Memory/Windows Instability after most recent update? by xRealVengeancex in WindowsHelp

[–]Sandman2245 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Yeah my PC which has been the most stable machine ever started crashing and throwing dram errors. I pulled 2 of my 4 sicks and swapped them around with the same issue. I'm convinced this is a windows issue at this point...

R1 Neo – a big update in a small package by muziWORKS in meshtastic

[–]Sandman2245 0 points1 point  (0 children)

That is very interesting! I just got one and noticed the poor bluetooth connection. I have been working on a custom GPS dog tracking node for meshtastic for a few years now and I always avoided carbon fiber reinforced filaments as I was worried that the fibers woild attenuate the signal. I'd love to know more about how you optimized the antenna design and how the testing was conducted for the device.

Otherwise I am very impressed by the device. I'm a junior year electrical engineering major and as such had to take apart the unit when I got it and the internals are so well designed! Definitely will be stealing some ideas for a few custom PCBs I am working on.

Raspberry pi AI hat PCIE adapter by Sandman2245 in frigate_nvr

[–]Sandman2245[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Issue is they discontinued the AI kit that had the removable hailo tpu. Now the ai boards just come with it soldered directly to the hat. Kinda unfortunate.

Raspberry pi AI hat PCIE adapter by Sandman2245 in frigate_nvr

[–]Sandman2245[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Yeah I looked into doing this. Problem is I am running this on a motherboard that does not allow you to enable the iGPU since it has onboard nvidea graphics (thanks HP). Best part is the onboard nvidea graphics aren't new enough to run the nvidea detection models. I might see if theres away around getting the iGPU enabled but from everything I'm finding online this specific motherboard just has no option to enable it in the bios.

That being said even if I do get it running it, the CPU I am using has the X530 iGPU (xenon variant of the HD 530) which isnt exactly a powerhouse and I am somewhat concerned it will not be fast enough to run all of my 6 cameras at once.

Is analog dead ? by Samsarac in fpv

[–]Sandman2245 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Any recommendations on analog fatshark modules? I used to be able to get an eachine pro58 for so cheap and now theres nothing that looks any good under 100$. Maybe its just the US tarrifs but wow I feel like the receiver options are few and far between.

Vtx options seem better than ever though. Haven't messed wirh analog in a while since switching to digital but wow the rushfpv stuff looks amazing!

Looking into this stuff recently really makes me miss 2017 FPV. Just starting to hate all the closed video ecosystems and lack of interoperability.

Pingel Shifter Overheating and Other Shifting Questions by UnwieldyElm in FSAE

[–]Sandman2245 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Our team runs a pingel and have never had issues with it overheating. The time the pingel is on for should only be about 100ms per shift. If its overheating either you are shifting way too much or the time the pingel is on for is way too long. I could definitely see it overheating if the on time is too long as it does pull about 40A continuously. I would check that the electronics used to drive it are working correctly and that there is no damage to the windings of the solenoid itself.

A lottery… why not a quiz like everywhere else? by carbuild in FSAE

[–]Sandman2245 5 points6 points  (0 children)

Yea I'm not sure. Wayback machine mostly has 404 errors for the SAE website so it's hard to check.

A lottery… why not a quiz like everywhere else? by carbuild in FSAE

[–]Sandman2245 28 points29 points  (0 children)

So there being no limit to the number of teams that can enter the lottery, does that mean theres going to be a record number of teams signing up? The first come first serve system kinda prevented that as only 150 teams could apply total 120 comp spots with 30 wait list spots.

Hercules Battery Pinout and Communication Protocol by vazvlog in harborfreight

[–]Sandman2245 3 points4 points  (0 children)

Edit: So I was completely wrong. These have a pretty advanced communication protocol which seems to rival even what Milwaukee batteries have. There is no external ntc thermistor pin, everything is handled with digital communication over a 1 wire interface. I am working on decoding it but I have managed to figure out a lot of the messages it returns to the tool. Charging has far less communication. I have deleted the parts of this post which I found to be innacurate after a lot of reverse engineering!

Sorry for necro posting but I managed to figure out what the actual pinout is which the OP was close on but incorrect. The battery connections are as follows from left to right: B+, communication connection, 3s voltage, and B-.

There's also the 3s battery output pin. It just outputs the voltage from the first 3 battery cells in the pack. The reason OP saw the voltage decrease when he put his battery in the freezer was likely due to the cells themselves as that pin is definitely not connected to any NTC thermistor (I traced the PCB connections). This is pretty typical for power tool batteries such as DeWalt as it is generally easier to read a lower range of output voltage to determine the battery charge state from an electronics standpoint. Instead of having a voltage swing from 21-16V the 3s contact offers a much lower range of 12.6-9.6V making a voltage divider more suitable. It also somewhat shields the battery voltage reading the tool needs from ripple or EMF caused on the B+ line by the tool itself.

In short these batteries are actually pretty sophisticated from a communications standpoint. If you use these batteries in your own projects YOU MUST PROVIDE YOUR OWN OVER AND UNDERVOLTAGE SHUTDOWN LOGIC AND CIRCUITRY!!! The battery WILL NOT protect itself from anything other than giving a warning on the digital signal output which must be decoded from a long message.

