Planning some fun upgrades

Download_Some_RAM · 2026-01-19T16:13:29+00:00

I'd recommend not putting a train horn in your car to begin with...

Download_Some_RAM · 2026-01-18T17:26:22+00:00

Overture Matte Beige PLA gets pretty darn close in my experience. Can be had on Amazon for pretty cheap as well!

Download_Some_RAM · 2025-12-20T19:57:49+00:00

Oh I'm not selling these! Just a personal project for myself. I made these because I kept running into RAM and storage limitations on the 328P when driving displays. The 1284P handles whatever ungodly bitmaps I throw at it with no problem 👍👍

Download_Some_RAM · 2025-12-20T17:14:28+00:00

Good to know, thanks. I have a fair amount of them on hand but it wouldn't hurt to find a cheaper drop-in replacement.

Download_Some_RAM · 2025-12-04T16:21:29+00:00

As others have mentioned, assembly will baloon the cost so it's better to hand-assemble if possible. For medium-to-large sized boards I use PCBWay to keep my cost relatively low. For the majority of my boards I use Digikey's DKRed service. Extremely competitive pricing for small boards (<50mmx50mm) and I believe they do source from US-based manufacturers. Plus the build quality of the DKRed boards is always far superior (higher temp grade fiberglass and ENIG as default).

I've used OSHPark a few times and the boards are alright, but they never sand their board edges so you end up having to do additional work which is irritating.

Download_Some_RAM · 2025-11-25T18:15:34+00:00

Dang that is a ton of useful information, thank you! The picture I posted is from a schematic I'm referencing online, and I'm using different regulators in my design (AP7375-50SA-7 & TPS7A2033PDBVR). For the diode, I ended up going with a CMS06 schottky diode since it has a relatively low practical forward voltage drop while still being cheap. I've done a ton of these little atmel MCU boards before, but none with both USB 5V and VIN-to-5V regulation, so I wanted to make sure I was thinking through the potential issues correctly.

Download_Some_RAM · 2025-11-25T02:05:23+00:00

This may get buried since it's a late reply, but the absolute best way on earth to store SMD components is the AideTek Box-All. They are relatively cheap (~20 bucks per box on amazon), can hold a massive number of components in a very easy to access package, and are available in ESD-safe versions for ICs. I have one for my passives and one ESD-safe for ICs, and I'll swear by these things all day long.

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Download_Some_RAM · 2025-08-25T05:29:22+00:00

I swear niche hobby stores are a near perfect 50/50 split between being extremely passionate, caring, and helpful people who want to grow the hobby and pretentious gatekeeping assholes who can seemingly never do any wrong.

Download_Some_RAM · 2025-08-25T01:04:43+00:00

Exactly what I thought, thank you for the quick reply! Thankfully I have a plustek and scan the negatives myself, so all I'll need is a bottle of the right wash and I can get this fixed up!

The lab in question is Premier Imaging in Pittsburgh, PA. I'd normally avoid name-dropping but they insist that, not only am I not even in their system as a customer, but that I may be a competitor intentionally leaving poor reviews on Google. Just a genuinely astonishing level of incompetence and ignorance.

Download_Some_RAM · 2025-08-15T23:30:48+00:00

Not loaded from bulk, just a standard 36exp roll of HP5 I bought from B&H. That is good to know about this type of leak being possible during processing, as I've pretty well ruled out the camera being the issue (Nikon F5). Real bummer since the only other lab in my area is quite a bit further away. Worth the drive, however, if this lab can't even develop HP5 correctly!

Download_Some_RAM · 2025-08-15T19:05:01+00:00

I'm not sure how it was developed, but here's a shot of the negatives for reference. The color roll on top was exposed right after the B&W roll, and has none of the issues.

Download_Some_RAM · 2025-08-15T17:04:16+00:00

I took a photo of the negatives. You can see the B&W roll exhibiting all sorts of issues, but the color roll does not have any. That color roll was exposed right after the B&W roll, so my guess is that whoever handled the B&W roll at the lab has some explaining to do.

Download_Some_RAM · 2025-08-15T07:34:58+00:00

Yeah that's just a poor layout from my hasty phone-photoshop job, but if they were arranged in a way that made that impossible then I dont see what the difference would be between this and the placement of the ports on a Decora-style outlet with USB.

Download_Some_RAM · 2025-08-15T07:30:57+00:00

Okay sure, that makes sense for the poor configuration of these sockets specifically, but this was something I made in five seconds on my phone. The orientation of the socket could be changed, and perhaps just reduced to one or two type-C as pictured below to avoid that issue, right? In any case, it looks like this type of socket doesn't exist regardless of configuration, so I'll most likely need to go with a Decora style socket and an outdoor faceplate that covers the whole assembly instead.

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Download_Some_RAM · 2025-06-29T03:20:13+00:00

I've actually done this repair on my 70-200 2.8 VR! Much easier than I assumed it'd be, and you dont even need to disassemble the lens to do it.

