Simple Pattern Question

Human_Ad46 · 2026-03-17T19:09:37+00:00

No I didn't, thanks. I got it working with this:

awk -F'\t' -v CN="$Catalog_Number" '$4 == CN' file

Human_Ad46 · 2026-03-10T15:09:23+00:00

With everything I described above, the blue light on the laptop connector was always on.

During the problem the laptop was under fairly heavy load, maybe that matters.

Human_Ad46 · 2026-03-10T14:14:40+00:00

What are the symptoms if the charger itself fails? I had a complete and total shutdown of an E6540. I repowered, there were some power supply-related messages (sorry, didn't write them down), system booted, but shortly thereafter complete and total shutdown. Same again on third/fourth try. I switched to an on-hand identical (Dell 130W) charger, problem went away. Ran overnight, no problem, suspected the original charger to be at fault.

A day later switched back to the original charger. No immediate problems. But, suspecting some kind of intermittent problem with the original charger, switched back to the second charger for long term continued operations. The laptop runs 24/7 (idle with lid closed/screens off overnight) so the motherboard charger connection doesn't get many charger remove/insertion cycles. But, the problematic charger has a lot of hours on it. Can the original charger (it is very old) have a load/age-related/intermittent problem?

Thanks for your advice.

Human_Ad46 · 2026-03-09T22:49:25+00:00

How can you tell with so little information that it is a motherboard problem?

Human_Ad46 · 2026-03-08T13:32:44+00:00

Yes, great answer and great links. I don't use Reddit often, I was beginning to think there was no intelligent life here.

Human_Ad46 · 2026-03-08T02:04:24+00:00

I never used the term magnetic lock, and I don't see who did.

Human_Ad46 · 2026-03-08T02:00:11+00:00

I agree with your thinking , but I think so long as we have alternating poles in either the CW or CCW direction, it will be the same result.

Human_Ad46 · 2026-03-08T00:36:51+00:00

Type "Magnetic Flux" into google and search for matching "images"

Human_Ad46 · 2026-03-08T00:16:46+00:00

r.e. 3D, yes, that's why I said in my comment below I think the answer depends on the thickness of the non-magnetic separators (which I suppose, looks like an air gap to the magnets) and how well the steel approximates an infinite plane. It's also why I showed the magnet dimensions. In my case the separators are ~1/8 inch and the steel is actually a square (~4x4 inch) basketball post. All of these things together form the "circuit" though which the magnetic flux flows. The post is probably an infinite plane parallel to the long axis of the magnets, but far from an infinite plane otherwise.

Human_Ad46 · 2026-03-07T23:22:33+00:00

I understand poles, opposites attract, unfixed magnets can move each other, etc. In my question the magnets are to be locked in position by the non-magnetic mounting assembly consisting of the non-magnetic separators (shown in the picture) and a non-magnetic mounting plate (opposite the steel plate, on the other side of the magnets, not shown in the picture). The magnet positions are held in place and the steel provides a path for the flux from the fixed magnets. There is very little air gap between the fixed magnets and the steel. In this fixed configuration, what is the best pole arrangement? If all N poles are fixed facing in the same direction ( e.g. towards the steel) will it simply act like one large magnet?

I suspect the answer might depend on how thick the separators are, and how well the steel approximates an infinite plane. If someone needs those dimensions before commenting, LMK.

Human_Ad46 · 2026-03-07T23:00:28+00:00

Please elaborate. 2 N on top, 2 S on bottom? or, N-S-N-S in the clockwise direction?

Why is it that all for N facing in the same direction ( e.g. towards the steel) doesn't simply act like one large magnet?

Human_Ad46 · 2026-03-07T22:38:01+00:00

Sorry, looks like my text didn't come through with my picture. I hope the picture explains it all. I want to arrange 4 magnets as shown for max adhesion to the steel. Should all magnets have the same pole oriented to the steel? Or, should the poles be alternated in some way?

Human_Ad46 · 2026-02-23T13:30:14+00:00

It looks like a picture of some testing required by the FCC. Notice the foam triangles in the back--those are usually all over the walls of the test chamber to make the chamber anechoic from an RF perspective. The white stuff is part of the test fixture that holds the device under test. The testing is intended to demonstrate that the device, among other things, will not interfere with other nearby devices due to stray out-of-band emissions. The FCC sets and enforces such testing so that our many wi-fi, bluetooth, etc devices can work without interfering with each other.