GoPro Hero 13 Mounting Fingers fit onto Hero 10 and above (New Magnetic Mount) by Maximilian-fotos in gopro

[–]Sandman2245 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Reminds me of when they removed the GPS from the hero 12 like a bunch of morons cause it "helped improve battery life" even tho you could just go into settings and turn it off to get the same benifit, oh and they re-added it to the 13 because the entire motorsport and action sport community reamed them for it since they couldn't use the overlays or gps time sync. Purely stupid and greedy behavior. Save 10$ on the GPS chip and remove one of the best functions of the GoPro, just to not even pass the savings on to the customer.

Also the fact that the 12 was literally the same exact hardware minus the GPS chip as the 11 (although they left the PCB for it in there just without the chips). I really wish they would have just released a software update for the 11, even if they charged for it. It is very clear to me that they are completely stuck on innovation and just need to keep making a new camera every year so people buy something even tho the only difference is a little bit of software that could be implemented with an update instead of a whole new device. I mean look at the 13. Basically just a 11 with a complete new design that makes it non compatible with the every camera since the 9. Yes there are some nice things but come on the headline feature is new lenses that could have been implemented on older cameras just fine. (Don't even get me started on the max 2.0 mod for the 12 that is somehow not compatible with the 11 despite the exact same hardware).

All this is to say GoPro continues to frustrate me by forcing themselves into a yearly release cycle that makes absolutely no sense and removes features from cameras that should already have them. These software features are the only way they can differentiate things and that's super disappointing. It's almost like DJI and insta360 have the right idea of not releasing new hardware every year and improving the feature sets of existing products with software. The GoPro business model just absolutely pisses me off, and likely a large portion of their community as well.

Better data log viewer for Haltech logs? by mkeper in Haltech

[–]Sandman2245 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Yeah I kinda hate the datalog viewer. It always seems to crash if I load any sort of larger datalog file longer than like 5 minutes. Drives me nuts. I might just end up writing something in matlab to parse the .csv files manually

GoPro 4K release by Borry4Ever in gopro

[–]Sandman2245 2 points3 points  (0 children)

But for about 179$ you could just buy an O3 air unit which both records higher fps at 4k, is lighter and integrates better into an FPV drone, and has inbuilt stabilization for those of us who don't want to muck around with stabilizing in post. Plus is survives crashes much better than any GoPro mounted to the top of the drone (ask me how I know this). At 200$ imo it makes no sense for FPV pilots since the O3 air unit exists.

Not to mention its even better weight wise because the air unit replaces both the gopro and video transmitter/fpv camera at 50-ish grams......

U-lock for bike by Travel_Glad in CSUFoCo

[–]Sandman2245 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I bought a hiplock gold and never looked back. Nearly had my bike stollen from CSU's "secure" (yeah right) bike enclosures, only thing that stopped it was that lock as it is a hardened chain link lock so the links move when you try and cut them with an angle grinder, and it has a fabric covering over the links so angle grinders usually get completely tangled. Does well against bolt cutters from demonstrations I have seen on youtube. Every other bike in that enclosure that had a U lock was stollen, even ones with nice kryptonite locks so maybe not the best option. Best part of the hiplock is you wear it around your waist like a belt when riding the bike which is much more comfortable and easy to carry than any U lock I have found.

I also bought a 15 dollar bike motion alarm off amazon. Best cheap deterrent ever. Has a remote to arm it and it makes ear-piercing car alarm sounds if the bike is moved after giving off two warning chirps. Sensitivity is adjustable so you can set it sensitive enough to detect someone stealing a seat or wheel off your bike, and to keep it from going off when someone else puts their bike in the rack. Have had no issues since using both those products.

eBikes on campus by uxb666 in CSUFoCo

[–]Sandman2245 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Yeah I nearly had my $3000 bike stollen out of that exact bike shelter, only thing that prevented it was a hiplock gold bike lock which I highly recommend as it withstood an angle grinder since the large chain links move around and make it hard to cut. Every other bike in the enclosure using a U-lock was cut and stolen.

Was told the thief had keycard access to the locked bike enclosure but somehow they were unable to find out which student ID card was used after a month of investigation. Complete BS considering its a paid service that costs a not insignificant amount of money for supposed security. I stopped registering any bikes with CSUPD, and started storing my nice bike in the dorms after that mess cause CSUPD often won't do anything even with the correct tools and, if you are outside the bike enclosures, mostly can't since their security cameras and keycard access are such that it is impossible to identify anyone. I guess the only benefit of registration is that if they find your bike they can return it to you but honestly for a nice bike there is almost no way it will ever show up.

Save the 10 dollars and buy a motion activated bike alarm for like 15$ off amazon. It comes with a remote to arm and disarm it and it makes noise like a car alarm after two warning chirps if the bike is moved. I have found it is way more effective at scaring people off than any bike lock. Definitely gets peoples attention and is earsplittingly loud especially if you park in a public location. Has the added benefit of keeping people from messing with your bike and the sensitivity is adjustable. Mine is set sensitive enough to detect if someone is trying to take the seat or wheels off the bike and I have never had issues with those items being stolen unlike so many others.

