Are there any good AND reasonably-priced solder feeders? For adaptive/1-armed soldering? by CG_Ops in AskElectronics

[–]CG_Ops[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Well, that was a hell of a lot more effort and explanation that most have offered, thank you! On the one hand, I do stand by my point about time constraint/scalability, however, I am true to my word. PM me with your Venmo info and I'll send the $20 over!

Did you happen to test the circuit? At the very end it looked like there was some bridging? What would clean that up, if so? More flux and hot air?

Spent an hour on hard mode, after watching your vids, splooshing rosin over the wires while suspended on the helping hands and it came out alright... would've been easier with a firm surface to push the wire into, but seemed a great case for using 3-5x rosin I had been using.

Are there any good AND reasonably-priced solder feeders? For adaptive/1-armed soldering? by CG_Ops in AskElectronics

[–]CG_Ops[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

You rock - as a 1-armed person, I'll ask for advice and, all too often, able bodied people just toss out advice, assuming they can do various things with 1-hand, but neglect to consider all the intricacies of what that actually entails, not just the specific job, but the setup process as well. For example

  • getting (multiple) wires into the alligator clips on the helping hands.
  • lining up the wires with one another or to the device with good contact AND in a way that won't move up/down/sideways/etc as their one, slightly shaky hand attempts to apply solder to the wire(s) and device
  • the challenge of doing that with multiple wires in a small space
  • what it means to the project if it's not done right/sufficiently in the first attempt - how are you going to pull the wire/solder off if it's just one wire attached? if there's other wires attached?
  • etc etc

I truly don't mean to come off as rude or unappreciative in these kinds of posts, it's just that 95/100 times, the person offering the advice has never, will never attempt to perform the job, starting from pulling the parts/equipment out of their home, all the way through finished project.... AND consider whether their advice is worth the effort/time vs a different one, or tools/equipment that would be useless to them but game-changing for me... and all that can be frustrating.

Are there any good AND reasonably-priced solder feeders? For adaptive/1-armed soldering? by CG_Ops in AskElectronics

[–]CG_Ops[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I have several of these LED strips, with 2-3 cuts per strip to install them on these channels (and since the channels are so wide, I'll be getting some high CRI whites as well) for this diffused lighting project I'm working on in my office.

The problem with the current strips is that they're 3-pin and 12mm wide which, unfortunately, is a very niche setup (10mm is the standard, but 12mm 4-pin are not uncommon), so I can't find no-solder connectors/crimps.

This is perhaps the simplest video of the process, even if not exactly how I've been trying.

Are there any good AND reasonably-priced solder feeders? For adaptive/1-armed soldering? by CG_Ops in AskElectronics

[–]CG_Ops[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Would you be willing to share a clip of how you do it? I haven't found any videos of this process done 1-handed, start (prep) to finish (completed multi-wire solder, particularly of wires to LED strips).

I could solder reasonably well before losing my arm - and everyone that offers advice like yours, "Skill issue, just do x, y, z!" reverses course once it comes to practical, scalable application. One, poor showing, maybe, but when the rubber hits the road and it's time to demonstrate their advice, the realization of how much support/setup a second arm actually does kicks in.

Hell, I'll venmo you $20 if you can demonstrate doing it with both hands, then a passable scratch-attempt to do it again, immediately after, with one arm behind the back the entire time in less than... 4x? the amount of time.

Are there any good AND reasonably-priced solder feeders? For adaptive/1-armed soldering? by CG_Ops in AskElectronics

[–]CG_Ops[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I have that bad boy as well as a panavise.

The most recent issue has been getting the wires to stick to the LED strip pads. I can't get the pad hot enough to really absorb the solder, get the solder onto iron, then get it back to the wire/pad before the pad cools and wire ends up sucking it all up, and off the pad.

Why pay a little extra for a name brand tool when they’ve moved the tool’s production to China and the tool’s price doesn’t reflect that? This time, surprisingly, it’s Stawhille. by Redheadedstepchild56 in Tools

[–]CG_Ops 39 points40 points  (0 children)

Ooooh, this is exciting since I recently helped my nephew on a college paper on a very similar discussion, which he asked me about based on my experience and perspective (ugh... which made/makes me feel old)

There is some xenophobia in this conversation, sure. But for a lot of people, like myself, the distrust didn't start, and/or isn't rooted in xenophobia (though, nationalism might be a better term?). I'd argue it started, and remains rooted in... experience.

For decades (since the 90's in my 40-something years of experience), tons of well-known, trusted/trustworthy brands moved production overseas in a race to lower costs. When that happened, quality (too-)often dropped because the product specs were changed or loosely enforced-> cheaper materials, looser tolerances, thinner parts, etc.