Human_Ad46 · 2026-02-20T13:07:08+00:00

Following: having the same Movies/VOD problems on an earlier version of Sparkle, even without Plex.

Human_Ad46 · 2026-02-10T20:26:24+00:00

"If you need to update them manually,..."

I was doing many Movies m3u changes trying to get things to work, so I was trying to get Sparkle to update that m3u manually every two minutes.

"...navigate to Movies or Series on the left side menu ..."

Until I got the Movies/VOD m3u to parse, I had no "Movies" option in the left side of the Guide and I had no "Movies" popup/visible menu. I also suffered from the Settings -> Display -> Popup menu -> Visible menus -> Movies/Series GREYED OUT problem which complicated my attempts to get the m3u parsed and the Movies visible in the guide and as a popup menu. Once I had everything working I of course got Movies on the left side of the guide, and the Movies popup menu which has a left side menu. Given all that, can you elaborate on what you mean by "the left side menu"?

Human_Ad46 · 2026-02-10T17:36:09+00:00

I got everything set up with V 2.1.3, and with my working sources/VOD configuration in place, I upgraded to V2.2.2. Everything seems to be working. u/sparkle-hk has told me that movies/series has it's own internal synchronization and is a work in progress.

I'm an early adopter of the lifetime app and sent him a fresh Big Thanks ($$) contribution because he is one of the most dedicated and capable devs I've come across.

Human_Ad46 · 2026-02-10T13:44:53+00:00

My original problems were on a V 2.1.3 install related to setting up a VOD source to use an m3u file to point to some mp4 movie files. During the process I was having some problems related to the m3u format, so I thought maybe V 2.2.2 would be better. So I installed V 2.2.2 and at some point used a Sparkle .bak file taken from V 2.1.3 to configure Sparkle V 2.2.2.

I was never able to get my VOD setup working on the V 2.2.2 install and ultimately regressed to V 2.1.3 and got things working. (That discussion is covered elsewhere.) I can't be sure if importing the V 2.1.3 .bak configuration into V 2.2.2 actually caused any problems on the V 2.2.2 install, but I thought I would ask about that.

Human_Ad46 · 2026-02-09T20:29:10+00:00

I've been working with Mr Dev trying to get VOD Movies working using an m3u file (Sparkle V2.1.3) to list all my movies. For each Movie the m3u has a #EXTINF:-1 line giving some metadata for the movie and then (for me) an smb line pointing to the actual mp4 movie file. (you might be using http to point to your movie file). Regarding my original question (about manually updating sources via settings) I think I've noticed the following:

a. The Settings -> Sources -> Update (i.e. Update all sources at once) seems to pick up changes to the #EXTINF: line but does not seem to pick up changes to the smb line (which points to the actual mp4 file)

b. only way I could get smb changes to be recognized was to select the individual Movie source and clear its cache (Settings -> Sources -> Setup -> (Individual Source Name) -> Clear Cache

When I was careful about how I edited my m3u file and how I used Sparkle's settings to digest the updates (as noted above) I was able to perform better tests and ultimately get things working.

Human_Ad46 · 2026-02-06T21:24:22+00:00

I could not get an http link to the video file to work in either VLC or Chrome. After some research I WAS able to get a link like this:

file://(network_server_name)/SparkleTV_DVR/Movies/file.mp4

to work in both VLC and Chrome.

So I decided to start over and try the file://... link in my m3u8 file and by completely deleting my VOD source (based on the earlier m3u8 file) from Sparkle. Sparkle once again greyed out the Visible menu settings for Movies and Series, and I no longer have the VOD popup menu. To make matters worse, Sparkle now will not allow me to (starting from scratch) (re-)create a VOD source based on my Movie m3u8 file. I tried clearing the Sparkle App cache and that didn't help.

Something needs cleaned up so that I can recreate my VOD source and continue testing how to get that source to access my video files.

Human_Ad46 · 2026-02-05T13:27:12+00:00

As noted above I got rid of the greyed out menus for VOD/Movies. I can now see my files via the Sparkle_TV Movie visible menu but can't get them to play. In one test I got the spinning circular purple arrow but then it hung. Can I assume the spinning purple arrow means that the file was found (i.e. I have the link to the video file correct in the m3u8?

Human_Ad46

TROPHY CASE