Got bored, dug my ESP8266 modules out and figured I'd try to figure out how to get them working.
[t]http://i.imgur.com/UI3OBXR.png[/t]
Win. The solder job is not the prettiest thing ever, but it works.
[t]http://i.imgur.com/xOvH00X.jpg[/t]
[QUOTE=pentium;46794265][IMG]http://i11.photobucket.com/albums/a166/ballsandy/Computer%20related/IMG_7723.jpg[/IMG]
These old connectors are amazing.[/QUOTE]
It was only recently we stopped using EDAC on our audio gear for multichannel disconnects.
Awful connectors. VDC VDM is better but everything has been replaced with cat5 and digital audio which is even better still :v:
I've seen some nasty hacks in the computer world where specialty cables were substituted with cat6 cables.
Over the summer I [i]really[/i] got to know the importance of good connector design. Wound up custom making some cables to connect some peripherals to a scale through a Zener barrier, with both ends having threaded, 18 pin, DIN-sized connectors.
I will never again take individually shrinked pins for granted again.
So I have in my possession a somewhat unusual motherboard that was rescued from being tossed at work. It was pulled out of a slushie machine of all things, and comes with:
A dual-core Atom CPU@1.6GHz
2GB of DDR-2 RAM
A small solid-state drive of unknown capacity (it's literally designed to plug [I]directly into the motherboard[/I] and measures roughly 1"x1.5"), preliminary searches on the FLASH chip's numbers indicate it's at least 64GB(!) but possibly 128GB(!!) since it has two of them on there.
A power adapter that converts 12-24V into all the necessary voltages required for the motherboard to function (again, plugs directly into the board via the Molex plug).
What should I do with this if/when I confirm it works? :v:
*edit*
Turns out it works! But the second DDR2 channel is either fucked or I have a bad stick in it, as it refuses to boot with two sticks in it. It also seems to have a goofy custom BIOS that prevents you from entering it, no matter how much you spam the Del key (and according to the manual for this board, that's the key you press, unless it's configured to check for USB keyboards first rather than PS/2).
The SSD also appears to work fine, but throw an internal server error because, I assume, it can't connect to whatever service/server that displays the videos for the slushie machine (picture is sideways too once it boots, kinda neat actually).
It's [url=http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813500037]this board right here[/url].
Why does a slushie machine need that much power? Did they design the software to work for windows XP?
[QUOTE=Cakebatyr;46856231]Why does a slushie machine need that much power? Did they design the software to work for windows XP?[/QUOTE]
Probably has some sort of customer UI screen like the new [URL="http://d1lwft0f0qzya1.cloudfront.net/dims4/COKE/c45288c/2147483647/thumbnail/596x334/quality/75/?url=http%3A%2F%2Fassets.coca-colacompany.com%2F48%2F6e%2F6649e5144316b2096be87e2d3312%2Ffreestyle-fountain-604mk101012.jpg"]Coke machines[/URL].
Beyond that, I bet the operation could be easily done with any introductory digital design class's classic 'Vending Machine' problem on a barebones ASIC.
[QUOTE=Cakebatyr;46856231]Why does a slushie machine need that much power? Did they design the software to work for windows XP?[/QUOTE]
Funnily enough it has a LILO boot-manager on it. :v:
And my guess is it was made to display videos on a 1080p screen for advertisement purposes.
The main reason I'm glad I ended up with this thing is mainly because of that little power supply adapter board, it makes a robotics project using this board seem like a fun idea.
[QUOTE=Zero-Point;46852941]So I have in my possession a somewhat unusual motherboard that was rescued from being tossed at work. It was pulled out of a slushie machine of all things, and comes with:
A dual-core Atom CPU@1.6GHz
2GB of DDR-2 RAM
A small solid-state drive of unknown capacity (it's literally designed to plug [I]directly into the motherboard[/I] and measures roughly 1"x1.5"), preliminary searches on the FLASH chip's numbers indicate it's at least 64GB(!) but possibly 128GB(!!) since it has two of them on there.
A power adapter that converts 12-24V into all the necessary voltages required for the motherboard to function (again, plugs directly into the board via the Molex plug).
