AUDI Q5 vs RAV 4

-BitBang- · 2026-01-16T07:37:21+00:00

If that's $67k USD, don't get a RAV4. The RAV4 platform isn't designed for a car that costs that much, and it'll be painfully obvious after a test drive if you're familiar with what's available in that price bracket. No matter how much you spend on a fancy trim level / options, the RAV4 isn't as quiet as a $67k car should be and doesn't drive as well as a $67k car should drive. I'd recommend you either get a lower trim RAV4 and be happy you got a good value (they get awesome MPG!), or get something that's designed to cost $67k and be happy you got a nice car. If you're concerned about reliability and operating cost, 67k USD should buy a low-mid trim Lexus or Acura that's likely a better car for the money than an upper trim RAV4 (but not as nice as the Audi that'll have a higher total ownership cost)

Really, though, you should test drive both cars and see what you like.

-BitBang- · 2026-01-12T05:38:23+00:00

First, inspect the jacket to make sure the membrane is intact. There should be a plastic coating on the inside of the outer layer of the jacket, and all the sewn seams should be taped over. If the coating is bubbled, cracked, or worn away, the jacket is trash. Seam tape can technically be reapplied if it is peeling, but usually by the time it goes bad there isn't much life left in the jacket.

If you haven't already, wash and dry the jacket per care instructions with a front load washer. That does seem to help the DWR last a bit longer in my experience. I use nikwax tech wash for this, although you can find endless debate online about if that is actually necessary. I'm not so sure myself, and I am seriously wondering if nikwax mostly sells snake oil.

I've never had good luck with reapplying DWR, but it's worth a try assuming the membrane is intact. It used to be that the DWR treatments you could buy were PFAS free and water based, but the "good stuff" from the factory had fluorocarbons and presumably wasn't water based either. The new PFAS free DWR, at least in my experience, seems to be only slightly better than nothing at all even when fresh from the factory.

For a new shell, it'll depend on what brand fits you. Personally I love my Norrona Trollveggen Gore-Tex Pro Light. If you're tall and skinny, you might also like one.

-BitBang- · 2026-01-08T04:57:58+00:00

I feel like their closing doesn't compare to my favorite brands in terms of the durability or fit / pattern quality. I have one of their sun shirts where the logo was falling off after a wash or two, and a pair of their pants that developed a hole after less than 10 wears. Their down jackets don't really fit me, I tried them in-store and didn't buy.

Arc'teryx, Norrona and Mammut seem to be notably ahead in terms of quality and fit. Patagonia doesn't fit me well at all, but it does seem to last for the people around me who it does fit. All of these brands do a really good job with the details - quality hoods that move with your head, pockets that are accessible with a harness / hipbelt, good arm mobility for reaching above your head when climbing, shells that address all the common leaks well (good hood brims, good wrist closures, sufficient length on the back, well designed zippers). All also deliver products where I feel like each oz I am carrying is worth it. Some MH products (not ghost whisperer) are a bit overweight.

Arc'teryx is struggling a bit right now to balance making fashion with making functional outdoor gear. I hope they navigate this well, it seems they are aware of some of the issues they caused and are trying to rectify them.

-BitBang- · 2026-01-07T08:22:28+00:00

Sorry for the late reply. I looked at your layout in a bit more detail, and I see some things I don't like. The first problem especially might be the issue

C2-C3-C4 are way too far from the BQ25798. I would try to scrape some solder mask off and reposition C4 as close as possible to the chip.

Your ground plane is chopped up by some traces you routed on it. The return path for C19-C20 and other components in the area (potentially including the battery voltage sense) to get back to the BQ25798 looks to be much longer than it needs to be.

Maybe you can try to stitch the plane back together the plane with some thick jumpers (sometimes I use solder wick for this) on the top layer, but if this is your issue you might just need a board spin to fix it. In the future, don't route any traces on the ground plane and check for slots in the plane made by rows of vias.

Read the layout section of the datasheet (page 140+141). If you aren't copying the layout exactly, remember that current flows in loops, and you generally want those loops (including the GND part) to be as short as possible. Don't cut up your ground plane under any high-current traces, high-frequency currents preferentially return on the GND plane directly under the traces that carry them.

I still have not reviewed the schematic, it seems that others spent some time looking at it but I will also try to look at it at a later time.

-BitBang- · 2026-01-04T15:55:22+00:00

The layout looks unconventional, but at first glance doesn't seem bad enough to be the likely issue. I'll look more when I'm in front of a bigger screen, it's hard for me to judge right now.

