https://www.woodworkingnetwork.com/sites/default/files/field/image/scrapbox-workbox.jpg

[dusty citrus]

Would be that for me for around 2400 US$

not just for electronics storage of course, I have bicycle tools too

And that 1000$ workstation table (except with steel top) for vise, to mount dremels or saw etc (950 US$)

the organizer would be right to the right of the L shaped workstation table (door facing leftwards

If I had a windfall like the 2nd prize in lottery I'd rent a commercial space that would be around 700 sf for this hobby 🙂

In my city a low-scale CNC/PCB business would probably works because this sort of thing isn't mainstream in my city and the companies that does it locally won't do anything unless it's a least for half a million (they are industrial scale for an order of say 10000 parts)

also it's better than buying a big house and making a workshop because you pay 3$/sf a year for common spaces/services among which is one where you they clean and you can throw the sawdust/pcb shrapnels/sodler etc in an industrial bin and it's disposed of properly. Also a loading bay for semi doing deliveries (which enable freight delivery) and the option for 3-phase 440V/600A outlets

[lusty fossil]

Got a link?

[dusty citrus]

https://www.uline.ca/BL_3507/L-Shaped-Workstations

Prefered to not put a company name/link unless someone asked

[lusty fossil]

Is this the packaging company?

[dusty citrus]

yeah the uline packaging companny but they sell a lot of stuff to business as well. I always liked the soap/tissue dispensers they have in office so I bought one for home

But generally they are expensive and downright scammy (like the cleaning refills that are 1/4 of the price ion hardware stores) and the huge shipping costs, and not really a place for delivery to home (they ship most of their stuff by freight trucks which require a garage door, garage elevator and spaces for semis)

[lusty fossil]

Hmm, well, I'll have to see if I'm willing to order from them for my job. I avoid them in my personal life.

I am getting a work space and it needs a desk

[dusty citrus]

Yeah I heard their owners were controversial. They probably have competitors, would just like a simple catalog if I had the opportunity to have a business where I know what is being sold has decent quality

Without having to "request a quote" every single time...

Really like that hakko soldering bot too, too bad it costs between 20k$ and 80k$ depending on options 😄

Staples/hardware store are nice for entry-level stuff but not much more unfortunately imho

and they seldom list weight limits as well

If I bought a worktable for a business I need to know that I can put a 1 ton machine on it and still keep me and potential employees safe

[dusty citrus]

since you order things at work, do you know what a partition on a work table is called ? Like the one the clear acrylic ones they use for covid but for permanent installation and opaque

When I look for partition it only shows floor versions, not one you'd put on a desk to better organize it or so that move than one person can work on the same table

something like that but higher, not called a sneeze guard and opaque

that way I could partition my L-shaped desk into personal computer | shelves - workshop -shelves | office remoting computer

[lusty fossil]

Hmmm

I don't know off hand

[edgy apex]

USB wombat + circuitpython HID = on/off
Next step is to use a board with wifi and then use mqtt to integrate with home assistant. I think this may be the only computer where we need an adb solution but I could be wrong.

[fading hare]

I have an old iPod Touch laying around. Just charged it up and factory reset it. Are there any neat things I can do with this fruit device? EDIT: I mean, other than chucking it into the trash?

[dusty citrus]

grrrr can only find transparent plastic pieces no matter how much I - it on google

[arctic folio]

that's a pretty good deal tbh

I made a 50cm/2m/1m (d/w/h) workbench out of aluminum extrusion and it ran me ~700 after all was said and done. Hardware ended up being way more expensive than I guessed

[dusty citrus]

Fairly certain it only comes with the table thought. the pegboard, drawer, bottom shelve metal accross etc seems to be all be accessories

[arctic folio]

Even with that footnote I think that's pretty fair

Heres how my thing ended up

I actually really dig the alu extrusion for this- easy to take apart if I want to move it, lightweight, and I can bolt on stuff like power strips no problem

[dusty citrus]

you made that on your own?!

[arctic folio]

Ya

It's just t-slot aluminum extrusion
Super easy to work with

Like everything but the wood is off the shelf parts

[dusty citrus]

I'm not very manual and have no tools but trying to find a way to organize my desk better/partition it/hide gaps

I mostly have lot of cardboard from moving boxes

[arctic folio]

If I was to approach partitioning I think I wouldn't bother with tall panels

But instead just like, bars across the desk clamped to it

[arctic folio]

As a note, misumi (the extrusion supplier) will cut to length whatever you want for a pretty small fee

So that whole thing could just be assembled with a screwdriver lol

2x4" wood segments are also off the shelf too and that makes a pretty nice top

[dusty citrus]

basically have a loft and trying to fill the gap between desk and counter with the slope and partition off the counter

no idea where to start beside covering/cutting theses boxes and gluing some metal looking sheet to them (maybe aluminium foil)

the partition on the counter would have an hole for the fan power cord and hole for my charger so I can hold my phone on it

but there is a 6-7 inches gap above it

dust keep getting in these caps and I have to constantly broom these hard to access places which make me enjoy life less

[arctic folio]

Aluminum foil will rip the second you look at it funny

With minimal tooling I think what I would do is just clamp a plank to the desk
Won't be flush (or look great) but it will be sturdy

[dusty citrus]

yeah and abs/acrylic seem to be hard to find in opaque colors at under 25$ per sf

don't like the texture of wood but can be easily be changed by gluing some sheet to it like a roll of carbon texture

and yeah the boxes have to stay there, not only it prevent dust from getting under, but it save storage space in my loft that is only 620sf

my counter is stone though, can't really drill into it, and I'd rather not drill in the desk. I can support a piece of wood with the boxes

but for the counter it's harder, I'd probably have to hammer a piece of wood in so it stand on it's own

[arctic folio]

I wonder about adhesive strips

Those 3m command strips or whatever might be able to support something nicely

[dusty citrus]

like the ones for picture hanging with velcro ?