What should I do with this if/when I confirm it works? :v:
*edit*
Turns out it works! But the second DDR2 channel is either fucked or I have a bad stick in it, as it refuses to boot with two sticks in it. It also seems to have a goofy custom BIOS that prevents you from entering it, no matter how much you spam the Del key (and according to the manual for this board, that's the key you press, unless it's configured to check for USB keyboards first rather than PS/2).
The SSD also appears to work fine, but throw an internal server error because, I assume, it can't connect to whatever service/server that displays the videos for the slushie machine (picture is sideways too once it boots, kinda neat actually).
It's [url=http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813500037]this board right here[/url].[/QUOTE]
Was it one of those F'real milkshake machines? I remember seeing one of those inside one when I replaced the motor drive board! IIRC they run linux and come with a 3g modem inside for updating the advertisements and whatnot over the air. I recall it also called for service once on it's own and we only found out about it when one of the service trucks pulled up. :v:
[QUOTE=Lapsus;46859497]Was it one of those F'real milkshake machines? I remember seeing one of those inside one when I replaced the motor drive board! IIRC they run linux and come with a 3g modem inside for updating the advertisements and whatnot over the air. I recall it also called for service once on it's own and we only found out about it when one of the service trucks pulled up. :v:[/QUOTE]
I don't think this one has any such connection built-in (makes more sense to have it as an extra board in the machine anyway for service reasons), but yes! I was told it was a slushie machine, but it DOES display a F'real logo when it's booting up. Though if the box I got it in is of any indication, they replaced it with a Jetway NC9MGL-525 board, bit more modern than this one as it uses DDR3 rather than DDR2, and has an extra USB 2.0 connection.
I just wish I could find a model number of ANY kind on this SSD board so I could know exactly what capacity it is, looking up the Samsung chip numbers has proved inconclusive, as the data sheet speaks for both 8GB, 16GB, 32GB, and 64GB chips without stating which ones are which (odd).
For those curious, this is the machine in question:
[media]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G7nhG21wbRs[/media]
That also explains why the display turns sideways once it boots. :v:
My 0.96" SPI OLED arrived. Surprisingly good, but my Nexus 7's camera can't do the display justice. It's not magical, but it's better than what I expected from a 0.96" screen.
[t]http://i.imgur.com/1YfUipf.jpg[/t]
I've ordered one of those but they keep getting lost in China. First one was shipped Nov. 10th and disappeared, second one shipped Dec. 12th and is also MIA.
But the deals from China are amazing so idc.
Anyone know good spots to get those strips of pins for breakout boards and shit? I also need some more breadboard wires and wires in general.
The cheaper the better, I'm on a college budget and I just bought some really nice boots :I
[editline]5th January 2015[/editline]
Also how much are those OLEDs? Look like they would be fun to tinker with
The one in the picture that uses SPI was 3.75€, the one that uses I2C that still hasn't arrived, was 3.64€
0.96" is seriously small though, I'm totally not going to be able to use this for what I thought I'd use it for, but I do have another use for it.
I'd recommend something else for playing around.
There are decent-looking 1.8" TFT modules that are 3.70€, and there's also the Nokia phone displays that are 1.6"
Problem for me is that I want sort-of low power, and I need to fit a digitizer over it. An OLED and correct size separate digitizer for me would be perfect, but so far, it seems to be easier to find a herd of unicorns.
Also, I have a 3.2" TFT touch screen, but waiting on a board so I can actually connect it to my Mega, so I haven't tried it yet.
[editline]5th January 2015[/editline]
... There's a chess game in the examples for the graphics library I'm using.
I am totally adding buttons for that, for the next shield I'm making.
I apologise if this is a dumb question.
If I have a logic level MOSFET that needs 5v to switch, can I use a higher voltage or is it more like a capacitor as in 5v is rhe maximum it should be exposed to. Thanks.
[QUOTE=Leestons;46864181]I apologise if this is a dumb question.
If I have a logic level MOSFET that needs 5v to switch, can I use a higher voltage or is it more like a capacitor as in 5v is rhe maximum it should be exposed to. Thanks.[/QUOTE]
Read the datasheet. There should be a "V_GS, max" mentioned somewhere.
