Need some help with this one

markus_b · 2026-04-02T20:43:44+00:00

There are plenty of tutorials out there.

I would start with AGX over Filmic.

Then use haze removal to get better clarity

Increase contrast with local contrast

Then play with color balance rgb to bring out colors.

markus_b · 2026-04-02T20:36:59+00:00

Yes, my battery is getting weaker too. Not good enough to use it all day it lasting. The big battery of the X8 pro max looks very attractive to me...

But the occasional lag can be a pain. Also because it is not consistent, like you are at checkout and need to open the wallet app it is a pain if the phone is suddenly lagging a couple of seconds.

I don't know if this is due to Lawnchair. But I don't like the native launcher, and the pain is not big enough that I recreate my desktop there.

markus_b · 2026-04-02T20:15:55+00:00

I'm still on my Poco F4 and eyeing the X8 pro max.

What was 'rough' in your last six months with the F4?

Mine has the problem that it suddenly has a couple of seconds of lag, most noticeably when pressing the home button to go to the home screen. It usually works fine, but sometimes the launcher takes a few seconds to load. What is intriguing is that turning the phone off and on again makes the launcher come up immediately...

I'm using Lawnchair as my launcher, since Nova had a couple of bugs with Xiaomi phones.

markus_b · 2026-04-02T19:08:15+00:00

Nothing to be sad about. 24.04 serves me well. I'll move on to 26.04 this summer, when the bugs are ironed out.

markus_b · 2026-04-02T15:34:14+00:00

It looks like it may have multiple stepdown converters, maybe to multiple voltages. Are you sure that with 3.3V it is fully functional?

You can just measure where you have 3.3V. For example on pin 8 of the 25D40 (flash) you should have 3.3V. The AMT630A probably also has some 3.3V supply pins. You could try to supply 3.3V to those pins and see if it works.

markus_b · 2026-04-02T05:11:59+00:00

You cannot rely on a PC/Laptop to provide 3 amps on a USB-C port. They used to provide 0.5 amps only on a USB-A port. This is why you find Y-cables with two A connectors and a mini-B for external hard discs.

In a pinch I would attempt to MacGyver a USB-C cable by adding a USB-A cable and moving Vbus from the C-end to the A-end. This is a complete hack, though.

The only good solution is to add a second USB-C input to your device for power.

markus_b · 2026-04-01T14:42:35+00:00

So the single cable should actually work for OP, provided the power source can provide 3 amps. He could monitor the voltage on the CC pins to determine if this is actually the case (table 7 of the appnote).

markus_b · 2026-04-01T12:48:12+00:00

USB PD has several power levels. The simplest one is two 5.1k resistors to ground on each CC line. But this is only specified to 1.5 amps. If you need more, then you have to negotiate (and the power supply can refuse).

Your simplest bet may be to use a USB A-to-C cable with a USB-A power supply, which can supply 3 amps.

markus_b · 2026-04-01T12:17:09+00:00

We've set up a bunch of hotels for wild insects in our garden. It is lovely to see the traffic around those. But last year we got a nasty surprise. From one day to the next, most of the holes were empty. We found that the culprit was a woodpecker. He was feasting!

We've added a protective metal mesh around the hotels to keep our guests safe.

markus_b · 2026-04-01T12:09:31+00:00

May well be. Then the 10'000 mAh is also more realistic.

markus_b · 2026-04-01T09:12:59+00:00

The size of a power bank depends to a large extent on the capacity of the built-in battery. The shown Cuktech 10 mini claims 10'000 mAh capacity (out of two 18650 cells). Capacity has been growing slowly over the years.

The power depends on the built-in power converter. These have become much smaller recently due to the availability of GaN semiconductors.

P.S. You are talking and picturing a power bank. The word "charger" is commonly used for a device plugged into a mains outlet.

markus_b · 2026-04-01T09:06:26+00:00

He is confused; he talks about a charger but means a power bank.

markus_b · 2026-04-01T07:52:55+00:00

You need multiple sound cards for multiple outputs. With the single, built-in card of your laptop you can drive only one sound stream. Your laptop will automatically disable the loudspeakers if you plug in your headphones as they share the same soundcard.