[arctic folio]

Yeah lmao

Not the Velcro ones sepcifically

[dusty citrus]

so just to know but did you use something like a dremel 4000 rotary tool to cut the cast aluminum ?

[arctic folio]

No a table saw lol

Also it's extruded not cast

With less tools I would use a hacksaw

Aluminum is nice and soft do you want to cut it more than grind it away like you would with an abrasive wheel

(with no tooling at all, you can order whatever lengths you want)

They'll even drill and tap the ends for you so you can do blind joints

[dusty citrus]

I have no idea where to order extruded aluminum though and it would probably be much more pricey than wood/abs/acrylic right ?

[arctic folio]

Misumi ec

1m of 3030 is uh

Somewhere between 11-17$

I forget where

Total bill for all the metal there was ~250$ iirc?

If I was doing it again I wouldn't use the corner plates which added a huge sum to the cost

But instead use blind joints and corner gussets

[dusty citrus]

trying to find a panel I could cut on their site

[arctic folio]

Also- home Depot and friends can usually cut wood to lengths

Don't expect anything fancy or nice from them but

[dusty citrus]

wood tools aren't really a problem, fablab I go to has cnc, 3x 3d printer, dremels on stand, various saws etc

[arctic folio]

Cutting boards

Cutting boards are great

You can just cut em to whatever and they're nice high density polymer

[dusty citrus]

it's more finding the materials, and they aren't equipped for hard materials (like hard wood above 0.5" or metals or hard plastic above 1")

[late fulcrum]

I use TAP Plastics for stuff like that. They'll cut it for me and ship it. A 12"x12" piece of 1/8" opaque red is $10.

[dusty citrus]

question:
edas do often comprehend a local library and an online one (like in altium)
for doing the online library, what are they doing? using a chromedriver?
like I Know that I could use python with like selenium, but idk if it would a nice solution or not

pffft 2 hardward stores wont even ship building materials
not even 4 feet long shelves....

[dusty citrus]

Seems like a great place even if they ship from the other side of the continent if shipping is reasonable might be worth it. Canada doesn't seem to have a similar service...

Type 1 PVC 10.5x28.5x.25 would be 18$ to cover the gap

black led acrylic 14$ for half the thickness (wonder how well that would work with arduino grade leds...)

[late fulcrum]

I used to buy plastics from Read Plastics, about an hour's drive from here, but they closed their doors. I found some other services, but they wanted me to buy full sheets and tell them how to cut them and send me the pieces. So I went with TAP Plastics, I just tell them what I want and they ship it to me. Even though they're across the country from me, I've been happy with them.

[arctic folio]

seriously, cutting boards. If your gap is smaller than a cutting board you can get on amazon (which get pretty wide) it's a great material

usually HDPE

[dusty citrus]

the cutting board is 40$ for my size...

and too thick at the minimum thickness in the dropdown

the gap front is 10.5 inch wide, 28.5 high

on top 19.5 long, 10.5 wide

[arctic folio]

rip ok

[tardy badger]

Tax season has passed but I’m still dealing with the bologna caused by working in one state initially and my employer not paying taxes for that state..

[late fulcrum]

You too, eh?

[tardy badger]

Yeah. I hate our tax system because Utah looked at my W2s and decided to adjust my return down because Nc taxes were not taken out

So they just assume that I was in Utah for the whole year

[dusty citrus]

so the hardware store 2 streets away have surplus MDF they are selling at cost, TAP plastics seemed great but the shipping to me is higher than the cost of the goods...

[fading hare]

NC taxes are the worst.

Like, literally, the worst. I would like to meet the person that has ever gotten a return on their NC taxes. I took a sabbatical for an entire year and still owed them taxes, somehow. Like, what? 😄

[tardy badger]

I think the most I got in the past was $300

But somehow 2 months worth of income accrued $1800 in income taxes

Barely $17000 in taxable income

[fading hare]

Wow. I have never gotten a return from NC. Federal, I think the biggest I ever got was some $7,000 or something when I still claimed my kids back in the day.

That's whack, though. They must have messed up something with residency or whatever.

[tardy badger]

To be fair I was in school and sustaining on food stamps.

No the taxes part was on my employers part. I sent them North Carolina tax forms, they even listed NC Resident for state taxes in my pay statements but paid $0 in NC taxes, paid them all the Utah, even when I didn’t live in Utah

Anyway, taxes are stupid

The way they are done anyway

[fading hare]

Yeah. Taxes are stupid. We were owed taxes, like, quite a bit. Fed decides to claim that we never filed for 2016-2018. Which we did, just not online. Then they audit us, which took them a year and a half... Guess what, they somehow figured out that we owed them $4k, somehow. Some guy in an IRS basement was probably like, "there, I fixed it!"

