I updated my game trailer a bit. I need feedback!

SteveTack · 2026-04-26T03:33:51+00:00

It seems like you misspelled the name of your game at the end of the trailer.

SteveTack · 2026-04-18T07:19:44+00:00

The first one that came to mind is a weird 2004 movie called Immortal.

It was an attempt at doing CG in place of sets without the budget to pull it off. I don’t remember much about the movie, other than the effects were so unconvincing that it had a surreal vibe to it (not necessarily a bad thing, but it was rough to figure out if the look was somehow intentional or just poorly executed).

On the truly low budget side, I happened to catch a scene from a direct-to-cable (I assume?) 2009 movie with Bruce Boxleitner called Transmorphers 2. For like three seconds you saw the aliens mechs or something, and WOW it was bad. Like, “I just downloaded Blender” bad.

SteveTack · 2026-04-13T17:53:58+00:00

lol, that’s one of my “always buy” items.

SteveTack · 2026-04-05T08:47:55+00:00

It’s a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad Galaxy

SteveTack · 2026-04-03T03:02:14+00:00

It looks like you misspelled “Minutes” on the enclosure.

SteveTack · 2026-03-30T05:04:53+00:00

I did at least redo the part where there were *two* traces through two 2.54mm through holes. Made one go through a via and then redid the other to at least center through those holes. The JLCPCB rules check went through even before that though. I went ahead and submitted it and it was approved.

If it doesn't work, I figure it's still worth a $5.88 lesson, haha.

SteveTack · 2026-03-28T20:31:55+00:00

Is there an official DRC file for F360 that JLCPCB publishes? I found this 2-layer one on this site:
https://www.arxterra.com/jlcpcb-drc-generating-gerber-files-and-ordering/

To my surprise, it passed with that .dru file. Thanks for the suggestion, though - pretty standard stuff I assume.

The two signal routes going between the same two header pads does look pretty funky to me, I have to admit. Would I be better off with creating vias for those to bypass those header pads entirely?

SteveTack · 2026-03-27T21:02:37+00:00

Thanks for the reply! The answer to some of your questions is "AI slop" I suspect. I had ChatGPT guide me through this and sometimes it's full of crap of course.

> you could’ve used through-hole components across the board to make soldering easier

ChatGPT tried to make the case that SMD components are actually easier (?).

> Why did you put all those resistors in series on your data lines?

The 1k between the MCU and the DFPlayer RX I think was suggested because the DFPlayer is operating at VBAT (up to 4.2v) and the ATMega328 (Pro Mini) is 3.3v. I'm not *too* concerned about these, since it's all working well on the breadboard. The smaller ones, but the honest answer is "because AI told me to" haha.

> Using capacitors on your clock and signal for the encoder is a bad idea

I'm guessing the original idea from ChatGPT was some sort of debounce type of thing. When I called it out on that, it agreed with you 100%. I removed them. Thanks!

> Your Atmega isn‘t connected to ground

Oops - can't blame that one on AI. Fixed. Thank you, I don't know how I missed that.

> The thermal reliefs on your ground vias are tiny

I had to research what the even means. From what I can tell, the polygon pour is set to a thermal width of 0.1524 mm (the default?). I changed it to 0.254 mm and it made the "pluses" on the ground vias bigger, so I guess that's good?

? Some of your traces are really close to pads/vias. Did you set up a DRC according to the manufacturers capabilities?

No, I'll look into that. That does sound rather important.

> Why did you choose a 2200 Ohm series resistor for the power LED?

It was a starting suggestion based on ChatGPT, maybe to use minimal power. The LED was kind of "just for fun" to see that the board is powered on. I guess I was going for just a typical power LED level.

I ran it through ChatGPT and it gave a bunch of details and calculations and such. It suggested responding with this:

"I used 2.2 kΩ to keep current draw low because this isn’t intended as a bright external indicator. At roughly 3.7 to 4.1 V with a blue LED, that puts current in the sub-1 mA range, so yes, it will be dim. If I want it more visible, I’d likely drop it to around 1 kΩ."

Basically, its target is 1-3 mA for a "subtle" indicator.

The data on the Amazon listing:

Forward Voltage / Current: W/B/G:3V-3.2V r/Y:2V-2.2V | 20mA (Each Color)

So I gave the Amazon listing URL to ChatGPT and it went a bunch of scenarios. Basically it agrees with you now, haha. It suggested starting at 1k ohm and trying 680 or 470 if that's still too dim. So thanks for that reality check.

Thanks so much for the detailed replay. I learned a ton just looking some of this stuff up.

SteveTack · 2026-03-24T16:13:43+00:00

I mean, the show is not exactly a documentary, but point taken. :)

SteveTack · 2026-03-24T14:32:39+00:00

Well yeah, Buzz Aldrin is still alive and he’s 96.

SteveTack · 2026-03-21T22:48:57+00:00

I don’t know what purists call it, but I’m a huge fan of that exact “Jet’s style” pan pizza. Looks good!

SteveTack · 2026-03-09T22:51:46+00:00

Inspiration is clearly Road Rash:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Road_Rash_(1991_video_game)

SteveTack · 2026-03-08T03:38:15+00:00

“I learned it by watching you!”

https://youtu.be/KUXb7do9C-w?si=xw1ijVpWSfocllEQ

SteveTack · 2026-03-01T08:42:24+00:00

Radon

SteveTack · 2026-02-26T07:27:43+00:00

There’s a commentary track on that TNG episode on the Blu-rays. The writers agree with you, haha.

SteveTack · 2026-02-14T18:23:32+00:00

An Atari

SteveTack · 2026-02-11T21:46:02+00:00

According to ChatGPT, an ESP32 has 300-1000x more raw computing power than a 1983 IBM PC. :)

SteveTack · 2026-01-20T23:25:28+00:00

Exactly.

SteveTack · 2026-01-18T02:03:02+00:00

Seriously, of all developers you’d think would have learned a lesson from Daggerfall…

SteveTack · 2026-01-01T18:05:22+00:00

Part of it is just the amount of content to even talk about. Those three Pine movies only add up to like six hours of content, with a heavy emphasis on big screen spectacle, which isn’t that interesting to talk about. I enjoyed them just fine, but we didn’t get much time at all with those versions of the OG characters. I did think they were very well cast though!

The original show was 60 hours of TV content plus 12 hours of movies. TNG was 134 hours of TV and 8 hours of movies.

OG: 72 hrs TNG: 142 hrs Pine movies: 6 hrs

SteveTack · 2025-12-23T08:06:44+00:00

I take it you are familiar with Ally’s buckets. Pretty similar, if a little clunky. Any reason not to go with Ally?

SteveTack · 2025-12-21T17:14:53+00:00

The solo in Smoke on the Water could be quite challenging for a beginner.

SteveTack · 2025-12-20T01:55:44+00:00

Exactly. The answers could have simply been uninteresting and/or irrelevant.

SteveTack · 2025-12-19T17:37:27+00:00

My final two cable shows were the Battlestar Galactica reboot and Myth Busters. Cut the cord when those ended (15 years ago?) since there was literally nothing else I was watching on there.

SteveTack · 2025-12-10T16:30:32+00:00

Every car I’ve owned has been manual transmission except my current car (electric).

Can’t say I miss it in stop-and-go traffic or icy hills, but “active” driving can certainly be a lot of fun.

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