Learning electronics: Release the Magic Blue Smoke

The Something Awful Forums > Discussion > Hobbies, Crafts, & Houses > Learning electronics: Release the Magic Blue Smoke

evil_bunnY: Apr 2, 2003

mystes posted:

Weren't a lot of people in this thread using the TS100 iron before?

I have it and think it's great. Most people who own one agree, provided they can find a power supply to match it.
The TS80 is also good, and works off a standard USB port with QC 3.0

# ¿ Feb 21, 2019 13:59

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# ¿ Apr 26, 2024 23:42

evil_bunnY: Apr 2, 2003

BattleMaster posted:

From my own experience, I definitely would have saved money if I did that instead of just going through several lovely irons.

Irons are really a �buy decent, cry once� kind of thing.

# ¿ Feb 22, 2019 18:26

evil_bunnY: Apr 2, 2003

TotalLossBrain posted:

I can't comment on private use, but I've been soldering pretty regularly at work for the past twenty years at three different places. I've never seen a tip disintegrate so badly it had to be replaced. The current station I use has had the same tips on the pen iron and the vacuum sucker for 6-7 years.

The stations are powered on only when needed, use rosin core lead solder, and get cleaned with brass wool and/or a wet sponge.

Yeah this is my experience too, even with a kinda no-name iron I used before my TS100. The only time I've ever ruined a tip is leaving an iron powered forever.

# ¿ Mar 15, 2019 10:25

evil_bunnY: Apr 2, 2003

Look at the power rating on the TV (or use a power-metering plug and assume ~80% is going out as heat. You want ventilation, especially if it�s lying flat.

# ¿ Mar 29, 2019 12:02

evil_bunnY: Apr 2, 2003

You can get near silent usb gooseneck fans, you can buy just 1 or 2 and be completely fine. You absolutely don�t need step-up regulators or 12V anything.

# ¿ Mar 30, 2019 00:50

evil_bunnY: Apr 2, 2003

Yes you cut them off afterwards.

# ¿ Apr 3, 2019 23:04

evil_bunnY: Apr 2, 2003

Ambrose Burnside posted:

as I understand it this is a situationally-specific thing where they mostly just want to be able to keep a phone alive "whenever and as needed" without being dependent on the vagaries of environmental conditions, which means sun/wind as well as power grid stability, but isn't in a situation to go whole-hog on keeping a car battery trickle-charged from solar panels or whatever (also big solar panels tend to disappear in the mail)- hand-cranking a dynamo definitely isn't particularly sensible backup power in most situations, tho, you are right. they just want guaranteed access to a charged phone and electrical lighting once they'e already in for the night without having to visit a neighbour with a genny or gamble on enough sun to have charged the battery today, that sort of thing, and don't want to have to go so far as buying a whole renewable power generation/storage system to achieve that
also they're handy and like the idea of tackling this as a project, which: godspeed, naturally

Literally just buy a solar panel and li-ion/li-Fe pack meant for this exact application. It's a trivial amount of energy to keep around, and nothing beats "no moving parts and zero concern for tolerances" when what you need is reliability.

Veni Vidi Ameche! posted:

Edit: Man, the Mouser shipping policy drives me nuts, assuming it hasn�t changed. It�s always like $x for one op-amp, but also only $x for another 10,000 items before shipping cost jumps to the next level. I find myself wanting to fill that box to the brim in order to prorate the shipping across the items. I don�t think Digikey is any better.

Edit II: Just caught FedEx 2nd day for the same price as their (and UPSes) regular service. Now I feel bad for not loading up on such a cheap deal instead of bad for not buying enough to make a bad deal on shipping worthwhile.

That's buying not-cornerstore components in a nutshell.

Sagebrush posted:

ask me about my ESP8266s!

Those were never ever cool. *So* unreliable.

evil_bunnY fucked around with this message at 10:40 on Apr 10, 2019

# ¿ Apr 10, 2019 10:34

evil_bunnY: Apr 2, 2003

poo poo like this is why I love buying off adafruit. With the amount of stuff I learned off their site I p much owe them a lifetime of orders anyway.

# ¿ Apr 10, 2019 16:47

evil_bunnY: Apr 2, 2003

Veni Vidi Ameche! posted:

If we don't like 8266s, what do we like?

esp32

Sagebrush posted:

Beyond that they work great.