[wary herald]

https://tenor.com/view/tax-taxes-more-taxes-money-collect-gif-17805418

[fading hare]

Also, I came here to say: I have deep regrets. I decided to put some Proxmox VE disks on a NAS with RAID 3 and 4 7,200 RPM spinny boys... It's lagging so hard I am crying right now.

[wary herald]

Ouch....

[fading hare]

Also, probably related, I just spent $360 on two 2 TB SSDs.

[wary herald]

Sheeeeesh

I'd never buy a 2 TB ssd

[fading hare]

I can't afford the 4 TB

[wary herald]

but still much muns

[wary herald]

Neither can I

[fading hare]

oh, I misread your first statement

I thought it said: "I never buy a 2 TB ssd" but it said "I'd never" which is completely different 😄

[wary herald]

Nah, I meant too expensive

[fading hare]

I need the speed. And, I had some money saved up.

I'll keep the NAS just for backups and for Nextcloud storage from now on.

[wary herald]

Nice, I would if I could

[fading hare]

I am thinking maybe I need to go back to RAID 10, though?

[wary herald]

Why??

[fading hare]

RAID 3 is way slower than I expected

(NAS doesn't support RAID 6)

[wary herald]

Oh, I was gonna say, why not RAID 6

[fading hare]

LOL

[wary herald]

But makes sense

[fading hare]

that's the reason 😄

[wary herald]

🤦‍♂️

[fading hare]

(because I was a cheapo and bought the cheapest, best rated NAS enclosure I could find)

[wary herald]

I would too, that's how I roll

[fading hare]

I figured, RAID 6? Who needs it!

[wary herald]

https://tenor.com/view/party-hand-wave-shoo-whatever-go-away-gif-4911764

hehe

[fading hare]

I did need it a few days ago, however. When I completely mangled the metadata on the 10 TB btrfs partition that was on that NAS. I missed the point where btrfs is a "technology preview" in Proxmox.

(it was in RAID 10)

I was able to extract the data, however.

But, the metadata was toast. I could find absolutely no way to restore it. 😦

So, didn't lose files, just had to redo the RAID on that NAS.

[wary herald]

oof

[wary herald]

Well, that's good

[fading hare]

lessons learned and all that (╯°□°）╯︵ ┻━┻

[wary herald]

RAID's kinda a pain in the rear

[fading hare]

can be, yeah

[wary herald]

There is such a thing as hate RAID discord servers 😉

[fading hare]

wish I had a quarter mil laying about so I could buy an entire rack full water-cooled NVMe drives with on-board controllers. I would build the bestest Ceph cluster of all the times.

[wary herald]

I think everyone wishes they have a quarter mil laying around to do dope stuff with

[quartz wren]

I'm going to make a synthesizer cyberdeck with a combo of a RPi Pico and a Teensy 4.1 as the brains

I've got a nice synth shell that has a multitude of internal space to work with 😄

[wary herald]

wow

[fading hare]

nice

[quartz wren]

Yeah the difference is what one considers worth spending it on

[wary herald]

I know a friend who would say Steam games

[quartz wren]

For instance if I had a quarter million dollars I'd completely set up every last aspect of a non profit design and prototyping firm

And still have $200k to work with

[wary herald]

👍

[wary herald]

If I were you, I would put the remaining $200k into a ||retirement fund||

[quartz wren]

Nah I'm disabled to the point where two of my therapists and many other people in my life are baffled I'm not on benefits... So I'll just get on those benefits to survive and run a non profit without worrying about starving that calculates my earnings to not exceed the cutoff point for external income to continue receiving disability

My disability isn't going away

[wary herald]

https://tenor.com/view/unbreakable-kimmy-schmidt-love-triangle-gif-22605714

Nah, JK

[quartz wren]

And I don't want to get to a point where I end up kicking myself off benefits before it's possible for me to survive on my own

Then get screwed over by my disability later when I've let my guard down

[wary herald]

Well, there's an extra 200k for ya

[quartz wren]

As is my history

[wary herald]

That's not great

"Often has a brain" lol

I love the profile

[quartz wren]

That's in reference to my bipolar

Which is actually the disability I was referring to

[wary herald]

Ah, sorry if I offended you

[quartz wren]

No it's meant to be funny

[wary herald]

Oh good

[quartz wren]

I use humor as a coping mechanism

But yeah it's also serious

Often I can think on levels that blow others away

But during the lows I have issues with single and double digit arithmetic

And those can be quite randomly timed

So my best option is to get on disability because employment can't accommodate that.

(I tried)

(many times)

[wary herald]

Well, I guess that's what disability is for

[wary herald]

I wish I could think on levels that blow others away

[quartz wren]

Took me 7 years from the point of being told I'm eligible for disability to finally accept that I'd done all I possibly could to try not to get on it

[wary herald]

But you're not on it yet??