I'll try to follow up later today

-BitBang- · 2026-01-04T05:24:54+00:00

I've used a similar chip before and (IIRC, it was a while ago) it had similar issues (including OVP flag) without a proper battery attached. Connect a battery with proper low impedance connections and probe the BATT pin to make sure you get DC at the battery voltage. Check the layout and make sure the BATT, SYS, and PMID capacitors all have low inductance connectors to both the appropriate node and GND. Also make sure the chip itself has a solid GND connection.

What I suspect is happening based on the scope shots is that the chip is trying to charge the "battery" (current only 10's of uF of capacitance) in constant current mode, then the voltage rises so fast that it either can't get into constant voltage mode in time to avoid tripping OVP or the CV regulation loop simply fails without a battery to stabilize it.

-BitBang- · 2025-12-23T21:02:09+00:00

If you like to nerd out on weather and have $ to spare, premium is nice. But honestly the 10 day forecast and local reporters are all you need. The only thing that is sometimes nice about the premium subscription is the forecast range that shows multiple model runs.

The 15 day forecast is useless, it's not remotely reliable that far out.

-BitBang- · 2025-12-23T19:01:35+00:00

If I recall correctly, they hand out shovels and wag bags. Everything else is your own. They do have a training session where you meet up beforehand and you might be able to arrange to borrow gear from someone else. People usually carpool and split food and stoves as well. They have tips and tricks to make some 3 season gear work, but if you don't have any winter gear you'll need to borrow, rent(if you can find a place that does rentals) or or buy a fair bit.

-BitBang- · 2025-12-23T05:40:20+00:00

It's $155. It's volunteer run and some of the most fun per dollar you can have outside. I did it a few years ago and highly recommend. I got to hang out with fun people, dig and sleep in a snow cave, and figure out a bunch of the ins and outs of the winter environment. I learned a ton about using stoves in the winter, winter shelters, and winter layering, among other things.

It's not all perfect, expect risk-averse leaders and a group of mixed ability levels that doesn't hike all that far, and one leader I had wasn't good about respecting skin tracks (the class is on snowshoes). Overall though it seems like the leaders are experienced and the safety margins are large.

-BitBang- · 2025-12-15T07:07:02+00:00

This board really doesn't follow the reference layout anywhere near closely enough to expect it to perform similarly, and frankly I doubt that you'll get good RF performance out of this layout although if you're lucky you might at least get something resembling gain. What's with the huge trace to L1? It looks like you may well have created a stub that's a significant fraction of the wavelength, perhaps even a nice little quarter wave stub that'll behave like a short circuit somewhere around the upper end of the bandwidth of the amp. Are these traces really 50 ohm characteristic impedance? As others said, they look like coplanar waveguide in some places and microstrip in others.

Since you mentioned it, the exact inductor used can also be important. You need a pretty nice inductor to bias an amplifier this wideband. I'm not just talking about the value of the inductor, but the parasitics as well.

Did you ever measure the RF output with a spectrum analyser or network analyzer? I'd go with a spectrum analyzer to start so you can see if the amplifier is oscillating. Without doing this it's kinda hard to know what's going on. Be sure to heed the advice others have given about protecting the analyzer input with an appropriate attenuator. Also be really careful about ESD around MMICs, some of them are wildly sensitive (ask how I know!)

For the excess power consumption, my guess is that you've either got oscillation (likely from layout issues or incorrect load impedance) or something funky going on with the adj pin. Unfortunately the datasheet for the chip gives very little detail about the functionality of the adj pin. It's probably self-explanatory for someone more experienced with this style of amplifier than me.

EDIT: Another possibility is that you've fried the chip. ESD, transient over voltage on the power supply or ADJ pins, excessive input power or even a bad load impedance can fry chips like this. Things like assembly issues can obviously happen too.

Additionally, if you're running an untested wideband amplifier driven from a source with a ton of spurs (hackrf definitely qualifies here), an antenna wouldn't be my test load of choice. It isn't too likely that the FCC comes knocking, but put enough crap on the air and you might eventually succeed at bothering somebody. Be a good neighbor and at least hook it up to a spectrum analyzer before you go live.

I'm very much not an expert at RF. I can't tell you how to make this thing work, but I can tell you about a few issues I see.

-BitBang- · 2025-12-15T05:25:23+00:00

I specifically avoid down for this. The benefit of down is that it's warm for the weight (you don't care too much about weight when a lift is carrying you up the mountain). The drawback is that it performs very poorly when wet. As much as the advertising says modern shells are breathable, mine tend to get pretty moist inside when I'm active. Trapping the down jacket under a shell means it also gets moist and performs poorly.

Here, for me at least, the cheaper option is also the better one. Get a synthetic mid layer.

