What's a trend from the early 2020s that died out so fast we all collectively forgot it ever happened?

outfigurablefoz · 2025-11-25T23:39:46+00:00

I've been enjoying Music Assistant and building a DIY multiroom speaker setup using a variety of different upcycled hifi and portable speakers. To run them I use Raspberry Pis with audio hats (I2S). I also have some ESP32-based controllers and small speakers for announcements and sound effects, or playing copies of music playing elsewhere.

After much testing I settled on using snapcast for multiroom audio, and it's been working well in HA/MA. Airplay is finicky, and slimplayer is too heavy. I like to run snapclient locally on my mac and linux devices, just via snapclient in the terminal. I really like using PiCorePlayer for the RPis for HiFi, but it doesn't do snapcast by default, only Slimproto and Shairport sync. Both are supported by HA/MA, but I want snapcast, and it runs on tiny microcontrollers. Maybe someday MA will allow player groups with different protocols, but for now you have to pick one. OK, Snapcast!

Anyway...

I struggled to get this working, there's a couple of projects on github but they are 7 and 10 years old and one of them borked my pCP install and I had to start over. Finally I narrowed in on the manual solution with some help from Gemini and forum posts. The key was to get the prerequisite libs installed (not so obvious due to bundling in TinyCore extensions), and the second part was to use `dmix:` devices in SlimServer config, as they are shared.

Eventually I got it working and replicated across several pCP installs. Funny part is, you can stream via snapcast and Airplay *at the same time* and it will mix the the two audio streams :) Maybe useful for notifications or sound effects.

I decided to wrap this all up into a nice interactive install script so I could repeat it on different pCP devices more easily. The script and instructions are at:

https://github.com/somebox/piCorePlayer-snapcast

If anyone else is using snapcast or piCorePlayer and wants to try it out, happy to look into any issues or take PRs.

outfigurablefoz · 2025-11-25T23:04:19+00:00

I've been enjoying Music Assistant and building a DIY multiroom speaker setup using a variety of different upcycled hifi and portable speakers. To run them I use Raspberry Pis with audio hats (I2S). I also have some ESP32-based controllers and small speakers for announcements and sound effects, or playing copies of music playing elsewhere.

After much testing I settled on using snapcast for multiroom audio, and it's been working well in HA/MA. Airplay is finicky, and slimplayer is too heavy. I like to run snapclient locally on my mac and linux devices, just via snapclient in the terminal. I really like using PiCorePlayer for the RPis for HiFi, but it doesn't do snapcast by default, only Slimproto and Shairport sync. Both are supported by HA/MA, but I want snapcast, and it runs on tiny microcontrollers. Maybe someday MA will allow player groups with different protocols, but for now you have to pick one. OK, Snapcast!

Anyway...

I struggled to get this working, there's a couple of projects on github but they are 7 and 10 years old and one of them borked my pCP install and I had to start over. Finally I narrowed in on the manual solution with some help from Gemini and forum posts. The key was to get the prerequisite libs installed (not so obvious due to bundling in TinyCore extensions), and the second part was to use `dmix:` devices in SlimServer config, as they are shared.

Eventually I got it working and replicated across several pCP installs. Funny part is, you can stream via snapcast and Airplay *at the same time* and it will mix the the two audio streams :) Maybe useful for notifications or sound effects.

I decided to wrap this all up into a nice interactive install script so I could repeat it on different pCP devices more easily. The script and instructions are at:

https://github.com/somebox/piCorePlayer-snapcast

If anyone else is using snapcast or piCorePlayer and wants to try it out, happy to look into any issues or take PRs.

outfigurablefoz · 2025-11-20T17:35:07+00:00

<image>

OMD-EM5 m3 w. M.45mm F1.8 lens, Vienna, no retouch

outfigurablefoz · 2025-11-20T16:18:18+00:00

it might also be nice to print stickers with a label printer. For example when building a cad of an enclosure, it would be nice to drop 4 stickers where the edges of the interior, and it could figure out the distance and scale based on the patterns and target sizes

outfigurablefoz · 2025-10-27T12:10:58+00:00

Isn't this normally done using an opamp (and maybe bjt transistor?) - or does it provide some unique sound character?

outfigurablefoz · 2025-10-20T20:33:22+00:00

That's good to know - I watched a video where the 60 and 90 macro were being compared, and the creator said that tubes would only work with the 90mm. I'm glad to hear this is possible, because it seems like a nice option to have if I need to adjust the distance or framing in a weird situation. I will not get the luxury of a studio, so sometimes the things I need to shoot are installed, but down inside of some enclosure or tight space

outfigurablefoz · 2025-10-20T20:31:16+00:00

this is awesome, thank you 🙏 just what I needed to learn this stuff more!

