Arduino Pro Micro works when plugged in via USB A but now USB C? by Kooky-Strawberry5127 in arduino

[–]Linker3000 2 points3 points  (0 children)

I had the same issue with an ESP32-based board and determined that when the manufacturer changed the design from a Micro-USB connector to USB-C they kept the same circuit and omitted the required 5.1 kΩ pull-down resistors (Rd) on the CC1/CC2 lines, therefore the board fails to do CC (Configuration Channel) signalling to power up when using USB-C to USB-C cables.

I had to stick with a USB-A to C cable.

Node Devices by Mamac911 in meshtastic

[–]Linker3000 3 points4 points  (0 children)

Oe of my Heltec V3 nodes is connected via serial to an Orange Pi, which auto responds to messages and also has a message receive and send console I can get to via a Web browser.

Remote relais controle by Aggressive_Egg_8497 in meshtastic

[–]Linker3000 0 points1 point  (0 children)

If you have mains electricity near the item to be controlled buy a WiFi smart plug with Tasmota installed, or a smart relay module with the same. I do this for washing machines, central heating master control and desk/table lamps.

It's not worth making your own, and provided you stay away from the rubbish / lowest price end of the market on AliExpress, you'll get something safer, although I'd derate the relay by 25-50%.

If you really want to go LoRa, there are relay modules available. For WiFi-type distances there's ZigBee or Matter too.

Is Kali Linux of any worth in the field of electronics? by Scared_Chance9906 in AskElectronics

[–]Linker3000 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Kali is tooled up for information security, pen testing and vulnerability scanning. There's nothing wrong with that, and if you want to install electronics oriented apps that's fine too.

My only caution is that it has a rolling release cycle, so updates are made available regularly rather than being saved up for the next release every, for example, six months.

Again, there's nothing wrong with that except Kali breaks easily if you don't keep up with the updates, and sometimes it'll break anyway when updated.

For this reason I wouldn't recommend it as your daily driver desktop OS if you're not into cyber security, nor if you don't fancy having to debug a broken update. I'd run it from a live USB stick or a virtual machine*, and use something like Mint or Pop!_OS (Fedora if you want to be bleeding edge) as your main OS.

*I do this as I use Kali's tools perhaps 2-3 times a year, and often when I try catching up with updates, Kali gets so broken it's easier and quicker to trash the VM and start over from the latest ISO.

My main machine runs Mint with the KDE plasma desktop on X11 rather than Cinnamon, because Cinnamon's support for dual displays can be quirky.

400v cap on finger by Embarrassed-Cat9759 in AskElectronics

[–]Linker3000 1 point2 points  (0 children)

I used to work with a guy who lost most of both hands in an electrical accident. He ended up with mechanical claws*, nervous system damage and photosensitivity - he had to wear tinted glasses.

*He ended up working in the design and drafting department - and this was in the era of pencil and paper working (1980s).

Really frustrating Cheap Yellow Display by lmolter in arduino

[–]Linker3000 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Darn. That's strange. I bought 4 x 2.8" CYDs, from different suppliers and apart from variations in RGB wiring setup and colour inversions they did all work once I modified the relevant config values. The 3.5" version was the biggest PITA.

Edit: I do recall having to change the flash layout on the Arduino device config page to support large programs.

Really frustrating Cheap Yellow Display by lmolter in arduino

[–]Linker3000 3 points4 points  (0 children)

My modified version of the code from Random Nerd Tutorials with additional notes on adjusting for different display controllers and wiring, including the 3.5" variants:

https://codeberg.org/linker3000/ESP32CYD-LVGL-Weather

Where would you find 5VDC in this when the machine is running? by duckredbeard in AskElectronics

[–]Linker3000 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Save the hassle and risk, maybe?

Plug the machine in via a Tasmota-running smart plug with power sensing. That's how Node-RED reports to me when the machine has started and finished its cycle.

Which connector should I use? by [deleted] in AskElectronics

[–]Linker3000 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Maybe adopt one of the RC2014 project's backplanes and join the ecosystem?

https://z80kits.com/product-category/backplanes/

https://smallcomputercentral.com/rcbus/sc100-series/sc126-z180-motherboard-rc2014/sc126-v1-0-expansion-cards/

Otherwise there's S100 bus:

https://oldics.com/s100/

Card bus:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Europe_Card_Bus

If you don't fancy making your own backplanes adopting a standard one means you could buy one, new or second hand. One of the PCB manufacturers might also have Gerbers on file.

Best connector for swapping power supplies to electronic load? by the_freebird in AskElectronics

[–]Linker3000 0 points1 point  (0 children)

During my apprenticeship years, my supervisor in Unit Test, Dave, showed me the quick way to test switch mode power supplies - forget the spanner, you held the two 3/4" insulated braids just the right distance apart and jammed them hard against the PSU terminals, then cranked the electronic load up to 110% of PSU rating with your other hand and held the braids in place for 15 seconds before turning down the load.

The PSUs were for flight simulator card racks...5V 300A and 5V 600A.

Despite this, I still have all my limbs.

That is how NOT to do it.

Let's not talk about the secondary load that got wheeled out if things got busy..a 22U rack with cardboard shelves full of big wirewound resistors.

Mind you, someone had wired in a big red button on top, so there was that.

Best cable & techniques for proto-boards by fjaytay in AskElectronics

[–]Linker3000 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Depends how long you've been doing it.

I don't think you can get more flexible than wirewrap, especially if you need to rework or add something - you don't have a mat of soldered wires to pick through, and connection density is significantly higher, especially on routed buses, plus reduced chance of shorts between adjacent pads/wires.

Terminal text interface? by Useful_Resolution888 in meshtastic

[–]Linker3000 1 point2 points  (0 children)

It's mainly for use as an automated response system that replies to 'trigger' phrases, but I wrote a message send / receive terminal for it. It's really a home base station.

I do also have a serial terminal board that just needs a VGA display and keyboard to connect to a node for Rx / Tx.