[quartz wren]

Nope still haven't done the application

[wary herald]

Ah

[quartz wren]

It's an anxiety and mental block thing

[wary herald]

Makes sense

[quartz wren]

I've tried to apply for it twice before and the systems are either designed by someone who's the most incompetent ever or they're the most competent and the websites are designed to trigger crisis in the mentally ill

[wary herald]

Haha

Probably the first one

[proven olive]

I try not to attribute something to malice if it can be contributed to incompetency and/or laziness

[quartz wren]

It's a government system so I'm giving them the benefit of the doubt

[wary herald]

SSDI??

[quartz wren]

But regardless both are possibilities so I layed them out in order of likelihood

[quartz wren]

I don't even remember specifically what I'm eligible for I haven't done any deep research into it for years because of the mental block

[wary herald]

Mmm

[quartz wren]

I've got a community who have been my support group for years though who are just waiting to help me when I feel I'm ready to tackle it

[wary herald]

That's always a nice thing to have

[quartz wren]

I'm in an okay spot at this very moment so I've got a bit of float time to get things in order

So I'm waiting for this most recent low to pass

[dusty citrus]

so 50% done getting a power drill (corded, brushed motor, 120V, variable speed, stand-alone tool) from HD

[wary herald]

I sadly only mostly have like 20 discord servers as my community

[quartz wren]

Should be just about finished, been down here for a week

[dusty citrus]

just need to understand this drill set stuff 🤣

[wary herald]

I just realized that I just said "sadly only mostly" lol

[dusty citrus]

just want to drive screws and make 1 inch or 2 inch diameter holes in wood but they might have different diameters across the depth

[wary herald]

HD??

Home Depot lol

[fading hare]

depending on how much you spent, I would maybe have bought a cordless impact driver instead... has more utility, and they're generally a lot easier to take places

[dusty citrus]

It is allegedly both

can link if you want, places I'm going to take it to have extension so fine on this and I'm in a phase where I'm scared of lithium batteries and I always prefer corded...

chuck capacity says 0.38, size 0.38 inch, type: keyless so I guess I have to look at bits like that

what's important for me is mostly the variable speed, corded and long warranty

I also have a disorderly freewheel hex bolt that I may need to impact drive soon if it keeps being disorderly 🤣

I even used a cheater bar on it and it won't budge. Last hope is a bench vise from the workshop I'm renting for 1h on monday

[wary herald]

https://tenor.com/view/drill-awesome-get-fake-chungus-gif-19628639

[dusty citrus]

can impact driver make 1/2 inch diameter holes with spade bits/hole saws bits ?

[quartz wren]

https://tenor.com/view/this-is-not-a-drill-alarm-stay-calm-dont-panic-attention-gif-21881537

[dusty citrus]

home depot claim this is both a drill and impact driver

[quartz wren]

I just noticed those bits are reverse chirality

[dusty citrus]

lol chirality 🤣

the only chirality I know of is in chemistry so this is funny to me

[quartz wren]

I mean technically parity also fits but it's more ambiguous

Chirality is just the rotation direction relative to the direction of motion

(or the direction of rotation relative to the direction the bit sticking out is pointing in the chemistry context)

It also applies to circularly polarized light

Because the overall circular progression can go clockwise or counter clockwise along the direction of motion

[dusty citrus]

also doing spring cleaning and I'm sick of my broom and mop falling down

and want to install a peg board even if it mean plugging the holess when I leave the apartment...

[quartz wren]

What about individual clips with sticky backing?

Then the worst you have to do is repaint spots where it peels on removal

Alternatively you could get a setup that's like a larger version of a tree for a set of wood stove tools

[dusty citrus]

not sure the sticky stuff like 3m command brand strips would work well if the pegboard has some heavy stuff on it like dremel, box of nails/screws etc

[quartz wren]

Basically just 3 clips on a vertical pole with a weighted base

For making sure they don't fall over but can be tucked into a corner

Doesn't cover the tools like the dremel but the cleaning tools would be taken care of

[dusty citrus]

oof drill bits are much more complicated than I thought. Reading the home depot tutorial

[quartz wren]

Where's the confusion?

I've been using power tools since I was in single digits of age

So I may be able to help

[dusty citrus]

Well I'd rather have a set with different types of bits for the variety of work I want to do. Driving screws in stuff, fastening/removing hex bolts specially on a bicycle (pic to follow), making hole in something that doesn't have a mounting kit to screw it in a wall, making up to 2 inches diameter holes in hard wood up to 0.5" deep(hole saw/spade bits) which may have varying width accross the depth (fortsner/countersink/step drill(???))

[quartz wren]

Something like this? https://www.lowes.com/pd/CRAFTSMAN-140-Piece-Impact-Driver-Bit-Set/1002575854

Or are you using a regular drill

I missed that part

[quartz wren]

Ahhhh okay I normally use hand tools on a bike

[dusty citrus]

This is the hex bolt tool that I'll need to impact drive if the freewheel still refuse to come off

it's the adapter for a shimano freewheel and there is a smaller hex inside

[quartz wren]

Have you tried using a cheater bar and a mallet?