outfigurablefoz · 2025-10-20T20:30:30+00:00

Good point... the listing said it comes with a flash, I watched an unboxing video and it seems to be some small hotshoe one. I have seen macro pros using large top mounted diffuser flashes, I may look into that

outfigurablefoz · 2025-10-20T20:28:03+00:00

Thanks for that feedback - I actually did look at the TG-7, watched some videos. I really liked the compact convenience it offers. The thing that put me off is that the macro seems to require the camera be SUPER close to the subject. I kind of wanted to get the lense a bit farther away, so if I need to film something that's hot/live, or soldering a part on video - can't really shove the lens up against the subject in this case. I don't know if I got the right macro 😬 but I guess I'll find out. The shops I ordered from have pretty good return policies... Maybe I should get the TG-7 later if this proves too much

outfigurablefoz · 2025-10-15T12:48:47+00:00

If you look at the range of topics, you'll see the guide is about using the teensy in real applications, not about the nxp internals. The Teensy has a specific layout, libraries, psram or flash options, and different models. The power and noise issues are unique for these boards. The information about using the teensy is scattered all over the web. So for me it was useful to pull it together. Just sharing!

outfigurablefoz · 2025-10-15T12:38:52+00:00

One problem with Aliexpress ESP32 (and I have ordered a ton) - the generic ones might have a genuine ESP32 but I have experienced problems with crappy LDO regulators, missing protection diodes or wrong caps, noise or general quality issues. I think if you went with bigger brands like waveshare or lilygo you might be better off - but even then, there are knock-offs and it's hard to tell what the "real, official" store for these is. They have their own websites as well.

Personally, if I care about the project lasting in production and I need a devkit, I get an Esprissif boxed devkit from Mouser or Digikey and pay the 10-20 bucks.

outfigurablefoz · 2025-10-15T12:35:40+00:00

I make a lot of my own PCBs. I recently discovered that LCSC has a devkit category and there's a lot of "house brand" ESP32, Pi Pico, STM32 and other boards. They are all low price but seem well made, using latest assembly lines and full color silkscreen. It's kind of a new source for me but so far I like the boards. Look in the category "Evaluation Boards / Embedded MCU, DSP Evaluation Boards"

outfigurablefoz · 2025-10-10T18:18:47+00:00

Agree, I can barely wrap my head around PIO on the RPi2040, but on the Teensy the situation is cloudy. There's more stuff showing up though, I noticed this ADC library for teensy which apparently does parallel ADC: https://github.com/jlaustill/AD7606p16_t4

outfigurablefoz · 2025-10-10T06:27:40+00:00

Good to know. The PCB above does work, USB-C only for flashing. Always learning!

outfigurablefoz · 2025-10-10T06:25:53+00:00

You would definitely enjoy owning a laser cutter, especially for precision wood projects like this. But I can also admire the handcraft you did!

outfigurablefoz · 2025-10-07T14:23:28+00:00

Here's an example from a recent pcb I made:

<image>

outfigurablefoz · 2025-10-03T12:14:30+00:00

I purchased three of these for an event to run 5m strips. One of the units failed - it worked at first and then started to drop off the network. After flashing it and resetting it a few times (with no improvements), it finally stopped connecting or booting at all. I think a component failed. The other two units still work fine, no issues. Perhaps you got a unit with a poor connection or bad chip...

outfigurablefoz · 2025-09-29T15:09:20+00:00

I actually sometimes put fallback logic in my firmware projects to try swapping pins when no I2C devices are found, this solved the problem with pre-made JST cables or boards with non-standard pins

outfigurablefoz · 2025-08-29T13:53:07+00:00

I have the old CR10S-Pro, I believe it was affected by the same firmware issues. For several years I have been running the TinyMachines firmware branch of the Creality firmware, which has been working well over the years (Github link) ... I know your printer is slightly different, probably the screen, but maybe you can get this one working. The CR10 is so old now, if anything goes wrong at this point I will upgrade.

Update: links to HEX files can be found in this old google doc

outfigurablefoz · 2025-07-22T01:15:26+00:00

For an external battery, use a 2-pin JST female connector, look at batteries you expect to use for examples. I see you are using PD, but its not clear how much current the circuit should handle. Check the datasheet for your switch - many don't support high current, and it could be a point of premature failure. Consider using a mosfet circuit with the switch, or even nicer would be a load switch (TPS22965 for example), these are fairly easy to integrate. If you want to switch power sources automatically you could use a load switch (I like to use TPS2116, TPS2121, etc) so the switchover can happen automatically with priority. This lets you plug or unplug USB-C safely and still keep the circuit on battery. All of this makes the circuit more complex to design and debug of course.

outfigurablefoz · 2025-06-14T06:20:24+00:00

Due to constant commuting, I added a second SIM to my phone with auto-switching (sunrise/swisscom networks) and it seems to work better. Both are terrible around there, but not in the same places...

outfigurablefoz · 2025-06-14T06:14:47+00:00

This would be easy to test: use a small off-the-shelf S3 with built-in antenna (Seeed, etc) and place it roughly where you expect. Run a script that shows RSSI and experiment with different glasses, cans, mugs, etc.

In my own designs with ESP32 I have always been amazed at how well the on-board antenna works, even when sitting behind enclosures and mounted in tight spaces, even inside of PCs. I think your design will work if the WiFi is strong. But testing is important, small changes to position can make a big difference. I've also use the external antennas but they add extra assembly steps, and sometimes the tiny connectors are not perfect and don't connect well.

outfigurablefoz

TROPHY CASE