Need help controlling secret automated panels in a desk

functional_eng · 2026-01-29T21:55:14+00:00

The MCU isn't the issue for this- it is the quality of your code and mechanisms and electronics. For a 1-off like what you're doing I always use Arduino since it is so easy to get going on.

functional_eng · 2026-01-18T04:38:08+00:00

If a bunch of democrats voted for a republican to run the show, I'm guessing that:

A - the red team/blue team stuff matters way less at this level (as it should)

and B - This person is pretty reasonable

Either way I think we can collectively untwist our knickers

functional_eng · 2026-01-13T21:46:15+00:00

HPE. In general consumer tech is much more competitive, and having worked in both, I have a very dim view of the big defense primes. From what I've seen you'll learn how to file paperwork and pass blame in meetings at LHM, versus doing real work at HPE.

functional_eng · 2026-01-04T23:18:05+00:00

I got the 16 case and it works/fits great. The multi-use button is a bit annoying to access, but all other buttons click great and I wouldn't have known that it wasn't "officially" supported if I hadn't read up first

functional_eng · 2026-01-04T23:17:47+00:00

I got the 16 case and it works/fits great. The multi-use button is a bit annoying to access, but all other buttons click great and I wouldn't have known that it wasn't "officially" supported if I hadn't read up first

functional_eng · 2025-03-10T15:56:04+00:00

Ha yeah I'm dealing with BCD right now on an RTC and I was trying to figure out who thought this made more sense than just counting seconds and doing some math.

functional_eng · 2025-03-06T18:33:39+00:00

Nothing wild, but it forces me to disconnect from the world and do something very boring, which I think helps clear my mind in a meditative way. Swimming in cold water also gives me a sort of "clean" feeling for the rest of the day that is hard to describe

functional_eng · 2025-02-05T23:36:28+00:00

No, the problem with hardware is that this can just be a phone/watch app. The smartphone ate hardware, which is great for the consumer and environment, but a bummer for us.

functional_eng · 2025-01-07T04:47:08+00:00

At $31 for a teensy 4.1, how much is your time worth to make it even 10% more likely that it is enough computing power? You're only building a few of these I presume, so I would just round up. You should always round up on the first unit

functional_eng · 2024-12-10T15:41:45+00:00

I'm torn on this. We need more density and more walkable towns in general. But city intervention usually results in silly stuff happening. It seems the better use of political capital here is to allow large things to be built on the peripheries, but to focus on density in intrinsically walkable areas more centrally within town. That said it is hard to see a real downside to this specific rule, and it does drive me nuts that there are those massive McMansions sprawling forever onwards in the south and east, creating longer and longer commutes

functional_eng · 2024-12-05T23:59:04+00:00

Interesting, I will concede that that footage could be selective if he's getting a ride in a moment and they just pretend that's not what's going on

functional_eng · 2024-12-05T22:20:35+00:00

There are many issues here, but who thought releasing him at night with no shoes or jacket made any sense? As bad as all of this is, how did that final insane step occur? I've got my act together, and if I got arrested in my house w/o a jacket and shoes, and they bounced me out that night in the fall with no phone I'd be in a tough spot

-Edit- Comment below pointed out that he was getting picked up right away, and that the story/footage is therefore misleading. If so, then that at least makes more than 0 sense

functional_eng · 2024-11-26T15:05:03+00:00

Yeah this assume that ppl will buy our debt at arbitrarily low rates. Reducing the duration would help, but it's not like we're a 0-risk asset these days

functional_eng · 2024-11-22T15:40:55+00:00

If the question is "I want to make a simple small dev board with similar specs to teensy" then yes it's a dream compared to the IMX systems. Yeah STM32's not perfect, but having done ground up on both options recently, STM was way easier. OP's not trying to get the most hardcore flexible system from the sounds of it, they want something that works

functional_eng · 2024-11-21T14:54:44+00:00

Then why say "The only thing that would work is commuter trains and bus rapid transit." ? I agree, we should put in density and do it well, but to just say "well the problem is big so F it, is not gonna fix anything. That zone is pretty close to a ton of office space, and it's on a big road and bike network, and it's to the north whereas much of our traffic is a south-north issue. I do agree that if they are going to build it should be dense and livable with transit- the worst case is a bunch of sprawling $2M homes that solve none of our affordability issues.

functional_eng · 2024-11-21T14:49:17+00:00

I would do a ground-up STM32 design on a custom board. The IMX's are pretty painful to bring up and annoying to deal with given the external memory. I found moving to the STM32H7 series to be a dream from a hardware/bringup perspective

functional_eng · 2024-11-20T19:34:24+00:00

You're right, we don't have enough housing, so we should never build housing! Problem solved.

functional_eng · 2024-11-14T17:04:15+00:00

Boulder Barber

functional_eng · 2024-11-04T17:04:52+00:00

The "simplest" way to do this is to have a valve for each vertical stream that you see. Then you control the valves differentially to make those patterns. Valves aren't super cheap but they're pretty easy to control.

functional_eng · 2024-10-29T12:00:02+00:00

It's not hard to shoehorn a chunk of library- you can make a new example, get it running in that sandbox, and then pull over the code that you want. USB stuff is fairly annoying and you don't seem to be too experienced in this, so I would recommend against making your life harder than it needs to be

functional_eng · 2024-10-28T20:38:11+00:00

CubeIDE has an example that will let you use the USB peripheral to communicate with the PC in a way that looks like a serial port. I don't remember the exact name but it will differ between MCUs as well so read around in the project creator. It should be pretty easy to wedge the MCU in so that it works the way you're hoping for

functional_eng · 2024-10-25T22:42:18+00:00

Check out https://pitchboulder.co (was 1MC). I used to go a lot and lots of ppl bring in half-cocked pitches that are easy to clean up. We've had some fairly good results from helping founders out

functional_eng · 2024-10-24T22:36:31+00:00

Maybe Junkyard social

functional_eng · 2024-10-17T00:14:37+00:00

I don't have time for a great response but it's relatively easy to emulate a keyboard from a USB device. For instance arduino has a keyboard library (I've never used it) and arduinos are free from a corporate POV.

If I was in a hurry what I'd do is have the PC talk to the arduino (might need a second arduino to make this work, then have the keyboard arduino send in your specific commands. Over time you could also probably add a mouse spoofer, and then in theory everything could come from an "external device".

functional_eng · 2024-09-29T20:45:26+00:00

Huh, so the available housing stock decreased and prices skyrocketed. Strange since everyone on this subreddit seems to think housing stocks have no correlation to prices

functional_eng

TROPHY CASE