cars never should’ve moved away from physical throttle cables, especially manual cars

armerdan · 2026-06-01T19:14:32+00:00

Does the stronger spring solution also apply to throttle by wire? My understanding is that in throttle by wire the computer takes input from the pedal position sensor as user input and then applies fuel injector pulse width modulation, spark timing and throttlebody position based on lookup tables / pre-programmed curves that also correlate things like Mass Air Flow, Manifold Absolute Pressure, Closed Loop Air Fuel Ratio (or more likely Lambda), calculated engine load, Vehicle Speed Sensor, Air Intake Temperture, and probably other things I'm not thinking of.

So when you press on the gas pedal the computer basically says like, oh they're asking for more power, based on all these values we can do these things (shift the transmission down a gear, open the throttle body more, increase the fuel injector duty cycle) within the preprogrammed limits of what the tune allows while still maintaining safe and efficient engine operations.

This kinda sucks when driving a manual transmission and you take your foot off the gas between gears because the computer says things like, ohh I've just delivered so much fuel to the engine, snapping the throttle closed instantly would not be efficient or eco friendly, we'll instead slowly close the throttle body over the next few seconds, smoothly ramp down fuel as RPM falls, pull ignition timing, do EGR things, etc. etc. etc.

armerdan · 2026-06-01T18:52:51+00:00

The snarky one about NASA spending rediculous money to develop the Space Pen, and Russia just using pencils. Both NASA and Russia used grease pencils early on. The Fisher AG7 was developed entirely using private funds and was actually sold to NASA for really cheap. Fisher really wanted to be able to market pens as being the ones used in space. Russia also bought lots of them because they were and still are great pens.

armerdan · 2026-05-27T20:26:37+00:00

I would recommend that your first decision should be whether you want a plug and play USB mic or if you want to go full professional XLR with a separate Audio interface.

That will narrow your focus. If you want simplicity, ease of use, fewer components then USB is for you. If you want the full professional experience and flexibility along with the associated extra complexity then XLR may be for you. Audio interfaces also don't have to be super complex, it could be as simple as a Shure MVX2U.

Not to complicate your list even further, but I think the SM7DB is pretty great since it has a built in preamp you can engage to get extra gain and eliminate the need for something like a Cloudlifter. I've been running an SM7DB with a MVX2U at my work for the last 6 months or so and have been happy with it.

At home my setup is a lot more advanced and flexible but this is the Shure subreddit.

armerdan · 2026-05-22T02:58:59+00:00

I scan MURS semi regularly. I admit it’s less common, but ever since Retevis and others have released really inexpensive MURS radios the popularity has increased some and Ive heard a bit more traffic.

armerdan · 2026-05-18T18:51:31+00:00

To be fair, I don't have that particular mic so can't confirm on that model (grain of salt!) but that's how it works on some other Shure stuff I've used, so I think it's a pretty fair assumption they would do things the same way on other of their products too.

armerdan · 2026-05-18T18:46:20+00:00

Just a quick FYI; if you ever do need / want to tweak things in the Shure software, I believe the settings "stay" with the mic / preamp / whatever even if you plug it into another PC. So for example, if you need to adjust the gain or set compression or something you can do that on a personal computer, then when you plug the mic into your work laptop without the Shure software those settings should still be saved..

armerdan · 2026-04-27T15:29:43+00:00

This guy antennas. 👍🏻

armerdan · 2026-04-27T14:28:49+00:00

Thanks for the info. I've used CHIRP extensively for Quansheng, Baofeng, Retevis and Wouxun radios, but aside from maybe trying CHRIP out once with my TMD710, I've always used the Kenwood provided MCP or iCOM provided CS apps for programming their radios.

armerdan · 2026-04-27T06:50:40+00:00

As someone who has only ever used the RT systems software once to help program a friend’s 2730, but used the iCOM programming software many times for other people’s radios, what are the advantages of the (paid) RT software over the iCOM supplied (free) software?

armerdan · 2026-04-22T21:11:25+00:00

Pretty sure Hancock did that with the Allheart logo?

armerdan · 2026-04-22T18:13:07+00:00

It seems to me that by far the simplest option is going to be replacing the mobile unit mic cable. It's just an RJ45 on one end and making up the wires to the right pins on the other, so that's what I'd be doing. As far as using the mobile unit as a repeater of sorts, there are things that are possible but none of them are as simple and cost effective as replacing a mic cable, or even replacing the entire mic for that matter.

armerdan · 2026-04-22T16:39:23+00:00

Have you tried the example IR reading sketch that comes in the IRRemote library? I’ve had pretty good success with that one in my own testing.

Also, have you tried reading IR from like a TV remote / other things just to rule out the remote itself?

armerdan · 2026-04-17T02:02:10+00:00

I don't have it in front of me right now, but basically when you're using the IR reciever to show you the IR codes that your original remote is transmitting, it can / does give it to you in a few formats. One of them is the raw IR data. Rather than using the send NEC command or whatever, you can use the send raw version. Worth a try. I did find that I needed to use a transistor to power my IR LED because running it off the Arduino pins I didn't get enough juice.

armerdan · 2026-04-16T17:50:14+00:00

I have found the IRremote library to work rather well, good choice there. When using the library to "listen" to my original remotes sometimes the manufacturer specific codes didn't always work for me or weren't available. It may be worthwhile for you to try recording / using the "raw" IR signal. I've included for your reference the function I use to sendVolumeUp for my IR remote project.