I've read *SO* many reports of unreliable connectivity. At this point there's zero reasons to use an 8266

# ¿ Apr 12, 2019 10:27

evil_bunnY: Apr 2, 2003

Stabby McDamage posted:

I have a relatively simple question -- just trying to figure out the best solution. I have a little robot based on an ESP32 that I'd like to operate wirelessly with a gamepad. Anyone have experience with any of the following approaches? Other ideas?

The way I'd tackle this is with a hobby RC radio and a serial receiver, if you're open to that option. I've never seen a BT HID parsing library for arduino.

# ¿ May 8, 2019 15:51

evil_bunnY: Apr 2, 2003

I need a pair of microcontrollers with:

p2p transceiver (let's couple hundred yards so ESPNow, LoRa or something equivalent would be great)
OLED screen. Tiny is fine.
compass/GPS
and ideally (1s) battery management.

Does anyone make such a thing?

# ¿ May 13, 2019 14:06

evil_bunnY: Apr 2, 2003

ynohtna posted:

Have you evaluated the LoPy & Pytrack at https://pycom.io/ for the LoRa and GPS? Screen and battery should be relatively simple additions in comparison.

No but this looks like it'll be perfect for both ends

https://pycom.io/product/pygo1/

# ¿ May 13, 2019 21:40

evil_bunnY: Apr 2, 2003

Feather was the backup plan. Using low profile stacking headers would make for a much cleaner build.

evil_bunnY fucked around with this message at 17:20 on May 14, 2019

# ¿ May 14, 2019 17:15

evil_bunnY: Apr 2, 2003

Pace for desk, TS80 for bag

# ¿ Jul 16, 2019 17:05

evil_bunnY: Apr 2, 2003

My Rhythmic Crotch posted:

AS5047U is 14 bit. You just need the breakout board and 3d print (or attach somehow) a magnet above the chip, done.

I'm not sure if there is a 16 bit solution out there. Anything is better than trying to do it with a pot, as they are so noisy.

That'll be 13bits over 180 and it's still way more than you could get with a pot.

What you need is clearly this beauty of a thing

https://www.digikey.be/product-detail/en/sensata-bei-sensors/LP35-S-AG-16-H30S-28-SI-SM12-T2/LP35-S-AG-16-H30S-28-SI-SM12-T2-ND/9487204

This might be a more appropriate option, but surface mount and no kits so Rhythmic Crotch's choice might be better for prototyping.
https://www.digikey.be/product-detail/en/broadcom-limited/AEAT-8800-Q24/516-3787-ND/6681014

evil_bunnY fucked around with this message at 11:11 on Jul 29, 2019

# ¿ Jul 29, 2019 11:02

evil_bunnY: Apr 2, 2003

Shame Boy posted:

they attached a little mirror to the needle and reflected light off it onto the wall across the room and used the position of the light on the wall instead

LOL they made a galvo thermometer.

# ¿ Jul 29, 2019 21:47

evil_bunnY: Apr 2, 2003

I would get a pocket scope like the DSO nano and keep your money in bank. When you need more channels you'll know, and you can put that money towards a rigol 4ch.

# ¿ Aug 7, 2019 11:12

evil_bunnY: Apr 2, 2003

Zero VGS posted:

I'm well stocked on consumables, connectors might be a good idea.

I bought a pile of Anderson Powerpoles a while back and I loving *hate* these things.It's like stepping on legos, but for your fingers instead. There's no room for error on the crimper, it is super hard to seat the clips, and the sparks upon connection will pit the tabs enough that it's really hard to reconnect them afterwards. One I use these up I'll switch to something like XT60 and never look back.

edit: grr, so much for rush shipping, I requested an account on Arrow 5 hours ago and they still haven't replied. I can't check out as a guest either.

edit 2: nevermind there's a difference between "myarrow" accounts and arrow accounts. loving tariffs though? First time I've ever been charged a tariff. On top of sales tax, added $10 to the $50.

XT*0 connectors are the loving best, and they even come with a backing cover now do don't even need heatshrink.

# ¿ Oct 10, 2019 11:52

evil_bunnY: Apr 2, 2003

Just use hobby speed controllers/lipos.