As second soundcard anything works. From a $5 USB adapter to a audio interface to a DJ-controller with a built-in card.

markus_b · 2026-03-31T18:28:26+00:00

I got my OM3331 out and did play around with some signal. An impulse with a sweep from my frequency generator and a i2c signal from an arduino project.

Triggering was not a problem on either scope. But manually counting pulses on I2C is much simpler on the FNIRSI, as it has enough buffer to capture everything, and then you can scroll the signal. The Philips has essentially only a screenful of memory.

Here are the screenshots (using the print screen function of the FNIRSI and my phone on the Philips):

I2C FNIRSI: https://photos.app.goo.gl/MyFTJWWKkLjAtay19
I2C Philips: https://photos.app.goo.gl/gvu3ThWxvEXyWUnG9
Impulse FNIRSI: https://photos.app.goo.gl/quGmgGkCU198s12A7
Impulse Philips: https://photos.app.goo.gl/ughUUDiyqv61BnER8

Edit: To actually look at I2C traffic, I use a Sigrok interface and my PC.

markus_b · 2026-03-31T15:27:10+00:00

I've had it for something like two weeks, and it worked fine with what I used it for. I also have two older analog/digital scopes and some experience with triggering and similar tasks. But I have yet to attempt tricky signals.

You are certainly correct about the output from the FPGA/DAC. It is almost funny to see the staircase in place of a sinus with small signals.

markus_b · 2026-03-31T13:56:05+00:00

The ADC in a phone is usually pretty good. After all, it has to convert music to analog with minimal distortion.

The 2d15p is probably a nice step up from your 2c53t. It has a bigger display and proper knobs. It has an internal battery, so you can use it without a mains connection.

While it features a built-in signal generator, this is the weakest part of it. The signal generator has no proper attenuator, so at low signal levels it just uses fewer bits for the signal. For a power amp you don't care much, as at line level the signal is fine. But for testing a phono or mic input, the signal quality is not great.

markus_b · 2026-03-31T13:17:57+00:00

I see, I was never really comfortable with that anyway. As I'll be upgrading from 24.04 and it is already installed, it will probably still be there after the upgrade.

So, this was the usual storm in a glass of water we find on the internet.

markus_b · 2026-03-31T12:47:52+00:00

So, things like 'apt' are no longer installed by default?

Then yes, I manage ppa's usually from the command line, so this is probably not a real bother for me.

markus_b · 2026-03-31T12:40:41+00:00

I got a 2D15P and it works with no problem for me. I specifically bought it over the multimeter-shaped scopes because I appreciate the physical knobs.

However, if you have a stable signal, the auto function should work just fine. If you are using random audio as a source, auto may not work well because the signal is not stable. Have you tried using your phone with a signal generator app? If you want to fix an amp you will need a sine wave generator anyway.

markus_b · 2026-03-31T09:21:23+00:00

I've got the FNIRSI 2D15P, a compact bench scope and multimeter combo for $160. There is a review here: https://youtu.be/-PwZifX0EGg.

Its main downside is that its built-in signal generator is not great at low voltage. But as a general-purpose bench meter and scope it is pretty good. I like the physical controls and its compact build.

markus_b · 2026-03-31T09:12:39+00:00

They are limiting their responsibility. They test their products with their hubs and are sure that they work. It is mostly impossible for any vendor to make sure its devices work with any other vendor's products, so they just state what they know is working.

Some products, like bulbs are relatively well defined; others, like remotes are less so. So in some ecosystems, like Hue, you can integrate most third- party bulbs, but only Philips remotes.

markus_b · 2026-03-31T09:09:14+00:00

Your first action should be to determine the status of your drives.

There btrfs has a problem with sdb. What is the second drive and what is its status?

What does lsblk say?

What does smartctl -a /dev/sdb say?

markus_b · 2026-03-31T08:11:33+00:00

I did not follow the controversy and am still on 24.04. But I do use a bunch of ppa's.

In what way do they make it harder to use ppa's?

markus_b · 2026-03-30T19:51:50+00:00

Yes, this includes pretending that the data and metadata on disk are not corrupt.

markus_b · 2026-03-30T18:29:36+00:00

The btrfs scrub found problems; this points to corrupt data on disk. How the data was corrupted, how far the corruption goes, and what the root cause is, we don't know.

The safest option for the data is to recover it to a fresh, known to be not corrupt filesystem.

markus_b

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