[dusty citrus]

cheater bar yeah but an old pvc pipe, the workshop I'm renting for 2$ an hour monday probably have a steel/brass one

and they have bench vises which is how I removed the difficult ones in the past

[quartz wren]

Yeah pvc tends to break pretty easily when used as a cheater bar 😅

Depending on how old it'll either shatter or fold at the apex

[dusty citrus]

I'm not sure, home depot claim they are both

I'm not sure how to tell by the picture, maybe you can

but in the spec it says drill/impact driver

product name says RIDGID R70011 Heavy-Duty 8 Amp 3/8 in. Corded Drill/Driver

[quartz wren]

Looks like a Jacobs chuck which says to me it's a dual mode unit but I also don't see a torque selector which tells me it isn't

So I'm confused

[dusty citrus]

trying to find the manual to see how to switch mode

manufacturer website also says VSR drill/impact driver

[quartz wren]

Often there will be a dial behind the chuck that has different torque settings with the highest marked as a drill bit but the dual mode impact / drill units ice seen have the same type of dial but with a hammer sitting past the drill bit

Hmm

I wonder if it uses the distance you push the trigger to determine mode

Either way if it says it's an impact as well as a drill it probably is

Because false advertising gets a hefty fine

(note: only really applies across the board to medium-large domestic corporations)

[dusty citrus]

"The direction of bit rotation is reversible and is controlled by a selector located above the switch trigger"

don't see anything about switching between drill and impact in the manual

[quartz wren]

Yeah that's standard on many drills and impacts

[dusty citrus]

doesn't even say impact in the manual

[quartz wren]

Hmmm

[dusty citrus]

"The drill has a keyless chuck that makes it simple to tighten or release drill bits in the chuck jaws"

[quartz wren]

Also pretty standard on battery powered drills

Dedicated impact units have a quick release similar to air hoses

Hence the recessed region on the hex shaft of the bit

There's a ball in a detent with a locking system that pushes it into that recessed region to prevent the hammering action from loosening your bit

(on a Jacobs chuck with a hammer action it's a potential failure mode)

[dusty citrus]

Seem to be a combo in the same tool, doesn't actually say drill/IMPACT driver, only drill/driver

[quartz wren]

Okay that makes it sound like its not actually a proper impact mechanism

Impact bits can be put into a Jacobs chuck but not the other way around

[dusty citrus]

but from what I read impact dfriving are for driving a lot of fasteners, while for me it would be a minor use ?

And if else fail i'll just hammer the screw in the wall and untighten / retighten it manually ?

[quartz wren]

If you don't do a lot of metal fasteners a regular drill will do pretty much everything

And if you get impact bits they'll work in it still

You just don't get the hammer action

If you work in the shop a lot the best bet is to get both

For driving screws I much prefer using an impact but for drilling holes it isn't great even if you can find the bit you want for it

[dusty citrus]

nah it's for home use, the fablabs I'll use will probably have both

2nd one has a dedicaterd wood workshop but it costs 6$ a day to rent and the annual membership is much more expensive

[fading hare]

Stanley makes some real nice drill bits as long as all you're doing is alu and wood

[dusty citrus]

they are also going to have a metal machining shop/smelter/forge soon

[quartz wren]

Will have to look into it because all the times I've tried to drill holes using an impact with bits designed for it, it has bound up

And I've only tried it with wood

And I only have an impact

[dusty citrus]

considering getting a dremel 4000 eventually as well, but not sure it's of any use if one doesn't have a manual stand

[fading hare]

probably not for that large a hole, you're better off with a drill

[fading hare]

what brand is it, though?

[dusty citrus]

impact driver of the same brand are all cordless and twice as expensive so it's clearly not a real impact driver

[quartz wren]

That's probably my problem, I was using spade bits at about the half inch scale

And I think those actually were Stanley brand

[fading hare]

that's not going to work well with an impact, for sure

[dusty citrus]

so an impact driver is the power version of a manual punch then ?

[fading hare]

spade bits and circular mcguffins are something you bring out your big [insert pronoun] drill for.

[dusty citrus]

and auger bits, not that i'm ever going to drill soils or concrete

[quartz wren]

An impact is like having a cheater bar and a mallet built into your driver

[dusty citrus]

I see, what about impact driver vs impact wrench ? They are completely different too ?

[fading hare]

When it comes to screwing things into things, I think of it more like a torque wrench, in that it'll keep clicking until it's done it is stuck

[quartz wren]

Same concept, more torque I'd guess

Speaking of impact drivers...

I have to install my fume hood

[dusty citrus]

are there manual tools that kinda help if an hex bolt is stuck ? is that what socket wrench/ratchets do ?

[fading hare]

Actually, I misspoke. My bits are all DeWalt. Forgot I upgraded them.

[quartz wren]

That's what I generally use but you can use a torque wrench it's just not recommended on something like a bike

You want that thing to be able to be serviced mid ride

[fading hare]

My impact driver is the 20V MAX

[quartz wren]

So only hand tightening

[fading hare]

WD-40! 😄

(Remember, it's not a lubricant, it's the exact opposite!)

[quartz wren]

Just remember that any place you put WD-40 that should be lubed needs to be re-lubed before you use it

[dusty citrus]

eh I always forget about wd-40, non-destructive destruction 😄

[fading hare]

I've heard of some guys with opinions like using it on their firearms, but no, don't use WD-40 on anything you wish to keep lubricated.

