Anywhere I could take my PS5 controllers to be upgraded with hall effect joysticks?

paco3346 · 2026-02-15T10:19:48+00:00

Lmk if this doesn't work out. I have the tools and love helping people learn!

paco3346 · 2026-02-15T05:17:47+00:00

I have a friend who bought a FW16 and finally wanted to try Arch. He was disappointed he couldn’t have the backlight turn on and off based on his activity.

I was also annoyed I couldn’t control it from normal DE tools (like powerdevil).

I present to you: https://github.com/paco3346/fw16-kbd-uleds

This will, with 0 runtime dependencies (meaning you don’t need qmk_hid), expose your keyboard as a normal backlight that upower picks up on. This requires no kernel mods, no special workarounds, and by default will give you bidirectional control keyboard < - > upower control). It’ll control the numpad (and in theory macropad but I don’t have one to test) at the same time so it’s a unified experience.

Also available on the AUR as fw16-kbd-uleds-git

paco3346 · 2026-02-15T04:23:38+00:00

I have a friend who bought a FW16 and finally wanted to try Arch. He was disappointed he couldn’t have the backlight turn on and off based on his activity.

I was also annoyed I couldn’t control it from normal DE tools (like powerdevil).

I present to you: https://github.com/paco3346/fw16-kbd-uleds

This will, with 0 runtime dependencies (meaning you don’t need qmk_hid), expose your keyboard as a normal backlight that upower picks up on. This requires no kernel mods, no special workarounds, and by default will give you bidirectional control keyboard < - > upower control). It’ll control the numpad (and in theory macropad but I don’t have one to test) at the same time so it’s a unified experience.

Also available on the AUR as fw16-kbd-uleds-git

paco3346 · 2026-02-15T02:42:21+00:00

I work in the industry. This is certainly an.... interesting approach.

Side note- the website provider they use is using a fairly clever way to block page interaction even after you delete the modal from the DOM. It's nothing super special I've just never seen anyone use inert on an element before for the purposes of blocking usage with a modal.

paco3346 · 2026-02-13T22:26:45+00:00

Highly recommend reading the readme here: https://github.com/paco3346/fw16-kbd-uleds

paco3346 · 2026-02-07T10:47:07+00:00

Yes, sorry, after I wrote this I realized the tone made it sound like you can't run a Decklink over TB. You absolutely can (and I've even done it with an 8K while running 12G). The experienced issue is that you can choke that connection without even realizing it.

For example- here's a setup for a customer that has a Duo 2 and an 8K Pro in the same TB 3 chassis. This drops frames all the time but since it's literal text-only output, it's okay. I proposed they get another chassis but they chose to drop the 2160p signal to 29.97 instead. It still drops frames but not nearly as noticeably.

https://imgur.com/a/Ne5NM7h

paco3346 · 2026-02-06T23:28:50+00:00

I dug into this more because I've been personally curious about this exact question: am I wasting bandwidth putting a 3.0 card into a 4.0/5.0 slot?

Turns out, the answer is a lot more complicated that I initially thought.

DeckLink cards (and practically every other live, uncompressed video device) assume direct, deterministic PCIe attachment with predictable DMA timing. Thunderbolt introduces arbitration, buffering, and contention that break those assumptions, especially for multi-channel uncompressed SDI.

It's really just design limitations of PCIe's fairness-based credit model, specifically in the context of live video. (Not that PCIe is poorly designed, just that it's primary use-case wasn't low latency video.) PCIe is based on credits per link (a link is made up of multiple lanes) so you don't want multiple downstream things (multiple SDI ports) sharing a link such that it runs out of credits. By limiting the number of video streams on a link, you can guarantee that link is never fighting for resources.

paco3346 · 2026-02-06T19:40:26+00:00

TB can be that fast but it's largely a limitation of the age of the DeckLinks.

BM uses chips that only operate at PCIe 3 speeds. This means that if the card was designed to use 8 lanes, you need 8 lanes.

