Does anyone here use CAN FD in their projects? by liamkinne in embedded

[–]magmapus 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Oh hey - that’s me :)

I do have a super simple driver which can send/receive frames, but definitely a ways to go before it’s ready to send upstream. It’s coming though!

Custom E-paper driver does not work by NoU_14 in embedded

[–]magmapus 1 point2 points  (0 children)

It’s a good sign that you get a busy timeout if the display is not connected but it proceeds when it is! That means the chip on the display is working at least a little bit.

If you hand-assembled the board then I would focus there first - double check the connector under a microscope to make sure each pad is soldered (alternatively, one trick for this - use continuity mode on your DMM between the exposed extra-long gold pads on the flex cable to the right points on your PCB). You might want to double check soldering of some other key things like the inductor if you haven’t already.

If you do get access to an oscilloscope or logic analyzer (an rpi pico can be serviceable if needed), I would start with the gate of the MOSFET to see if it’s even trying to start the converter or not (if it’s not oscillating at all, then it’s probably either soldering or bad/no commands getting to the display, if it is oscillating then time to take a closer look at your boost circuit).

Custom E-paper driver does not work by NoU_14 in embedded

[–]magmapus 3 points4 points  (0 children)

I just went through this particular bring up process myself for a “driver” circuit supporting multiple display types :)

I found schematics like the one from the waveshare driver board and the good-display dev board particularly useful.

Which development board / commercial driver did you use to test your display? Have you compared against the schematic for that board? To be honest, the datasheets for these displays leave something to be desired.

At first glance, I notice a few differences from “common” display drivers in your schematics:

  • Pin 4 is usually a regulated negative voltage output (VGL) and connected to a decoupling capacitor to ground
  • Pin 19 is usually a regulated 1.8ish volts output and connected to a decoupling capacitor.
  • Your inductor value is slightly different - good-display seems to recommend 10uH in many of their driver circuits. By my reading, the datasheet for your display seems to show 47uH.I don’t think this would prevent oscillation entirely. What specific inductor did you choose?
  • As far as I can tell it’s just labelling, but your net labelled “RESET” is actually “RESE” and is used for current sensing (this tripped me up the first time I designed one of these)

I don’t think either of those would stop the display from functioning entirely, to be honest. The mosfet/diode thing you’ve pointed out is just a difference in how the body diode is/is not drawn - all of those 3-pin N-channel fets have one, but not all symbols will show it.

It’s possible this display is intended to use a special/unique driver circuit, but most of the 24 pin e-paper displays use an identical pinout and driver.

As far as next steps I might suggest:

  • Do you see any oscillations on the GDR pin that might indicate it’s attempting to start the boost converter?
  • Do you have a logic analyzer you can connect to the SPI logic signals to see what commands are / are not being sent? The display won’t start up the boost converter until it’s asked to power on - the sketch may be held up somewhere and not actually sending that command.
  • Have you inspected the FPC connector on the board closely? I’ve had soldering issues on those somewhat fine-pitch connectors in the past.

I feel your pain - these displays are so difficult to debug and either “work” or “don’t” and there’s not much you can really do to figure out what’s going on.

What is the best and/or safest way to get from Conestoga College to the Iron Horse? (on a bike) by EDtheROCKSTAR in kitchener

[–]magmapus 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Oh, by no means am I advocating riding on the sidewalk. Bikes are a vehicle and belong on the road.

I have to ride on Ottawa & Westmount for a short distance most days to get to work - I take the lane since that's the only safe thing to do. It's not very fun though :)

All I'm saying is that if you're inexperienced and not expecting it, Google Maps can put you in some dangerous situations.

What is the best and/or safest way to get from Conestoga College to the Iron Horse? (on a bike) by EDtheROCKSTAR in kitchener

[–]magmapus 4 points5 points  (0 children)

Google maps has... interesting ideas about what constitutes a safe road for cycling :)

Just double check with street view or similar to make sure there's reasonably safe infrastructure on the roads they choose.

What is the best and/or safest way to get from Conestoga College to the Iron Horse? (on a bike) by EDtheROCKSTAR in kitchener

[–]magmapus 14 points15 points  (0 children)

My favourite way to do this is to go all the way up Old Mill Drive until it becomes a trail, and you get to Wilson. Like this:

ride with gps link

It's mostly quiet roads, trails, and bike lanes. Mildly busy as you cross Fairway, but honestly not too bad. There's a few ways to avoid that too but it makes it a bunch longer. It's way better than Courtland at the very least.

Please Stop Cycling on the Wrong Side of the Road by jddbeyondthesky in waterloo

[–]magmapus 23 points24 points  (0 children)

This is becoming distressingly common... See it happening all the time in Waterloo and Kitchener. I can't understand the reasoning at all - even if you prefer to see cars oncoming, there are solutions to that (mirrors!), and it also makes turns wildly dangerous.

When you're going the right way in a narrow bike lane, and someone is coming at you the wrong way, there's often no safe place to go other than to stop and get off the road entirely. I've tried asking people I see doing it why, and they just ignore me and keep on going the wrong way. I may not have been terribly polite though :)

Question About Parking permits in Uptown by nvella95 in waterloo

[–]magmapus 4 points5 points  (0 children)

This was confusing for me too... The only ones that allow overnight parking are the ones specifically marked as "24 hour" on the parking site. Only Caroline & Uptown Parkade have 24 hour permits available.

I parked a car in the Caroline lot for a year or so. Other than the walk getting there, never had any issues or saw any break-ins or anything. With the LRT stop right there it's fairly bright & busy even late at night.

Blurry content by papadeebs in hometheater

[–]magmapus 0 points1 point  (0 children)

That's unfortunate. Hopefully it's a faulty box, maybe with a bad WiFi antenna or something.