[quartz wren]

after cleaning the WD-40 off

[fading hare]

EXACTAMUNDO

[dusty citrus]

well since I'm switching my wheel I need to move the freewheel, which mean i'll have the grease the new wheel

not much more of an effort to also grease the whole thing and the sprocket

[fading hare]

yup, so WD-40 will be great in that use-case

[quartz wren]

So WD-40 to service, carburetor cleaner to remove the WD-40, then machine oil

[dusty citrus]

but I'd be surprised if the bench vise won't work

[fading hare]

(wear protective gloves)

[dusty citrus]

these things have so much grip and I'll be turning the wheel clockwise ...

not much better manual torque than this

speaking of which, only safety glass I can get atm is 3m securefit and not the 4$ one-use disposable ones

But I don't understand how these can even fit ? Doesn't seem to be adjustable for various sizes of heads ?

[quartz wren]

Completely off topic to this off topic conversation but I decided I'm going to make a super low power go-kart using one of these with a weed whacker engine

https://media.discordapp.net/attachments/562094511682224152/972676142970601532/unknown.png

Going to change the license plate from "CZY COUP" to "CRZY COUP"

[dusty citrus]

I guess that would be the other choice at 6x the price, pretty sure using a full-size circular saw in a 620sf apartment is illegal though 🤣

Also I wish I was go enough at DIY construction to do stuff like that, I'm really starting from zero never had tools etc

[quartz wren]

My brother has that saw, it's pretty small

[dusty citrus]

never used a cnc or 3d printer or laser tool or even vinyl machine

[quartz wren]

He got the full Dewalt set though

The one that comes in a straight up suitcase

[dusty citrus]

problem with cordless is that they lack power so you have to check voltage and if it's brushless or brushed that's why I want with corded as well

I imagine it takes a lot of motor to dig a 2 inch hole with an hole saw in a thick hardwood piece

[quartz wren]

I've used one of those three and seen two of them done in person, planning to extend my tool set to all 3 though

For my personal lab

Currently I just have printing

[dusty citrus]

20$ a year fablab has 3 of them in in desktop, entry level and mid-level

including a rare one that was great bang for the price that is out of production and lot of peoples still want

All I have to do is follow some training and help others to use it, seems like a good deal vs what they cost

anyway give me sec to find the datasheet so I can ask the most important thing for the drill

I'm not sure "2 inches diameter holes in hard wood up to 0.5" deep(hole saw/spade bits) which may have varying width accross the depth (fortsner/countersink/step drill(???))" properly conveyed what I hope to do

I'd like to make a pc joystick that use a keyswitch from a real tractor, these plans seems to suggest I have to drill 3 holes of specific depths and specific diameters across the same hole in a wood panel for panel mounting

Seems like I have to make a 0.61" diameter hole that is .39" deep and then a another one that is 0.75" and 0.19" deep to hold it with the nut to hold it securely?

google seems to say I have to use a spade flush mount drill bit for something like this

[quartz wren]

I do manufacturing research so I like to have them on hand at home

[gusty pilot]

I'm not sure what on the spec sheet of giving you that impression but it looks to me like you just drill a hole big enough for the threads to fit through and put the nut on the back?

[dusty citrus]

let me highlight it

I found some fibre washers in the basement (the previous owner had a vast collection of fasteners in jars down there, left some behind).

They work really well securing an artist's easel (beechwood) without crushing or denting the wood.

then just the wing nut supplied by the easel manufacturer (they give you flat brass washers).

[dusty citrus]

I wish my place wasn't so small and wasn't littered with smoke alarms and sprinklers...

when I move I'll look for a more workshop friendly apartment and less sensitive fire fighting equipment

[quartz wren]

I have a bedroom and a 120 square foot dedicated lab space to call my own

[gusty pilot]

yeah, drill the hole for the biggest part, where threads are just to the left of your rectangle

[dusty citrus]

Hope hardwood will be enough for the torque this can do. Will probably need to stick the end result to my desk too to prevent it from moving

But I really want a key, never ever seen one on a joystick

[gusty pilot]

You could use a lock washer or something. Looks like a 3/4-inch hole would probably do the trick

[quartz wren]

Everything I own exists inside those 8 walls

And it works for me

¯\_(ツ)_/¯

[dusty citrus]

I mean the hallway is literally created by the space between my furniture, couldn't be more cramped

[quartz wren]

Used to just run my 3D printers and other experiments in my bedroom but I had an incident with chlorine gas poisoning due to being silly about electrolyte choice in an electrochemistry experiment and decided I absolutely needed a separate lab space with a fume hood and talked to the land owners and the result is a building mostly made from scrap materials to do lab work in

[dusty citrus]

I have a big L-desk in here and a big table, only space I have for a workshop is my L-shaped desk

but vertically, hence the peg boards

and adding wood panels so I can reclaim dead spaces in gaps

[quartz wren]

Just barely got moved into the space a couple weeks ago

https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/944765311838744677/967508709666324580/20220423_122331.jpg

[dusty citrus]

hence the drill 😄

[quartz wren]

Smart move

Reusing dead space is the theme of this lab when it's fully set up

Think tiny home but a lab

[quartz wren]