# ¿ Oct 24, 2019 08:31

evil_bunnY: Apr 2, 2003

Ambrose Burnside posted:

i didn't expect reasonably-portable and affordable batteries to be able to keep up with a ~700W induction heater that can heat up a titanium dab nail to yellow-orange heat in less than 5 seconds, but apparently it's nbd with some decent-quality LiFePO4 cells:

my quads can easily pull a kw from ~100g battery. lithium is the good poo poo.

# ¿ Oct 28, 2019 22:06

evil_bunnY: Apr 2, 2003

Shame Boy posted:

super fuckin' impressed by that GPS timing board y'all helped me design, called it a "work of art", so thanks thread

# ¿ Dec 2, 2019 16:46

evil_bunnY: Apr 2, 2003

Lemniscate Blue posted:

It's this thing, actually.

That literally says 5V-24V on the input side so use a 4-bank AA holder and get on with your day, no need to modify anything else.

Cojawfee posted:

If an alkaline AA has about 3000 mah, and that thing normally lasts 12 hours, then that's about 250 mA per hour. You could stick four CR2032 coin cell batteries together to get 12 volts and it should last about an hour. I don't know if that's how longevity of batteries, works, I'm not a battery guy. But you could just stick four coin cells together and see how long it lasts with that.

Get two of these guys, put them in series and you have 12 volts.

My guy the typical amp draw for a 2032 is like 1 milliamp. At ~mA you're already down to half the capacity.

evil_bunnY fucked around with this message at 12:56 on Dec 11, 2019

# ¿ Dec 11, 2019 12:47

evil_bunnY: Apr 2, 2003

insta posted:

I have a bunch of 2S 3500mah packs I made for Fatshark goggles. They have the right connector for that as far as I can tell, are sightly larger than a 9V, and will last about 12 hours. They weigh 100 grams or so. Send a PM if you want...

These will burn forever, but again, lipos. Nimh don't burn quite like them.

# ¿ Dec 12, 2019 00:17

evil_bunnY: Apr 2, 2003

Shame Boy posted:

Turns out the problems with the SPI bus weren't the lack of termination resistors (ok well they would have probably solved this problem but still) and I can kinda-sorta fix it in software. I figured out through trial and error that all the chips on the bus were powered up and ready to go a long-rear end time before the microcontroller's oscillator had even stabilized, so they were all listening to the SPI bus while it was still floating. The particular way it happened to float most of the time meant all the CS pins were low, MOSI was high, and the clock was... clocking, I assume from mains interference. In these LED display chips I'm using, if you clock in just a big ol' string of 1's, it thinks you're telling it to turn on "display test mode", where it will just turn all the LED's on at max power. Critically though, test mode overrides literally everything else, so even if you try to shut the chips down by sending the shutdown command, or any other command for that matter, it will just stay there in test mode acting like it's broken.

Now I just have to send it the "turn off test mode" command when it starts up and everything works fine

gently caress everything

# ¿ Jan 17, 2020 18:18

evil_bunnY: Apr 2, 2003

Unperson_47 posted:

I'm trying to 3D Print some frames to place over LED strips. Any ideas for ways to stop the light from bleeding through the material? Even 100% infill doesn't really help.

It's so small that adding metal reflectors seems really difficult. Is there some kind of paint-on metallic paint that reflects 100% of light?

This is similar to the LCD-like segmented numeric digits y'all were talking about a few pages ago so I figured I'd ask.

edit: I'm going to try just adding some black acrylic paint and see what happens.

I'd use metal foil or matte paint.

# ¿ Feb 10, 2020 13:11

evil_bunnY: Apr 2, 2003

MaxxBot posted:

I'm using a circuit like this to drive a 12V fan, the 12V supply and gate drive signal is coming through a connector from an external board. Should there be a capacitor on this board for the 12V supply or is this ok as is? The fan datasheet doesn't really give me much useful info about this other than that it draws 100mA max.

The fan doesn't GAF about noise, but the switching noise might anger something on your other board.

# ¿ Mar 2, 2020 12:10

evil_bunnY: Apr 2, 2003

ItBreathes posted:

Do any of y'all have any resources I could look at to accomplish this in a well-informed manner?

What's the device? What does the lipo look like?