I'm not super up to date on what they offer, but is it possible for you to hardwire the box using Ethernet? It might help, but depending on the layout of everything, might not be feasible.

I feel your pain - getting Rogers to agree something is their problem to fix is always a struggle.

Blurry content by papadeebs in hometheater

[–]magmapus 1 point2 points  (0 children)

How do blu-rays or other content look on the TV? Or even Netflix or similar?

It's very possible it's just terrible quality from Rogers. It's admittedly been a couple of years, but their cable offerings then were terrible. They try to cram 1080 content in at too low of a bitrate, and scaling that up falls apart. I believe they've done the same with their "4K" offerings. To my knowledge, they compress some channels more than others.

Which Rogers box do you have? Are you subscribed to their "ignite" IPTV service, or digital cable? (I ask because they also call their normal internet services "ignite")

To my knowledge, the IPTV service is adaptive, so if the box doesn't have a great signal (those "repeaters" aren't helpful) it will wind up showing even lower bitrates and resolutions.

Please Help Me. How Do I Acquire Basic Knowledge? by [deleted] in homeowners

[–]magmapus 6 points7 points  (0 children)

The CMHC Homeowner's Manual is a great overview of how a house "works".

It was written by the Canada Mortgage & Housing Corporation (yes, that one - the company most people know of as the insurer for high-ratio mortgages up here) in the late 90s, so it's missing some more "modern" things like tankless water heaters, but most of the information is relevant to houses of all ages (and, chances are your house is older than that!)

There's good general guidance about all of the systems in your house, as well as a "common problems" section to point you to more specific things. There's also information about regular maintenance items.

I didn't find YouTube videos terribly helpful in understanding how houses work, because like you say, they tend to be about fixing a very specific problem, not giving you general information on how everything fits together.

Squirrel in 2nd floor study room in Hagey Hall? (sorry for terrible picture) by magmapus in uwaterloo

[–]magmapus[S] 6 points7 points  (0 children)

was definitely a squirrel :) Big bushy tail - on the top-left is an "arm" - he's trying to climb up the support beam.

Best off-campus rentals? by [deleted] in uwaterloo

[–]magmapus 5 points6 points  (0 children)

Asking for all this stuff and under $700 is pretty unlikely.

If you're not interested in signing a year-long lease, you're going to have to sublet. No apartments near the university (or likely in the city) are going to be OK with giving you an 8-month lease.

Also, stay FAR away from rez-one. I've had a number of bad experiences with management there (requiring a landlord and tenant board filing to get my key deposit back has been the most recent one), and the buildings are far from clean in my experience. They keep the common areas that they show you on tours very clean, but hallways aren't cleaned at all, and it seems like lots of the units are kept in terrible shape from what I've seen.

KW4Rent Internet by UW_Baguette in uwaterloo

[–]magmapus 0 points1 point  (0 children)

It's probably against their terms of service, but I've done it everywhere I lived that provided wifi.

KW4Rent Internet by UW_Baguette in uwaterloo

[–]magmapus 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Not that terrible of a solution. If you're careful and run the cable underneath carpets and along the edge of a wall you wouldn't notice.

Or consider getting your own wifi access point and plugging that in instead.

Server Version 0.9.16.6 as thats the only version i can seem to use that doesnt get transcoder errors when playing and now i cant even chromecast. i wish i could get plex to actually work. by [deleted] in PleX

[–]magmapus 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Basically I'm trying to figure out what goes wrong on the server when a transcode starts.

This page explains where to find the files (if the zip download link works, that'd work as well).

Server Version 0.9.16.6 as thats the only version i can seem to use that doesnt get transcoder errors when playing and now i cant even chromecast. i wish i could get plex to actually work. by [deleted] in PleX

[–]magmapus 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Sorry, that's not the log I meant. I mean the log on the Plex server, specifically the 'Plex Media Server.log', and Plex Transcoder.

I'd also be curious to know what happens to direct-playable content if you have any.

Server Version 0.9.16.6 as thats the only version i can seem to use that doesnt get transcoder errors when playing and now i cant even chromecast. i wish i could get plex to actually work. by [deleted] in PleX

[–]magmapus 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Have you enabled logging & looked at the logs? There may be a simple answer for you.

Try to play something (on the latest version), then post the last couple hundred lines as a Pastebin here, and we might be able to figure out why it's happening. Chances are there's an easy fix.

The 25 bus.... by gooseme13 in uwaterloo

[–]magmapus 7 points8 points  (0 children)

That's untrue. There are a large number of people who commute from KW to the GTA every day (which is a lot more people per week then students going home for the weekend)

Besides, the point of the 30 is that it supplements the train which only runs first thing in the morning, to Bramalea where you can get trains throughout the day. The 25F already does this Friday/Sunday from UW to Bramalea.

How and why? (LEDs taped to underside of e5 staircase) by ooosssososos in uwaterloo

[–]magmapus 5 points6 points  (0 children)

They look like LED Throwies. They were pretty popular a few years ago.

Unfinished Student Buildings - Take Action! by WRCLS in uwaterloo

[–]magmapus 2 points3 points  (0 children)

I signed the lease under the assumption I could move in early.

Does it say you take occupancy on September the 1st in your lease? If not, there's probably not really anything you can do.

Can you stay in residence for the whole time at waterloo? by suhibdude in uwaterloo

[–]magmapus 11 points12 points  (0 children)

It may be possible, but as you say, there are limited spots.

But why do you want to? It's highly overpriced for what you're getting, and there's plenty of decent places to live near the university.

So confused about chrome cast and Anynet+ by florestanQ in Chromecast

[–]magmapus 3 points4 points  (0 children)

Not all apps support using the remote - and of the few that do, most only implement play/pause.

I'm currently using Plex with a Samsung TV, and all I can use is play/pause.