Very nice

[dusty citrus]

showing that pîc earlier but I'm hoping to replace these with plastic/wood panels

[quartz wren]

Ahhh

[dusty citrus]

so I can divide my tight space and get more bins/shelves in that deep space. Also the box over the desk prevent dust from getting in the gap

And make me an happier person as I don't have to constantly broom it now...

tomorrow I'm getting scrap presswood at cost from the hardware store so hopefully I can hammer a plank on the counter behind the fan

[quartz wren]

Well I'm not exactly in design mode at the moment due to being (hopefully toward the end) in a bipolar down swing however my brain can't help but to answer specific questions it has the answers to in any state I'm in

[dusty citrus]

so that it will stay sstuck without needing support

I'll still use that cardboard behind the computer screen though as it make the wall less boring

[quartz wren]

And if you put up paintings

It makes the walls less boring

[dusty citrus]

I don't like the texture of cardboard or wood, so I'd glue on some metallic paper like the one in the picture

[quartz wren]

I'm going to paint murals as I get things set up in my lab space

Try to make it feel like the walls aren't a hard boundary and trick my brain into feeling like the space is bigger

[dusty citrus]

wall height mirrors are great for that 😄

[quartz wren]

Ooh good point

But at the same time I'd want them not to be glass

Because I have a history of clumsy

[dusty citrus]

and they are expensive, and sometimes the glue the installers use have manufacturing issue and a mirror fall off

[quartz wren]

I mean

[dusty citrus]

happened to me and chipped my toilet

[quartz wren]

Have you seen the pic of what I did to my keyboard?

[dusty citrus]

I mean I have to change keyboard every year since I'm a dirty llama

that's why I have all those spare keyboards boxes and I always buy the same one

[quartz wren]

https://i.imgur.com/Z09woso.jpg

[dusty citrus]

It's like a yearly rental

[quartz wren]

Guess that outline

[fading hare]

maybe not solder right next to the keyboard?

[quartz wren]

When all you have is a tiny bedroom, accidents happen

[real falcon]

each year? man my keyboard is umm 13? 15? years old lol

[quartz wren]

This was before I had the lab set up

[orchid zephyr]

this is the image i use for my spotify playlist lmao

[dusty citrus]

my 2020 keyboard corpse 😦

[quartz wren]

For real? Or are you just making some reference I don't quite get?

[dusty citrus]

Not even worth trying to clean unless I had a very powerful vacuum machine with automotive scale brush

Like I said yearly rental 😄

Anyway the keyboard letters and mouse paint start to fade after a year

[quartz wren]

Nah that'll come out with an air compressor after using a keycap puller

[dusty citrus]

so for 40$ a year it's perfect 🤣

air duster or air compressor ? duster just make it more sticky

[quartz wren]

Oh... Do you eat junk food at your keeb?

I may solder next to mine but that's keyboard abuse

[dusty citrus]

That and I'm dusty anyway pieces of my body get in and I can't help it

[quartz wren]

OHHHHHHHH okay

[dusty citrus]

My current keyboard is the 2021 rental and still alive

[quartz wren]

Discord sent me to the wrong message when I clicked to view what it was replying to

So I thought you were saying the keyboard pic

[dusty citrus]

But I'm a bit more careful with it until letters fade again

I also have a tons of surplus alcohol wipes due to my covid anxiety attacks

2021 keyboard

[quartz wren]

I can't stand the feeling of bits of stuff between my fingers and my keyboard

So I wipe my hands before typing

[dusty citrus]

I also have a spare that is used for my xbox/raspberry pi 2+

[quartz wren]

And if I eat at the computer I finish a bout of nomming, wipe up, use the computer, then stop using the computer for the next bout

But that's just my personal sensory stimulus thing, I don't like stuff feeling weird when I touch it

[dusty citrus]

I don't eat much chips but I like making french canapés (so crackers...)

What may help now is my big desk

[quartz wren]

See, what causes rapid buildup is typing with the bits still on your fingers and leaning over the keyboard while eating

(I know both from experience)

[dusty citrus]

which have enough space for a plate and the keyboard above it

[quartz wren]

Used to be pretty messy at my computer and it just got to me one day and I couldn't do it anymore

Now it's just like... Resistors and hair I contend with

[dusty citrus]

Did I mention in that dead space because there is a difference of elevation I'm going to make it 6 inch high and install 3 automotive cupholders in it ?

Just so I have cup holders next to my counter ?