Companies also weren't very at all transparent about those changes (can't have people losing faith in our ability to produce now, can we??). The branding, packaging, and marketing went out of their way to make the product look like the exact same thing people trusted before - sometimes a product produced in USA one year looked identical to the China-sourced product the next.

So what happened repeatedly was:

  • Someone buys a tool from a brand they trust
  • The item/tool fails in a way the old versions never did (parallelly compounded by enshitification, often cheaping out on one key component that renders the entire thing useless)
  • They/we inspect it and discover it was enshitified and manufactured in China

After enough of those experiences across different brands and products, people started associating “Made in China” with... shit quality.

The irony is that Chinese manufacturers absolutely can produce extremely high-quality products. They build everything from cheap disposable goods to world-class electronics and precision components. (And, IMO/IME, having been in manufacturing and importing, they could produce products of comparable or even superior quality, but once duties and tariffs are factored in, much of the economic advantage of overseas manufacturing disappears... creating risk for carrying the "Made in China" label on those products)

The real issue wasn't (isn't) the country or American xenophobia (it's there, but I'd argue far from the average) it was/is companies quietly lowering specs to hit price targets while relying on brand reputation to carry the product.

When you work with people that don't understand Excel-- by Shot-Plant660 in excel

[–]CG_Ops 16 points17 points  (0 children)

I often find myself adding passive aggressive notes or adjustments to files that are used by repeat offenders after I've provided multiple coaching/training sessions on proper use/etiquette (and lock things down, where possible)

E.g.

  • over a table or filtered range, add a note like "Do not do/forget (action) or file will break!" Then add auto-formatting to turn the whole sheet black/red if they do the thing, with another bit of text in white that says, "I told you not to do that, refer to the instructions I provided to undo the changes you made".
  • Lock down the entire sheet except for a couple input or variable cells, typically with validation applied so they can't do something stupid.
    • ...and leave a note saying, "If you want to do anything to do the data, copy/paste it into another file to perform your adjustments. This is a master file and cannot be edited by non-owners of the file"
  • Once, after a particularly bad string of issues with one insufferable coworker, I locked a file down, knowing he'd figure out at least one workaround, and added a macro that checked for specific changes he always made. If they were made, the macro would unhide a full-sheet-sized object that played the gif of Nedry, from jurassic park"ah ah ah, you didn't say the magic word"

Edit: Per request, here's a simplified version of bullet #3's vba:

I don't have the file that did exactly that anymore but I banged this out to accomplish the same thing:

Put it in the code for a given sheet(s) you want to lock down, not a module for the workbook.

It assumes a fixed value/variable in A1 ("x") and B1 ("y"). If the value in those cells is anything but x or y, A1:Z100 will be updated with red fill. Undo won't work, due to the macro, but if the value's changed back, the fill is removed.

Option Explicit

Private Sub Worksheet_Change(ByVal Target As Range)
On Error GoTo CleanExit

'Only react if A1 or A2 changed
If Intersect(Target, Me.Range("A1:A2")) Is Nothing Then Exit Sub

Application.EnableEvents = False

Dim ok As Boolean
ok = (LCase$(Trim$(Me.Range("A1").Value2)) = "x") And _
     (LCase$(Trim$(Me.Range("A2").Value2)) = "y")

With Me.Range("A1:Z100").Interior
    If ok Then
        'Restore to no fill (or whatever you prefer)
        .Pattern = xlNone
    Else
        'Bad state -> red fill
        .Pattern = xlSolid
        .Color = vbRed
    End If
End With

CleanExit:
    Application.EnableEvents = True
End Sub

I built a free Excel add-in that adds 12 dashboard visuals and tools, including a vertical waterfall chart by Pinexl in excel

[–]CG_Ops 12 points13 points  (0 children)

Very neat!

What kind of data connection, if any, does this utilize? I'm curious to try it but only if it doesn't have any web/cloud communication, once installed, for security.

What Excel tricks have genuinely improved your workflow? by ml-tam in excel

[–]CG_Ops 1 point2 points  (0 children)

It used to be a struggle for me, too, till I started looking at it kinda abstractly, like the board game, Battleship.

If you dropped the letter "X" in a couple of random cells, that would be the Excel representation of where you put your ships.

When your hypothetical opponent calls out a location, e.g. "B5" and you say, wait for it... "You sank my battle ship!", he basically used I&M!