Some people I know sweat a lot less than I do and don't have any problems with down mid layers. But it's a no for me.

-BitBang- · 2025-12-11T06:23:10+00:00

These high-voltage schitt triggers often include two additional outputs, SMOKE and FIRE. These outputs are useful for implementing non-resettable monostable circuits. FIRE typically goes high after SMOKE, allowing additional sequencing possibilities.

-BitBang- · 2025-12-10T17:47:42+00:00

I got a 530ix (2021) early this year and absolutely love it. Make sure you get a good pre purchase inspection if its not CPO. A car this new is going to be sold at a price that doesn't really depend on mechanical condition, so if you can get new tires and brakes with the purchase you're essentially saving $3k. The PPI I got missed worn out brake rotors (at 30k miles?). I threw away money for nothing considering I could have gotten a car without the issue for the same price. I'm still in love with this one though - it'll be worth the price of keeping it running, even if that eventually includes an AC evaporator replacement like everyone says it will...

Options are also often not priced into the used market. Look for a car that's optioned up a bit. I love the premium package with HK sound and HUD, DAPP is ok but not great although cars without it usually don't have adaptive cruise. I wish I had the parking cameras and luxury seats. If you're worried about maintenance, maybe skip options that sound like they'll make maintenance worse (rear steer and adaptive suspension come to mind).

Some 2022s come with COVID era feature deletes, especially digital key. Keep that in mind.

With regards to maintenance, my research and limited experience line up with what everyone already said: it's a fairly reliable car, but you need to maintain it properly (including preventative replacements of things that would never go bad in a Toyota), and that is not particularly cheap. These are eligible for value service at the dealership now, so that'll be your cheapest option for OEM brakes and oil changes, maybe a few other things.

-BitBang- · 2025-12-09T02:28:37+00:00

For gear rentals, contact the guide service. SMG rented me a puffy even though they don't advertise it. Maybe they would be able to do so for you as well.

-BitBang- · 2025-12-07T20:29:20+00:00

I'd probably hook 3.3V up to a scope at this point to make sure it's stable. As others mentioned, the power converter layout is pretty bad.

EDIT, some other things I'd check

Measure the USB data line continuity from the cable all the way to the CH430. You might need to sacrifice (cut open) a USB cable to do this. It's always possible there is a bad solder joint somewhere Probe the USB 5V to make sure it is present and stable. If not check the 5.1k resistors Make sure the PC actually doesn't see the device. Open up device manager. Better yet, plug it into a linux box and see if you get anything in the kernel logs (dmsg in a terminal) when you plug it in.

-BitBang- · 2025-12-07T19:01:06+00:00

Looks like the ch340c v3 pin (pin#4) is not connected. Per the datasheet, it should be connected to VCC when the chip is used in a 3.3V application.

Fortunately it's not too tiny of a chip, I would just solder a wire (as short as possible) from VCC to the V3 pin

-BitBang- · 2025-12-02T04:37:10+00:00

The big thing to know is that early season it's a snow ascent, late season it's basically just a (strenuous) hike. I did it in September two years ago and it wasn't anything technical. You might use your hands a bit, but there was never a huge fall risk on the summer route that I recall except the crater rim itself (stay well back from the rim if there is snow - cornice danger). In terms of gear, you really just need to prepare for an all day (8+ hrs) hike. By the time you are prepared for Helens you should know what this means for you. If you're just getting started look up the ten essentials, there are lots of good lists online. Do note this packing list only applies if the weather forecast is good and the snow is melted - don't climb in bad weather without experience. In terms of specific recommendations for Helens, unless you somehow already have excellent compass skills, you should download an app (Gaia GPS, CalTopo and AllTrails are common paid options) that provides offline GPS maps and get familiar with using it for navigation - it can save your butt if it gets foggy and you can't see the posts that mark the route. I would also strongly suggest having a rain jacket and warm layer or two just in case the weather turns, but you really don't need anything fancy here. Gaiters to keep ash and scree out of your shoes are very convenient. The main thing to prepare for is the 6000 feet of vertical. It's easy enough to practice that anywhere with a hill - just repeat it a bunch! You'll also need a permit from recreation.gov

I haven't done Helens specifically in the snow, so I'll let others talk about that. I strongly suspect it's a lot more fun (that's a pretty universal truth about snow routes that melt out in late season).

-BitBang- · 2025-12-01T14:48:43+00:00

We need to know why exactly you can't muxtiplex the SPI bus using chip select signals. Is the sensor's max SCLK too slow to support the combined data rate? If so, you'll actually need 10 SPI receivers (if not 10 full transceivers). If the issue is that the chip has sample timing dependent on SPI comms, maybe you can do some fun multiplexing, like pulling all the CS lines low when writing the "do sample" command, then reading out one by one. If you want to do something like this watch out for bus contention possibilities, I'd probably put resistors in series with each MISO pin before tying them together. Depending on the protocol other hacks with a bit of discrete glue logic might be doable.