[quartz wren]

I mean that's a solid way to have things less spillage inclined near sensitive things

[dusty citrus]

And the divider on the counter will have an holder for two smarthphone so I can use my old one as a door viewerhole camera and recharge both

[quartz wren]

I may have to print some cup holders to mount to my desk

Good idea

[dusty citrus]

with an hole drilled in to pass the wires for the desk fan and the two holders

Just need to find a heat-proof enclosure for my arduino stove sensor and I'm good for the counter

[quartz wren]

Dang you're just full of great ideas... I was trying to figure out what to use for the camera in the peep hole for my lab but now I have a phone that isn't my main phone

And it has a decent camera

And I also wasn't sure what to do with that

[dusty citrus]

I changed my old phone because the camera is broken but at close range it's ok

[quartz wren]

My old phone fell on its screen on a rock on concrete

[dusty citrus]

My front door is very secure and thick so sometimes I don't even hear peoples knock which is the need for that camera

[quartz wren]

Decided to upgrade but I had to get a bricked one to repair the old one to recover my 2FA

So now I have an extra phone

[dusty citrus]

Also I have an auditive problem that cause me to hear loud bangs/explosions sometimes when I'm tired that are illusions so this make me feel safer that someone isn't trying to force their way in

[quartz wren]

I'm familiar with auditory hallucinations. I have schizoaffective features with my bipolar

[dusty citrus]

I already use command strips to hold stuff on my desk or on the wall near my entry door so I don't lose them

[quartz wren]

So I often hear a whole bunch of random people (some I know, some I don't) whispering my name barely audibly

Among other things

[dusty citrus]

like my air conditioning remote is stuck to the wall with a sticky velcro pad so I always know where it is

[quartz wren]

But it's all in my head

[dusty citrus]

right under the unit

I don't hear random peoples in that way but I kinda know the feeling because sometimes I'm so tired I fall asleep on twitch

and I get woken up by loud streamers after a couple of raids in the middle of the night, sometimes in a foreign language

[quartz wren]

Yeah it's super strange because

I'll hear my name

Turn to look in the direction

And there's nobody there

Then I hear someone else say my name and I turn to look and again it's nobody

By now I've learned to identify when it's happening by that point

But even once I've identified that it's happening I still hear it

But growing up with 10 siblings many of whom liked to mess with me by whispering my name and pretending nothing happened didn't help

[dusty citrus]

Yeah for my loud bang thing/explosion sound I learned to check if someone around me is alarmed, first time it happened I called 911 because I thought they were gunshots or something

[quartz wren]

See I hear gunshots on the regular where I live

And explosions

(live out in the county so things are a bit more lax)

[dusty citrus]

mounting for using an old phone as door camera

[quartz wren]

So even if I were imagining some of it, I would have no way to know

[quartz wren]

Nifty

[dusty citrus]

I just have to press the protective case of the phone and it hold, eventually I might run a power cord extension to it stapled to the wall and the charger to keep it permanently charged. But atm I charge it manually and only put it there when expecting a delivery or at night

[quartz wren]

But also thinking about that... It's super odd the number of explosions I hear nowhere near the 4th of July or new years with how close I live to an airport

Coming from the direction of the airport half the time too

I know a while back some extremists were attacking trains nearby

[dusty citrus]

I live 2 streets from the police station which mean no drone even if I legally could under 250g

So if the noises I hear were real they'd hear it too

[quartz wren]

I can't fly anything above like 50 feet iirc

I'm within 5 miles of an airport

[dusty citrus]

me too, but since it's under 250g there is very little regulation since it's considered a toy

[quartz wren]

(without a commercial drone license and getting clearance from the airport for every flight iirc)

Yeah the only drone I have worth flying outside has a 7' wingspan

And so I just can't use it

Right now it's disassembled

[dusty citrus]

The only rules are restricted airspaces (so nothing around 1.8 nautical miles of the airport, around jails, military bases etc) and not putting peoples in danger while flying it(vague law so they can apply it if you are really annoying)

That's why I don't want to fly it near a police station I'm sure they'd find a vague obscure law

[quartz wren]

Yeah I'm right at the edge of that 1.8 nautical mile bubble

[dusty citrus]

Kinda need a car if you have a drone in canada because you can't really fly it anywhere near a city unless you are a license pilot for real planes

when you are a real pilot you can ask for NOTAM to fly near the airport even if it's a drone and you don't need drone licenses

[quartz wren]

Used to be 5 miles as the crow flies when I was first trying to figure out where to fly the thing long before the FAA came down with registration requirements

[dusty citrus]

FAA has notam as well anyway and real pilots could always fly drone even in restricted airspaces

since they can with bigger planes 😄

[quartz wren]

I'm not a real pilot

Too broke

And broken

¯\_(ツ)_/¯

[dusty citrus]

I mean with the price of graphics cards and how hardcore flying sim joysticks have become

It's almost less expensive to pass a VFR pilot license 🤣

[quartz wren]

I'm not saying I couldn't become a real pilot

Just that I wouldn't be allowed

I've been doing flight simulators since I was like 12

[dusty citrus]

I took an introductory flight before but nothing more serious

the 1st hour is basic theory so you can save your instructor life if needed so they take it seriously

[quartz wren]

I'm considering setting up a multi monitor battle station with a full blown cockpit button panel and stick for playing KSP

[dusty citrus]

Didn't have the courage to try to land because I always crashed while landing in flight simulator

Also took a lot of fitness because you have to keep hitting pedals on the cessna to keep things straight

[quartz wren]

Landing takes a lot of practice even in simulations

But apparently it's something I learned pretty well

One time when I was visiting Kennedy space center with my family my dad tried the shuttle landing simulator and crashed like 5 times and I asked for a turn and nailed it on the first try

[dusty citrus]

they had me do a level flight and an easy turn and practice "flight management" a bit by roleplaying my instructor as the tower and checking maps while flying