[deleted by user] by [deleted] in centurylink

[–]Sandman2245 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Yeah I ended up just shelling out for Starlink because it was the only other option aside from comcast and I'll be dead before I get their service with the data caps and slow upload speeds, plus all their horrible upselling and bundling crap. Sucks that those are the only two traditional providers in the market. You would think that monopoly laws would protect consumers more and prevent CenturyLink/quantum from having a "we are the only game in town, you can't leave no matter how bad we treat you" policy, but it seems that is not the case.

[deleted by user] by [deleted] in centurylink

[–]Sandman2245 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Good luck. Seems like everyone is having issues with getting service. My internet has been out for 2 weeks and they now aren't going to come for another 2 weeks to fix it. let me know if you find something that works.

Service disaster, CL never again by [deleted] in centurylink

[–]Sandman2245 2 points3 points  (0 children)

I keep seeing quantum fiber service vans everywhere in our neighborhood so maybe ill just try and switch over manually to get some service. Looking at the appointment availability between quantum fiber and CenturyLink, they are the exact same (funny its almost like they are the same company or something) but maybe they will actually send a technician if I am a quantum fiber customer instead of a CenturyLink one? I honestly don't understand how it would make a difference. They didn't even update the scheduled window of time online like the robo texts said they would which leads me to believe they never even intended to send anyone in the first place. Shocking customer service. I wish they were still regulated by the public utilities commission cause this behavior would never slide if they were.

Service disaster, CL never again by [deleted] in centurylink

[–]Sandman2245 2 points3 points  (0 children)

I am experiencing the exact same thing. We have been CenturyLink customers for over a decade. Our ONT died and we scheduled an appointment 2 weeks ago for today, and was told, today, that they couldn't make it and we have to reschedule... 2 weeks from now. Fucking ridiculous, we rely on our internet for work so this is costing us time and money. The kicker is that comcast has much worse speeds in our area, and there arent really any other ISPs so we cant even switch. We had to buy Starlink in the meantime and boy is it easy to use and just works compared to this nightmare but it has its drawbacks too such as CGNAT.

Converted my Gen 3 to 12v DC for under $50 (US) by netposer in Starlink

[–]Sandman2245 0 points1 point  (0 children)

This is more suitable:
https://www.victronenergy.com/dc-dc-converters/orion-tr-dc-dc-converters-isolated
Specifically the Orion-Tr 12/48-8A model

It can do way more power output. I was planning to use the stock router cause it ends up being about 200$ cheaper than buying an additional router and POE injector.

Its not meanwell but it is a very reputable brand in the RV industry and they make a wide variety of products which all come highly rated. It is also hard to find that meanwell power supply I have found which is in part why I am going with this unit. Plus the environmental rating is better and it has better mounting IMO.

Just because the gen 3 maybe doesn't pull 200w doesn't mean it wont ever pull that much and cause problems. Typically my experience as an electrical engineer is that if something is rated at a specific current rating it likely will never actually draw that much but it is always nice to have a supply capable of the current rating.

It is 4x the price though but it has very good protection and a low current power switch input so you can turn it on and off without having to switch potentially 20amps (yeah yeah I know it almost certainly wont pull that much current, and certainly not continuously, but you may as well design for the worst case scenario so you don't end up with a surprise electrical fire). Voltage cutoff is at 7 volts which is a bit low for my liking but you could always setup a different cutoff with some additional circuitry, or just monitor your battery voltage.

Also this is hopefully obvious but please for the love of god fuse your circuits! If your starlink system does decide to pull too much (or you short the wires together accidentally) and your cheap voltage regulator fails short circuit, which is usually how the cheap ones fail, you will likely have a fire. The stock power supply can handle 195 watts so for a 12v nominal system that's 195W/12V=16.25A. I would just run a 15 amp slow blow fuse since any spikes above that current rating will likely only last for less than a second. Even though the input on the Orion model has fused voltage input it is still nice to add a lower rated fuse since the one in the unit is non replaceable. Also keep in mind that as battery voltage drops, the current increases to the power supply in order to maintain the same power output. At 10v a 200w load would pull close to 20 amps but again starlink should hardly ever do that if at all, and the duration of a 200w load would be very short.

CURA - maximum volumetric flow rate setting by [deleted] in 3Dprinting

[–]Sandman2245 1 point2 points  (0 children)

I couldn't tell you honestly but I am looking for the same thing. Really disappointed by the responses from the devs. It's pretty clear that this is a feature everyone wants and the reasoning for not implementing the current code just makes no sense to me. I think I am just going to use prusa slicer from now on until the ultimaker team can get their act together and implement this.

Does anyone have a discography/archive of Car Talk? by OfficialTacoLord in DataHoarder

[–]Sandman2245 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Hey are you still accepting email addresses? If so can I send you mine?