# ¿ Mar 5, 2020 20:07

evil_bunnY: Apr 2, 2003

i�ve CC�ed flight controller PCBs after sticking a micro usb plug in them and a piece of clue tack on the button and altimeter. Works a treat.

# ¿ Mar 14, 2020 19:52

evil_bunnY: Apr 2, 2003

If you've got pins anyway you can literally plug your programming cable, CC the whole drat thing and voila.

# ¿ Mar 14, 2020 21:56

evil_bunnY: Apr 2, 2003

Mr. Bubbles posted:

I have a Kohler touchless toilet flush mechanism (do not recommend) that uses a DC motor to flush a toilet. The motor stopped working a few days ago. I took it apart and seems like the entire shaft is corroded and stuck. The cost to replace the flush mechanism is quite expensive, seems to be in the $100 range. This text is printed on the side of the motor: KM-25A370-109-0678. Searching online it seemed like it was for sale from alibaba. I messaged the manufacturer for a quote but they responded asking for what specs I want (I guess the model number isn't specific enough)? Anyways, any recommendations on how to get replacement motors?

Thanks!

https://www.amazon.com/BestTong-Torque-Electric-Reduction-Centric/dp/B07QJSX9TR

?

# ¿ Mar 22, 2020 16:37

evil_bunnY: Apr 2, 2003

taqueso posted:

You can still patent bent wire if you do it right. You just need to combine it with something else. For example, I was told by a SRAM EE that Shimano has a patent on parallel stacks of PCBs on a bicycle so sram used perpendicular PCBs in their e-shifter design.

Man this poo poo is so dumb.

# ¿ Apr 9, 2020 23:25

evil_bunnY: Apr 2, 2003

yeah you need back EMF to drive brushless motors. A brushed drivetrain might work (but it�ll never go straight), but for brushless you need one per motor.

# ¿ Apr 20, 2020 12:27

evil_bunnY: Apr 2, 2003

insta posted:

VESC controllers have the ability to link via CANBUS and will synchronize their speeds, even in sensorless mode. It works really well, and the hardware is robust.

VESCs are pretty cool.

# ¿ Apr 20, 2020 18:41

evil_bunnY: Apr 2, 2003

Hypnolobster posted:

It seems hard to find a RC esc that will do 24v, unless a 6s will handle it.

A 6s ESC will easily do 24V, a full 6S pack is over 25.

# ¿ Apr 30, 2020 15:40

evil_bunnY: Apr 2, 2003

Forseti posted:

I use denatured alcohol from the hardware store. Not sure if there's been a run on that too but it's cheap, in a giant can, and like 99.9% compared to the 91% iso I can find in the store. Works well for me.

Same same. Works good, smells like hell but goes away quickly.

# ¿ Apr 30, 2020 17:31

evil_bunnY: Apr 2, 2003

You can't measure amps on an open circuit. The battery is giving you the voltage it's supposed to, and so are your buck converters.

# ¿ May 14, 2020 15:02

evil_bunnY: Apr 2, 2003

That Works posted:

At 8am in total shadow on a partly cloudy day it's producing 6.1W *Based on measured 18V, 0.339A

How did you measure this? You have an mppt solar controller?

# ¿ May 16, 2020 14:24

evil_bunnY: Apr 2, 2003

That Works posted:

e: while the PWM was charging the battery.

yer fine.

# ¿ May 16, 2020 15:11

evil_bunnY: Apr 2, 2003

# ¿ May 18, 2020 21:39

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# ¿ Apr 26, 2024 23:42

evil_bunnY: Apr 2, 2003

Hello friends I've inherited a 36V nominal monster of a battery pack (it's 500Wh) and I've been thinking of turning it into a USB-C PD thing to power other things when we're not close to mains.

I thought it'd just be a matter of sourcing a BMS and a USB-C PD board but it while the BMS part was easy, the USB part has proven a complete pain in the dick so far? All the options I see are ~28V max and that's not going like the 40V+ the pack sits at when fully charged.

Are there any easier options than relying on a 24V step-down internal bus to plug the USB-C outputs into?
Getting the thing charged from USB-C sounds like a pain in the rear end too, where I'd need USB-C power board, boost converter, then 10s charger, correct?

# ¿ Jul 27, 2022 14:46

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