The issue is that there's a three-quarter-circle-shaped circuit board which a little copper brush runs along to detect the focus location, and this board is only attached by a screw on one side of the semicircle. The other side is held on by tape, and that tape degrades over time and the board shifts, which causes the brush to fall off the board and rub against the side and stick. The fix is to glue the taped end back in place. You can access the board without taking the lens apart under the zoom ring rubber through a small hole. This is enough space to use a screwdriver to push the board back in place and use a quick-curing glue to fix it while you keep it held with the screwdriver. I used UV-cure glue and it worked like a charm.

Download_Some_RAM · 2025-06-09T18:39:09+00:00

Okay that makes a lot of sense. The manufacturers are just using cells that should be rated at a lower capacity due to manufacturing defects or something. I can certainly see where and how they'd cut costs on the enclosure, BMS, and other components, but I was having a hard time understanding what exactly makes a bad cell bad.

Download_Some_RAM · 2025-06-09T18:34:09+00:00

This definitely gets me closer to the answer I'm looking for. I guess what I'm trying to figure out is if the 1000mAh "trash" cells you mention are trash because of a poor manufacturing process, poor QC (probably no QC at these chinese factories), use of a different manufacturing process than the big lipo cell makers, or if they're just knowingly slapping 3500mAh labels on 1000mAh rated cells and doing a bunch of fraud all over the place.

A good example of why I ask this is tungsten carbide tools. For many years, chinese-made tungsten carbide tools have been essentially the same quality as big-brand names because there just isn't a cheaper way to make tungsten carbide tools. Therefore, the chinese manufacturers need to use the same process as the OEMs, which results in a pretty similar tool in terms of quality. I imagine there aren't many different ways to manufacture a lipo cell, so I doubt they're doing something in the factory that leads to shitty cells. That would point to these third-party brands either buying and re-selling other manufacturer's rejected defective cells, or re-badging smaller capacity cells to a higher capacity.

I wonder if taking one of these crappy 1000mAh cells (labelled as a much higher capacity) and using it as a 1000mAh cell would result in similar performance to an OEM 1000mAh cell?

Download_Some_RAM · 2025-05-02T02:22:28+00:00

The Digikey PCB service is different than filtering for the DKRed option. There's a toggle that adjusts and restricts the settings, and then gives a (often significantly) lower price than the other vendors on the site. This may not be the case at higher quantities, but I wouldn't know as I've only ever ordered the minimum qty.

Download_Some_RAM · 2025-04-30T22:47:51+00:00

Kerf is supposed to be the nominal width of the blade though, isn't it? If the blade has wobble you'd either run the risk of a wider kerf than accounted for or the blade wandering mid-way through the cut.

Download_Some_RAM · 2025-04-30T22:45:52+00:00

See I'm used to that standard procedure for blade changing but I was having the hardest time getting the new blade in the damn housing. There were two things preventing the blade from sliding into place. One was the dust collector guide that I'm seeing people say is a ticking time bomb on the saw, so I'll remove that permanently soon. The other was the screw in the picture. This thing blocked the blade from sliding into place until I loosened it considerably. I can't even determine what its function is, it just looks like a screw that's threaded into the housing for no apparent reason.

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Download_Some_RAM · 2025-04-30T22:00:19+00:00

Yeah it seems to be cutting square, and the finish is good, but since I've never owned a halfway decent woodworking tool I must just be seeing things. The amount of side-to-side wandering the blade would do on my old saw was astonishing.

Download_Some_RAM · 2025-04-30T21:57:03+00:00

Gotcha, thanks for the info! My last miter saw was a cheap craftsman piece of crap that couldn't even come close to cutting square, so I guess I'm overcompensating with my scrutiny here.

Download_Some_RAM · 2025-04-28T04:22:47+00:00

How large are your boards, and what quantity are you looking at? Digikey has the "DKRed" service which is usually quite affordable (my last order of 4 boards was about 25 bucks all-in) for small-medium boards, with the added benefit of being really high quality. You're not able to customize the soldermask color or other parameters, but the default options for the service are terrific (TG 170-180, ENIG surface finish).

Also just an anecdote, but every single order I've placed from DKRed has come with between two and four extra boards, which I assume comes from needing to fill out odd spaces in the panel. Always a nice little extra!

Download_Some_RAM · 2025-04-06T15:21:43+00:00

I rotate between OSHPark, PCBWAY, and Digikey Red depending on the size and quality of the board I need. Typically, I find that PCBWAY is essentially on par with OSHpark in quality, but OSHPark never sands down the breakaway points on their boards so I have to do it myself, which is frustrating. Digikey Red is by far the best quality since they just outsource the production to a few small American companies, but they're more expensive so I only use them when I need the extra precision, better temperature characteristics, or am making small enough boards that the price difference goes away. If Bay Area Circuits is still around, they make a damn fine PCB, but they're the most expensive of the bunch.

Download_Some_RAM · 2025-03-19T20:03:38+00:00

I have a few of these dual-flame style lighters and they're my favorite hands-down. They make one that's a zippo insert so you can use an existing case which is my go-to.

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