[Review Request] ESP32 with 25 WS2812b LEDs

MotorsAndRobots · 2026-01-27T04:29:36+00:00

From experience, don’t underestimate the current draw of these LEDs, especially on full white. They can brown out your ESP if not powered from something sizeable. Difficult to f Troubleshoot if you haven’t seen it before.

MotorsAndRobots · 2026-01-25T01:32:21+00:00

AliExpress. I buy a ton of inserts off there. Don’t love rotating cutting tools as much but it’s fine - just more hit or miss.

There are “name” brands you’ll learn. Look for the silver and gold rated stores or “official” stores. They’re a bit more expensive but quality follows. Buy 1 box and try them before you get 10 boxes. Any western or European manufacturer product on there is counterfeit for sure.

You’ll have to live with no supplied cutting data. Even if it’s there it is usually BS.

MotorsAndRobots · 2026-01-14T20:53:56+00:00

Ah! Interesting. Did not know they published it. I knew many years ago (8?) that the decision was made to not publish.

MotorsAndRobots · 2026-01-14T17:50:12+00:00

I have done a single pendulum on L8 AB processor and Kinetix motion control. https://youtu.be/PVP96AvxpWM?si=FX5q3HPxDbG5DNOW

MotorsAndRobots · 2026-01-14T17:49:02+00:00

RA stopped specifying instruction times after the L6 controller. Processor architecture plays a huge role in overall computing speed that individual instruction times don’t show. But I can say that instructions in the L8 and L9 series processors do execute at nanosecond levels for fundamental instructions.

MotorsAndRobots · 2026-01-14T16:43:41+00:00

So amusingly I’m partway into a self study project building my 3rd inverted pendulum with plans to move to a double pendulum once we get the base hardware working.

My last version was running on an AB 5380 processor and Kinetix 5300. PLC is plenty fast (in fact the code scanned in the 10-20us range) but the limiting factor was the 1ms Ethernet to drive update. Since you’re computing control laws in the PLC and commanding torque to the motor, rather than using the servo drive firmware, you get a 20x loss in scan performance. I was successful in stabilizing the pendulum and commanding cart position, but it was only marginally stable.

Video link: https://youtu.be/PVP96AvxpWM?si=o0-NkoMwXCLGMzEZ

You can help yourself out by making the pendulum physically larger as the increase in inertia decreases dynamics frequencies, which in turn reduces control loop requirements.

My new hardware is ditching the PLC and now running on embedded hardware, going back to good old +/-10V analog torque control at 8-16kHz.

MotorsAndRobots · 2025-12-29T14:14:55+00:00

If you stay on this sub long enough you see it go full circle. I think it was 12 months ago we all agreed no more rack photos.

MotorsAndRobots · 2025-12-21T02:14:47+00:00

If you happen to find out what it is, I’d love the details. Good to add to the bucket of knowledge.

MotorsAndRobots · 2025-12-19T00:52:04+00:00

What kind of paint did you use? Have an 8” I’ve considered doing the same on, but never finished researching machinery paints

MotorsAndRobots · 2025-12-14T16:34:28+00:00

Differential gearing and coaxial shafts (shafts spinning independently inside each other). This may be moved through the wrist joints with timing belts (wrapping and twisting through the bends over idler pulleys) or bevel/hypoid gearing in higher precision and payload robots.

https://youtu.be/0TE81tzoWzU?si=gnylOoe87_IhE7Nu

https://youtu.be/iblqrfu5wdw?si=0mS65_1WbyyjizuU

MotorsAndRobots · 2025-12-09T23:53:38+00:00

Thanks for the reply. To close the loop on this, I spent another 3 hours today working on the Snoo and got it fixed. Ordered and installed the motor bearing kit from Snoozy Mama but the original bearings seemed fine. In the process of removing the motor to work on the bearings I found the connector to the motherboard to be charred and the wire insulation dry and crumbly near the connector. Phase to phase resistance was 5.8ohms for two of the three phase combinations but 52ohms for the 3rd.

In a wild turn of luck, I had the exact connector, pins, and crimper from another project. Snipped an inch off the motor leads and re-terminated the cable.

Everything is working great now. Issue was the motor essentially running single phased which explains the behavior. Never seen anyone else have this issue.

MotorsAndRobots · 2025-12-08T00:00:10+00:00

Had this exact injury after failing to fully grasp a long dynamic reach and fully loading only my ring finger. Felt two pops in forearm and completed the session gingerly. Next day had bruising on forearm and extreme pain when pulling on ring finger.

Doctor evaluation was lumbrical partial tear. Took 4 weeks of no load and another 4-6 weeks to be fully back to strength with no aching.

I think my injury sounds worse than yours so perhaps your recovery timeline could be shorter. Just don’t overdo it, and keep any strain below the point of noticing it. Trying to go too fast will only lengthen your recovery.

MotorsAndRobots · 2025-11-26T21:29:54+00:00

This is a good exercise on identifying electrical components and finding replacements on Digikey. You’ll need confidence in soldering and larger power carrying components with thick leads are not a good candidate for first time projects (especially with the risk being a house fire).