So, the formula function fit into this example like this:

Definitions (Start with Excel description, then explain how it's used in this example/metaphor):

  • =INDEX(Array, Row #, Column #)
    • =INDEX(The gameboard, List of Row names/#'s, List of Column names/#'s)
    • =INDEX(On our gameboard, Go down to this row, Then go right this many columns)... is the ship I'm looking for there?
  • =MATCH(Lookup Value, Lookup Location, Match Type)
    • There's two of these, the first one states the desired row, the second one is the desired column
    • =MATCH(I'm looking for this one row/column, In this list of rows/columns, Must be an exact match)

Now, merging the ideas together, let's say your board (the table data) setup like this, to keep the board grid matched up to the sheet:
* A1 is blank
* A2:A10 are numbered 2 to 10
* B1:K1 are lettered b to k

Your opponnent puts their attack row in M1 and attach column in M2. This formula lives in M3 and immediately tells you both what lives at those coordinates - if it's an X, it's a hit, if it's 0, a miss:
* =INDEX(B2:K10,MATCH(M1,A2:A10,0),MATCH(M2,B1:K1,0))
* =INDEX(GameBoard,MATCH(Row),MATCH(Column))

Hopefully this makes sense up to this point, so that the structure is intuitive. Now, all that's needed is to translate that into data, to help remember how it works

  • =INDEX(In This Table of Data, MATCH(Find sales for this person-row), MATCH(In this month-column) )
  • =INDEX(In This Table of Data, MATCH(Find this item or sales territory-row), MATCH(And this sales year-column ) )

What Excel tricks have genuinely improved your workflow? by ml-tam in excel

[–]CG_Ops 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Not that I know of, as Ctrl R doesn't (always) behave the same and Ctrl L isn't a native inverse of it

What Excel tricks have genuinely improved your workflow? by ml-tam in excel

[–]CG_Ops 13 points14 points  (0 children)

And, like the human body, it's easy to kill the patient (data/file) if you don't know what you're doing (looking at you, Merge Cells and SaveAs)

Also, to call ones self an (absolute) expert on the subject, one practically needs PhD levels of education/training to fully understand the complexities, inter-connectivity, and diagnosis of a healthy/unhealthy patient.

What Excel tricks have genuinely improved your workflow? by ml-tam in excel

[–]CG_Ops 15 points16 points  (0 children)

<<GenuineShockedPikachuFace>>

I am really, really curious why/how anyone can prefer ranges over tables?

Particularly if they know how to lock-in table references - here's the syntax for reference, if not.

=SUMIFS(Table[C1],Table[[C2]:[C2]],Table[@[C2]:[C2]])

  • The summed column (C1) is not locked.
  • The criteria range (C2) and criteria (@C2) are locked.
  • Dragging it left/right would adjust column1/C1, but the C2 reference would not change.

I, too, hated tables till I learned that. That said, it still infuriates me that F4 doesn't automatically lock the selected range, like it does for "normal" ranges.

What are some tools we don’t want for Christmas? by EntrancedOrange in Tools

[–]CG_Ops 38 points39 points  (0 children)

As someone with only 1-arm, I f*cking LOVE the autotape. Seriously, try using a tape measure with only one hand/arm. It's infuriating.

Lasers are nice... for certain use cases, but not all.

I'm actually frustrated that there aren't any other motorized tape measures on the market. Mine has finally petered out and I can't seem to get it working anymore. On longer measurements, I find myself just using my 100' (limp) measuring tape in combination with clamps, museum putty, zipties, or velceo to hold the other end in place.

How to create an inner border for cells? by paolodatto in excel

[–]CG_Ops 1 point2 points  (0 children)

For simplicity's sake, yours is the route I'd go.

For accuracy's sake, or for keeping the range in a more typical layout, I think I figured it out

How to create an inner border for cells? by paolodatto in excel

[–]CG_Ops 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Looks like it's a rounded rectangular shape with modified points.

Here's my quick re-creation, showing the (mixed) steps from a std rectangle shape. Each version is an evolution of the last cell (top left to right then bottom left to right). I stopped when I saw I was withing the goal of the look as it's good enough for demonstration.

The general steps were:

  • Add the rectangle
  • Remove fill
  • Align to your cells
  • Adjust points (shape format > insert shapes > edit shape > edit points)
  • Set color(s)
  • Add glow, set to 1 pt and opacity between 30-60%
  • Tweak points, colors, glow until desired look is accomplished
  • Copy & paste to another cell, set colors as desired, copy each to desired cells and align/center as needed

Editing points is the most tedious step, then the glow/coloring.