[QUOTE=DrDevil;46864818]Read the datasheet. There should be a "V_GS, max" mentioned somewhere.[/QUOTE]
Thanks! I had the datasheet but I didn't know what I was looking for.
Took my Fluke 117 back, got it's bigger brother.
[t]http://i14.photobucket.com/albums/a345/ajackss/christmas_zpsd3be3bf3.jpg[/t]
It's a good day.
[editline]6th January 2015[/editline]
[QUOTE=Zero-Point;46852941]So I have in my possession a somewhat unusual motherboard that was rescued from being tossed at work. It was pulled out of a slushie machine of all things, and comes with:
A dual-core Atom CPU@1.6GHz
2GB of DDR-2 RAM
A small solid-state drive of unknown capacity (it's literally designed to plug [I]directly into the motherboard[/I] and measures roughly 1"x1.5"), preliminary searches on the FLASH chip's numbers indicate it's at least 64GB(!) but possibly 128GB(!!) since it has two of them on there.
A power adapter that converts 12-24V into all the necessary voltages required for the motherboard to function (again, plugs directly into the board via the Molex plug).
What should I do with this if/when I confirm it works? :v:
*edit*
Turns out it works! But the second DDR2 channel is either fucked or I have a bad stick in it, as it refuses to boot with two sticks in it. It also seems to have a goofy custom BIOS that prevents you from entering it, no matter how much you spam the Del key (and according to the manual for this board, that's the key you press, unless it's configured to check for USB keyboards first rather than PS/2).
The SSD also appears to work fine, but throw an internal server error because, I assume, it can't connect to whatever service/server that displays the videos for the slushie machine (picture is sideways too once it boots, kinda neat actually).
It's [URL="http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813500037"]this board right here[/URL].[/QUOTE]
I've got two of those exact boards, I run them as a HTPC's in little Silverstone cases. They do well, except for youtube playback for some reason.
So I've got my clip-on current transformer hooked up to one wire of a string of Christmas lights, the two leads going through a burden resistor and then hooked up to an arduino's analog pin and gnd. I'm reading zero.
Am I doing something stupid in assuming this should work? The current sensor has a ratio of 2000:1 so I should be seeing about 0.02 volts if I calculated right.
[QUOTE=Ajacks;46870982]
I've got two of those exact boards, I run them as a HTPC's in little Silverstone cases. They do well, except for youtube playback for some reason.[/QUOTE]
[URL=http://facepunch.com/showthread.php?t=1437734]Why am I unsurprised you have two of those boards?[/URL] :v:
When I started playing around with the Arduino stuff, the teacher that teaches microcontrollers said he's interested.
Today, I had both my teachers come to me and say "Go make us a shopping list, we're going to introduce microcontrollers as easy as possible, and Arduino seems easy".
Working with PICs has been slightly frustrating for beginners - we're talking 16-year olds with no previous training in microcontrollers, or programming. Straight after you've learned what an op amp is, they get thrown at PICs.
Arduino seems like a gentler method.
You should have seen the other teacher's face when I said I'd never used microcontrollers before the microcontroller course.
[QUOTE=papkee;46871690]So I've got my clip-on current transformer hooked up to one wire of a string of Christmas lights, the two leads going through a burden resistor and then hooked up to an arduino's analog pin and gnd. I'm reading zero.
Am I doing something stupid in assuming this should work? The current sensor has a ratio of 2000:1 so I should be seeing about 0.02 volts if I calculated right.[/QUOTE]
If you have 1A going through the primary the output current will be 2000x less or 500uA.
if you want 0.5V per amp then you need a burden resistor of 0.5V / 500uA = 1kOhm.
Quickly calibrated my probes for my 1054Z, works great. First victim of a thorough probing: a Sanyo 55" LCD TV I got for $50 that has lines running across it.
Is it the TCON board? Is it the power supply? Stay tuned to find out!
Turns out it was neither.
The previous owner lived in a not-so-good part of town, and when I had first opened the set, the first thing I was greeted by was a pile of dead roaches.
"Hmm, wonder if these little fucks have something to do with it..."
So I checked the voltages, even checked them with the Rigol to make sure there wasn't excessive noise, all power was good/clean.