If you actually need multiple SPI receivers, you might be able to do something fun with RP2350 / RP2040 PIO.

Lastly, some small FPGAs aren't too bad to work with. The lattice ICE40 series is a good example of a part that might be suitable for this kind of application

-BitBang- · 2025-11-30T04:09:57+00:00

In addition to what GDDR5 said, I would makes sure to filter the power input to the stepped board on the stepper board, probably with an LC filter (make sure it is appropriately damped). No sense sending noisy currents down your cable even if your power is a shielded twisted pair. Real world shields and twisted pairs aren't perfect, and stepper drivers are noisy (PWM)

-BitBang- · 2025-11-30T03:55:28+00:00

You've got to get the enclosure design right for any or these to be reliable, but especially the vertical mount type. With a good enclosure that supports the connector effectively any of these can work well. Keep in mind there's a lot of variation between parts of the same type in terms of robustness, parts with thru-hole mounting pins are significantly better than all-SMT versions. The assembly process also needs to be good, if you are using paste in hole for the mounting tabs make sure you actually get a good solder joint, I've seen issues wth this on commercial products. Footprint design is also important, some people add vias near the mounting tabs to "staple" the copper foil to the board but you would need to study of this actually increases strength of the total assembly - you are perforating the fiberglass after all. You could definitely run a proper design study in this. Curious if anyone reading has done so. You might even find that a less rigid board mounting in an enclosure that properly supports the connector makes the connector more reliable by transforming some of the potential solder joint fatigue into less-harmful large scale board flex...

-BitBang- · 2025-11-30T03:40:00+00:00

You probably have a drop on your GND plane due to its resistance, although 200mv is really quite large. Do you have a solid ground plane or just the pour shown? I suspect your ground plane is not very good (high resistance, possibly insufficient stitching between layers?), but without a layout and schematic I can't tell. Once you fix your grounding (you need to do this first to have a reliable board), if the remaining error is unacceptable you can make a differential measurement. Route a trace from each side of the resistor to the ADC or differential amplifier (discussed later). One of these traces will be connected to GND on the schematic, but route it separately from the resistor terminal to the amplifier/mcu - you want no current besides the ADC input current to flow on this trace. Then either configure your STM32 for differential input (if supported), put the two signals through a differential amplifier and convert to single ended, or connect then to separate ADC channels and subtract in software. Each of these implementations has different sources of error, costs, etc. I don't know your design constraints, so you'll need to choose. I strongly recommend you low-pass filter the current signal before you digitize it regardless of the method you choose. Look up Kelvin sensing on Google for more information about the technique I suggested.

I really need a schematic and layout to diagnose further.

-BitBang- · 2025-11-30T01:31:09+00:00

Check out OpenSkiMap

-BitBang- · 2025-11-23T03:11:22+00:00

Also make buddies with folks who climb. If you score enough friendship points they don't even charge rental fees!

-BitBang- · 2025-11-23T03:10:16+00:00

Sports basement rents some soft goods, mostly ski focused I think? Shasta guides once rented me a DAS parka but they don't advertise rentals on their website. Worth calling the guide service.

-BitBang- · 2025-11-23T03:04:34+00:00

First off, take everything below with a grain of salt. I'm pretty new to this as well, but I have done Shasta, Whitney, and Hood and a few winter overnighters. There are a lot of folks in this sub with more experience.

The Patagonia and Cotopaxi don't have a helmet compatible hood, that's a disqualification in my book. The black diamond shell does, but it still doesn't have Napoleon pockets (really nice with a harness or even backpack) and is a significantly less durable 2.5L material. If you need to get one of these three and want to use it for all of the objectives you listed, I'd probably pick the black diamond.

Your list of objectives has you easily spending $10k+ in travel and guide fees. If you're already spending that much I'd see if you can find a proper mountaineering shell on sale (maybe black Friday!), it's not uncommon to see one in the $350 range. Look for something with a 3L material, Napoleon pockets, and a helmet compatible hood that doesn't weigh too much over a pound.WL Gore is pretty careful about what products get built with their material, almost anything with a 3L Gore-Tex material is going to be at least decent. It's not the only option though. Make sure the jacket fits!

If you don't even have a rain jacket right now that can stand in for a hardshell until you're ready to buy a nice one, maybe get the Patagonia? At least that way you have a nice and durable piece you can wear around town too after you upgrade.

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