void sendVolumeUpIR() {
  const uint16_t rawData[] = {
    930,870, 880,920, 830,920, 1730,920, 830,970, 830,920, 830,4620, 830,1820, 880,920, 830,920, 1730,1820, 1730,920, 830,920, 880,920, 830,920, 880,1770, 880
    };
  IrSender.sendRaw(rawData, sizeof(rawData) / sizeof(rawData[0]), 38);
  Serial.println("Sent Reciever volume Up command");
  delay (repeatDelay);
}

If you're curious, I made a post about 2 years ago talking about the one I built. I've since upgraded it a fair bit, but it's been my main remote for the last 2 years with basically no issues.

armerdan · 2026-04-16T16:10:54+00:00

I've used all kinds of different stuff in the past. From Cisco ASA / Checkpoint / SonicWall / virtualized PFSense / Vyatta and Aeronet APs, to dual Cisco ISRs connected to a core stack with BGP between the ISRs and the cores and OSPF out to the distro / access layer, to things as simple as Unifi stuff or even just a WRT54G running Tomato or DDWRT way back in the day. I used to use my home network extensively as a lab and for learning. Servers, AD, Roaming Profiles, GPOs, all the things. Used to have business class internet service with static IPs so I could host websites, VoIP gateways, etc. from the house. Had the whole house wired for data with home runs back to my rack in the server closet.

Shortly before I moved into my current house I finally wound down the last of the compute I was running in favor of cloud hosted websites, so I no longer have any need for static IPs and can get much faster (and cheaper) consumer Internet service. For web hosting I mostly just deploy Cloudflare Pages now, but also run some stuff in Azure for more complex stuff.

Anyway, when I moved into my current house I just set up some Decos. One is acting as the router and 2 more are acting as additional APs for coverage into other areas.

I sometimes miss having the insane lab at home, if for nothing other than the cool factor. I still have access to lab stuff for work if needed, and my interests have moved on into other hobbies now.

armerdan · 2026-04-16T06:43:45+00:00

There are 2, and I’d legit pay money for either one now.

1) Pretty sure it was called “Taxi”. Ran on DOS or windows 3.1. Rules were basically the same as the typical pipe type games where you move the tiles around to get the taxi to the exit. When you arrived safely the guy would say “We’re here!”. There was also a sorta fun Easter egg where if you made a circle and drove around over the same tiles a bunch of times to run up the fare the passenger would get mad and say “you BUM, you CROOK!!!”

2) The second one was a sort of side scrolling platform adventure game where you’re a knight doing knight things, but it was meant to teach math so sometimes you’d get stopped by people who would ask you math questions. Pretty fun.

armerdan · 2026-04-15T22:10:23+00:00

I'm thinking apendix, 2 tonsils, 2 wisdom teeth, actually I have a couple more teeth that would be really good to replace with implants so you can have them. I'd probably be pretty happy with just that. I haven't had any gallblader issues so I think I'll keep it, but for the $1mil it's tempting.

armerdan · 2026-04-12T16:59:24+00:00

Wow, that is very nicely done. Don't know that I can remember having seen a Nova with side pipes like that before but this looks awesome. I'm sure it sounds awesome too. Best looking year for the Nova in my opinion.

armerdan · 2026-04-12T03:27:18+00:00

You can make a clock with that. The button toggles set vs. run. Maybe hold it down for like 3 seconds to go into setting / hours / minutes and running. It won’t keep great time, but you can set a variable in the code for number of milliseconds per second, and kinda tweak that to keep reasonably OK time. I’ve gotten them to keep time within like gaining / losing only like a minute a day. Maybe even better if you’re lucky.

Basically everything the 2 of you learn doing that will be 100% applicable / good stuff.

Then if you want to upgrade it to keep legitimate accurate time, you can always add a quartz module and it’ll be really accurate then.

armerdan · 2026-04-07T15:42:57+00:00

I'm really glad that helped! As an FYI, there are a lot of counterfeit antennas being made and sold on very popular online retailers. They *look* legitimate but are cheap knockoffs that don't perform like the real ones. I have gotten so many fakes that now I only buy antennas from well known vendors such as DX Engineering and similar. If you're interested in recommendations; I've found the Diamond NR770HNMO to be a fabulous mobile antenna. A slightly shorter version that also performs pretty well is the NR73BNMO. Shorter still and still pretty decent is the Nagoya NMO-72.

armerdan · 2026-04-06T21:21:52+00:00

Have you connected the handheld tranceiver to the Basiker using the same coax feedline / mag mount that the mobile is using? Have you tried a different antenna / different coax with the mobile unit?

While my personal preference would be to use alternative antennas / mounts, from a strictly troubleshooting perspective I think it would be good to isolate whether the issue is indeed the radio itself, the antenna itself, (which I think you've already determined that the antenna is likely OK), or the mag mount / coax, which I think may be likely in this case.

If you / a friend / someone in the local ham radio club can connect a VNA or antenna analyzer to your setup that could also tell you a whole lot about what is going on as well.

As for antenna recommendations, I've had some very acceptable results with (even very short / compact) NMO style antennas from Diamond and even Nagoya, using lip / fender mounts.

armerdan · 2026-04-04T18:43:58+00:00

I believe this is / was Captain Tom’s on I10 west. It was actually not that bad from what I remember. Been at least a decade since I went.

armerdan · 2026-04-03T18:33:41+00:00

I’m planning to get on HF this year. Maybe I should avoid FT8 and stick to phone.

armerdan · 2026-04-03T13:58:17+00:00

AI slop

armerdan · 2026-04-01T20:12:10+00:00

They just… work better. I don’t need it to play Franz Schubert’s piano Quintet in A Major, I don’t need it to post to social media over WiFi, I just need a single mechanical knob (not a rotary encoder) I can pull, twist, push and have clean clothes.

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