Well balls, one last thing to check...
Dismantle the TV even further, check connections to panel itself.
Pushing down onto the panel's connectors yielded no results, time to look even closer- wait, what's that? There, in the corner... Is that... Ewwwww!
Gentlemen, the autopsy has revealed that the cause of death was, in fact, the roaches using the panel connection board as a latrine.
This unfortunate TV was literally shat on until it died. Cockroach feces have shorted out the panel connection board, burning up 2 of the board's traces.
Might be repairable, dunno, those are some awfully tiny traces...
[QUOTE=Zero-Point;46880188]Quickly calibrated my probes for my 1054Z, works great. First victim of a thorough probing: a Sanyo 55" LCD TV I got for $50 that has lines running across it.
Is it the TCON board? Is it the power supply? Stay tuned to find out!
Turns out it was neither.
The previous owner lived in a not-so-good part of town, and when I had first opened the set, the first thing I was greeted by was a pile of dead roaches.
"Hmm, wonder if these little fucks have something to do with it..."
So I checked the voltages, even checked them with the Rigol to make sure there wasn't excessive noise, all power was good/clean.
Well balls, one last thing to check...
Dismantle the TV even further, check connections to panel itself.
Pushing down onto the panel's connectors yielded no results, time to look even closer- wait, what's that? There, in the corner... Is that... Ewwwww!
Gentlemen, the autopsy has revealed that the cause of death was, in fact, the roaches using the panel connection board as a latrine.
This unfortunate TV was literally shat on until it died. Cockroach feces have shorted out the panel connection board, burning up 2 of the board's traces.
Might be repairable, dunno, those are some awfully tiny traces...[/QUOTE]
That's really shitty!
I'd take that over cleaning tobacco coated vintage equipment any day *vomit*
So I stumbled on this schematic to get a gameport joystick working in modern Windows
[img]http://i.imgur.com/Saf60V2.png[/img]
And while I had some electrical engineering during highschool that was 2 years ago and I don't really trust myself anymore with this. Ignore the trimpots on the top because I don't intend on using those, he lists the following parts:
2 x 2.2k Ohm resistors
220 Ohm resistors
2 x 1 nF capacitors
Then you likely need the two 1nF capacitors between AVR pins PB4 and PB5 and ground. Some configurations work better without these two capacitors.
Most replies say that these capacitors are indeed required so I might aswell order them
I found some Ceramic Disc Capacitors 1000 pF 100 V/DC 10 % for 16 cents each ([url=http://www.produktinfo.conrad.com/datenblaetter/450000-474999/457345-da-01-en-Keramischer_Kondensator_100V_1000pF.pdf]datasheet[/url]) and the [url=http://www.produktinfo.conrad.com/datenblaetter/400000-424999/419605-da-01-en-Metallschicht_Widerstaende_0414_TK50.pdf]resistors[/url] for 19 cents each (this is from a Dutch store and I don't really mind the price)
Are there any obvious problems with this or did I pick shit parts?
I don't think that schematic is entirely correct, the RC network appears to be for reducing transients and or noise on the joysticks (caps are required not optional) but you also have to do that on the Y axis as well (pins 6 and 13) for it to really have the intended effect.
There is no button debouncing either but that can be done in software easily enough.
[QUOTE=Chryseus;46885768]I don't think that schematic is entirely correct, the RC network appears to be for reducing transients and or noise on the joysticks (caps are required not optional) but you also have to do that on the Y axis as well (pins 6 and 13) for it to really have the intended effect.
There is no button debouncing either but that can be done in software easily enough.[/QUOTE]
I should mention that even though the Gameport is designed to be analog this is a Microsoft Sidewinder Force Feedback Pro, which is actually digital and also the force feedback is something special, which is why I can't use a regular gameport -> usb adapter
[t]http://i.imgur.com/MclCwvC.jpg[/t]
I like 'em. Got the Due today, had some fun with the mouse emulation thing.
Sainsmart boards are good. They look a bit funky in places, but I like how you can clearly see the traces through the black silkscreen, sometimes you can't see traces through black.
You can't see the traces on the image though, I don't have a good enough camera to capture them.
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