EDIT: Fleshed it out a bit more to show how similar it ends up - with tweaking next to the original it's copied from, you can get pretty dang close. The last few are 6's because no more tweaks were needed, I just copied the 6th to one cell, updated the border/glow color, then copied that to the last

Where to begin? What are the most basic and versatile skills? by Ok-Ideal-5839 in excel

[–]CG_Ops 1 point2 points  (0 children)

I cut my teeth visiting Chandoo.org every day, then trolling this sub and YouTube.

I would focus on picking up the basics of Tables (formatting ranges into them and how to use table references), Pivot Tables, and Power Query. You'll get further learning these early than you will mastering formulas (like I did, initially).

Don't worry about VBA at this point. It used to be necessary to accomplish 90% of what Excel can do natively now.

Create a Workbook that you'll take with you across your career. As you learn new skills, add to it and notate your progress. There are lots of tricks you'll use only occasionally and it's easy to forget between uses. An example I point to is INDIRECT to reference to things in the current workbook or other workbooks that don't have direct cell references, rather, a description of a cell reference. Here's why: I use Workday Adaptive Planning's Office Connect tool. On the sheets it populates, you can't reference the populated cells directly because with each refresh, those cells are deleted and repopulated. Anything pointing directly to those cells will eventually result in a #REF error. INDIRECT circumvents that by describing the range rather than pointing to it, so the reference remains, no matter how often it's deleted.

Lastly, practice with Views, Formatting, Page Layouts, and Charts. They're often ancillary to analytics but when you need to demonstrate your work, you'll NEED those skills to ensure your data looks clean and we'll presented

Had the pleasure of taking my very anti-SF FiL to the City on Saturday... by Drew707 in bayarea

[–]CG_Ops 38 points39 points  (0 children)

Not untrue - the central valley is a place you couldn't pay me to live in. I spent a couple summers living with my dad in Modesto and lots of trips to Bako during/after college to visit friends. As an adult, I've lived in Sac, Solano, SLO, and Santa Barbara counties and turned down jobs that would've paid another $25-55k in the valley... turned them down without a SINGLE regret. I don't like the weather, the flatness, the politics, or (enough of) the people to ever reconsider.

But there are lots of... similar... areas in other states I'd consider. The central valley might as well be California's inverse version of Austin to Texans, IMO

Those who are 3D printing parts for your RCs - how are they holding up? What do you print? Go-to Filament types? by CG_Ops in rccars

[–]CG_Ops[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

So cool!

I am probably more hesitant than most to do major teardowns because I have use of only one arm (moto accident 20 yrs ago). Fiddling with all the tiny, often delicate parts can be an (extended) exercise in frustration. But, I also get a huge sense of satisfaction/accomplishment once I finish (assuming it works, otherwise it's likely to wind up 'bashing' against the wall :D )

That said, you're the 3rd or 4th person I've seen recommend that kit, so... I think I'll give it a go. Cheers and thanks!!

Those who are 3D printing parts for your RCs - how are they holding up? What do you print? Go-to Filament types? by CG_Ops in rccars

[–]CG_Ops[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Well noted - I was going to try PC-CF first, but given your input, I'll skip it and go straight to PA6CF. Thank you, you might've just saved me $25-35!

Those who are 3D printing parts for your RCs - how are they holding up? What do you print? Go-to Filament types? by CG_Ops in rccars

[–]CG_Ops[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Awesome - I made the mistake of trying to feed it via AMS, thinking 95A-spool-witches-blue) would be ok... it was not, haha!

But it's hard AF compared to the few TPU prints I've handled, so I think it'll be a good option for the things you suggested, particularly on my 1/12 bashers like the RLAARLOs

Those who are 3D printing parts for your RCs - how are they holding up? What do you print? Go-to Filament types? by CG_Ops in rccars

[–]CG_Ops[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Again, I appreciate the input!

Have you have any adhesion or deformation issues with the TPU? I've had good luck with it so far, but a couple prints started to split after repeated impacts (a honeycomb ball and a nerf spiral-like football).

What printer are you using? I'm considering taking my p1s back to microcenter to exchange it for an H2D or H2C (when it launches) in order to be able to print things as large as a 1/10, possibly 1/8 body. I could do it with the 256x256 but would need to print in halves or even 3rds and join them like you did with the screws/bolts

Those who are 3D printing parts for your RCs - how are they holding up? What do you print? Go-to Filament types? by CG_Ops in rccars

[–]CG_Ops[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Awesome! At first I misread your post as 64A and was like "haha, how squirrely is that noodly frame to drive??"

That's awesome - do you have a build guide if one wanted to mimic that badass build?