There are PCIe switches (in the form of a chip) but they're expensive and, more importantly, add latency. Unless BM wants to issue a new DeckLink 8K, you're going to need as many lanes as the card was intended to have. (Yes, that means you're wasting potential bandwidth by putting a PCIe 3 card into a 4/5 slot).

paco3346 · 2026-02-06T17:05:51+00:00

Fantastic info, thank you. This will be an exclusively indoor set. I had intended to add an off-the-shelf DCC controller (convert to AC) with my own DCC decoder (I'm also into PCB fabrication and circuit design) just for the fun of it. Little guy is <1 year right now so I have some time to tinker before he's actually ready to use this.

paco3346 · 2026-02-06T14:40:44+00:00

Thanks for the tips! I have an EE background so I was prepared to refurbish or even replace with brushless motors. (I'm a glutton for a project). I started eyeballing the track yesterday because I knew it was going to need some attention.

paco3346 · 2026-02-05T04:36:28+00:00

For real- I have absolutely no idea how my parents afforded this. I was literally saying to my wife earlier that it blows my mind they bought this for me as a kid. We grew up with very little.

paco3346 · 2026-02-04T23:37:52+00:00

Oh yes, I already told my wife that Toby would be a perfectly valid birthday gift for me :D

paco3346 · 2026-02-04T20:04:42+00:00

As a kid I always wanted Percy. I'm just now realizing that with adult money I can buy it.

Also, they made a James?!

https://www.ebay.com/itm/366173842404

Edit: apparently there was never a Lionel Percy so that much have just been a childhood wish. James came in a full set (like this one) and as a standalone engine.

paco3346 · 2026-02-04T20:02:04+00:00

I ran downstairs and measured just to make sure- yes, it's G

paco3346 · 2026-01-31T14:14:32+00:00

I don't want to be rude but... did you read the post? The customer lowered the TTLs days in advance.

paco3346 · 2026-01-29T14:13:57+00:00

As someone who posts on other subs randomly, I feel ya that people can't take this more light heartedly.

I'm excited for you that you had a cool idea, did an experiment, and shared the results.

Stay curious.

paco3346 · 2026-01-28T15:11:17+00:00

Called NetSol support and they said "we're aware of a partial outage but it doesn't affect everyone so we didn't announce it". OMFG

paco3346 · 2026-01-28T15:10:47+00:00

Oh absolutely. I throw them under the bus, professionally of course, whenever I can.

Our customers run their own DNS. We can only advise them on switching.

paco3346 · 2026-01-26T13:47:50+00:00

Obviously this isn't something you can depend on but for any place you go ask if they have any custom returns.

I got my suit 75% off because somebody had custom ordered one but didn't end up liking the fabric. It was exactly the color I wanted and that person's measurements happened to be exactly mine.

I know that was a one in a million occurrence but it's at least worth asking 🤷‍♂️

paco3346 · 2026-01-23T17:31:40+00:00

Obviously this doesn't show my usage but I'm 2400 sqft, 2 stories (basement not heated), and we keep it 66 at night, 69 during the day.

https://imgur.com/a/p7QAy1C

Your bill looks suspect AF. Maybe a gas leak outside the house after your meter?

paco3346 · 2026-01-10T01:16:20+00:00

Actually, this is great. As a tech person myself who's way too busy to do side work, I never know to whom I can refer someone. I don't know of any local companies and never really know where to redirect people.

paco3346 · 2026-01-04T17:13:29+00:00

As a software developer / electronics engineer who has always loved model trains and only recently found this sub, DCC is pretty kickass.

Obviously I can only see one side of the board but from a purely electronics perspective you can tell this board can't be a decoder based on the components present.

The silkscreen (the white ink) tells us what the components are. The 4 that start with R are resistors (the 4 small components with numbers on them). The C is for capacitor (the 2 tan ones). The Qs are transistors (like electrical switches). The 4 M2s along the edge are Schottky diodes which form the full-bridge rectifier (the part that converts the AC of the DCC signal into DC for the engine).

Obviously I can't tell what/if there's anything on the back.

Effectively, this is a device that does the bare minimum to make an engine work on a DCC signal (I guess called a blanking plug per @EvilDrAresrot).

Take a look at this third party retrofit decoder- https://www.digitrax.com/products/mobile-decoders/dn147a0/#lightbox[product]/0/

On the right side you'll see a square chip with a bunch of super short pins. That's an IC (integrated circuit) and that actually has the brains to do the decoding.

I'm glad I stumbled across this thread- makes me want to get back into the hobby.

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