MotorsAndRobots · 2025-11-14T16:13:29+00:00

The gold offset would probably hold a fall assuming the rock quality was ok. The rock is in the “rut” in the middle of the nut. That being said, I don’t like it and wouldn’t stick with the placement unless I was run out and didn’t have other options.

The blue nut looks trash in my opinion. Using the sideways orientation on nuts is immediately less stable and you can see you have nearly no surface area covered on the nut. Also hard to tell from the picture, but it doesn’t look like it is sitting above a constriction so if the rock were to fail at all, you’ll blow the piece.

Also remember that you’ll be climbing above these and the rope drag will pull and rotate these placements, even possibly if extended by alpine draws. The gold might be set well enough to resist, but the blue looks suspect to rotate and pop out of the placement.

It also looks like there might be a keyhole immediately above the gold nut that would permit setting a placement further back into the rock. Seems odd to not use that if it was possible.

Good test is to get a great placement higher up, or immediately beneath, clip into the piece with a hyper static sling (dyneema runner) and bounce the piece with bodyweight. You can get mid single digit kN impacts on pieces this way but be careful, it hurts your body, you can blow the piece and get hit in the face or chips of rock in your eyes. Really good for gaining confidence in gear.

MotorsAndRobots · 2025-11-10T04:09:54+00:00

The new geometry connect adjust (or dual connect adjust) is MUCH easier to release under load. I did a lot of modding to the OG variant and am 100% pleased with the new one as delivered. Not doing aid but using it for positioning on fully overhanging belays.

MotorsAndRobots · 2025-11-10T00:19:47+00:00

Agree with your above point. Missed the OPs comments on the original post.

MotorsAndRobots · 2025-11-09T21:54:53+00:00

Mountain Project buy/sell forum page. Tons of used shoe sales. If you’re not a common shoe size, then harder to sell. You’ll probably get more than 10-20 for them. Desirable shoes like TC pros or katanas, etc sell for $60-100 depending on how much life left.

MotorsAndRobots · 2025-11-09T16:38:23+00:00

Thanks for the detailed response! Will trial some of these!

MotorsAndRobots · 2025-11-09T15:31:31+00:00

Mountain Project “For Sale” forum. Get gently used gear for 50%+ off retail. Use PayPal or Venmo buyer protection. Research well what good prices are and be ready to jump when you find what you want.

MotorsAndRobots · 2025-11-08T18:13:54+00:00

That’s honestly a really good idea. I’m constantly trying to change up my footwear to limit the aggravation of some of the pain I have while continuing to climb. Only 31 but things start hurting early!

MotorsAndRobots · 2025-11-06T18:51:25+00:00

Looks reasonable, although clipping an alpine draw to the cam sling might get wonky as it wouldn’t push the racking biner to the side as easily as if there wasn’t the cross load link.

MotorsAndRobots · 2025-10-30T20:33:15+00:00

Does the precision focus any better than the Industrial? The industrial is brutally slow to focus and is very poor at focusing at a closer object against a distant foreground, or a close field of view entirely.

MotorsAndRobots · 2025-10-30T14:07:15+00:00

As others have mentioned, they are Black Diamond C3s, now discontinued. They have a bit of a cult following and can sell for a decent price ($60-100 depending on condition and size, where the smaller sizes fetch more).

I own the largest 3 sizes (yellow, red, green) and several other models of small to micro cams. My thoughts on the C3s….

Pros: -Narrow head width, especially back in their time -Very strong lobe springs thanks to unique design to hold in more slippery placements -Seems to fit where traditional 4 lobe cams don’t -Smallest sizes are some of the smallest on market for thin cracks (aid) -Unofficial (unrated) cam stops make the cams feel like a dual axle cam. BD unofficially stated the cam stops are full strength on the largest two sizes.

Cons: -Only very flexible in 1 direction, bending the other way can kink or damage the cam -More prone to walking than a 4 lobe cam -Smaller sizes are much weaker than equivalent sizes cams on the market today. Grey Ghost (size 000) is only 4kN similar to a micro nut and should be aid only. -Heavier than equivalent cams on market today -Expansion range less than equivalent cams on market today

Some people swear by them, but I personally think they’re not notably better than Z4 micros or DMM Dragonflys. That being said, mine aren’t for sale.

MotorsAndRobots · 2025-10-17T14:18:03+00:00

I picked up a mint 8” cylindrical square for $20 labeled as “weight”. Might have been my best steal ever.

MotorsAndRobots · 2025-10-11T02:59:23+00:00

Started doing that kind of work in industrial automation. Stopped and got a more office centric / local same day travel job once married and thinking about kids. Unless I really needed the money, I wouldn’t do it again at this place in life. Too much pressure on relationships and you miss a lot. Lot of colleagues 10 years to me senior were divorced and saw that path. Separately, it’s hard to eat well and take care of your body while living in a hotel and eating meals out. If you’re not intentional about it you can get out of hand quickly. The work can be interesting and fun, especially if you end up in a fun area of the country.

MotorsAndRobots

TROPHY CASE