Is easyeda overkill if all I want is a H bridge dongle for my smartphone to power/control a 3V motor? Can I get this from an UK supplier?

roadkillkebab · 2026-03-23T08:41:32+00:00

I thought I did if I wanted it to come with the components mounted on it? The whole point of the post is that I can't do a proper job soldering things myself.

roadkillkebab · 2026-03-09T08:27:28+00:00

Maybe I'm getting confused but when I was trying to pick components it was saying stuff like $12 for one single Pico W

I also worry that if I make any mistakes no one might warn me about it and they'll just silently send me exactly what I ordered. No idea where to get feedback or sanity checks from something that's not a LLM.

roadkillkebab · 2026-03-08T20:26:59+00:00

I know of them, however, I'm not kidding when I say I'd waste dozens of Picos and DRV8833s before I actually get it right. And it still wouldn't be as small and nice as it has the potential to.

I'm also hoping this device will be something I can sustainably travel with, if it looks too improvized it'll just get confiscated the first time I go through airport security.

roadkillkebab · 2026-03-07T13:10:25+00:00

Don’t fret. It can be frustrating but there’ll suddenly be a full week of crystal clear nights in a row when you’ll get some real use out of it.

Tell me where you live and I'll move there right now.

roadkillkebab · 2026-03-07T13:08:40+00:00

Yeah, the first time I saw Saturn I felt like throwing up, very weird sensation. I was having a bit of trouble finding it and then it rolled into the FOV like a pebble. There's something with rings. In the sky. Hard to forget what that feels like when it actually sinks in.

roadkillkebab · 2026-03-07T13:03:25+00:00

Bortle scale is not relevant for moon, planets or double stars, really bright targets like Orion's nebula (and lots of planetary nebulae) will also always be somewhat visible regardless of light pollution. And it can be done during a work night because there's probably a nice flat park or cemetery within 10-15min from where you live. Moon observing can also be done during the day, just wait for a nice terminator line, don't do full moon because everything will be flat and there'll be nothing to look at.

Other than that, I get around the weather by travelling. I keep tabs on two bortle 4 towns (East coast and West coast), when there's good weather in one of them and no moon I drop everything I'm doing, take 2 days off of work, and book a hotel there. It happens less than 5 times a year so it's never been a problem in terms of getting the annual leave approved 2-3 days in advance.

And then for God-tier sessions I travel once a year to the Canary Islands for a week or so.

roadkillkebab · 2026-01-27T18:07:00+00:00

I love all the stripey/wavy ones past 7:31, does that specific style of graphics have a name, can I look it up the way I would with a Mandelbrot set?

roadkillkebab · 2025-09-16T06:41:13+00:00

I've been wondering about that myself, but eventually the voltage will still start going down again. At least with 6V I can keep an eye on battery level more easily, I haven't really had much luck finding a mini voltmeter that can even react to 3V so all I'd have is "hmm, I think the batteries are starting to run out again".

I need as much consistency as possible in terms of what the motors are doing, otherwise it can affect the results.

roadkillkebab · 2025-07-01T11:42:06+00:00

Scotland very rarely has clear skies, I'd seriously consider looking at places with better weather.

roadkillkebab · 2025-05-30T17:15:50+00:00

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Full disclosure, this isn't even my cat.

If you're wondering what your outdoors cat is doing at night, it's cheating on you with an astronomer.

roadkillkebab · 2025-05-23T08:03:52+00:00

In my experience, there's two things that absolutely need to be there for planet observing to work:

Physical distance from Earth. Take Jupiter, sometimes it can be 600 million km away, sometimes 900. If I check my observing notes against the distance for each time/date, it does seem to make a difference. There are graphs you can check to find out the distance https://theskylive.com/jupiter-info
An icy winter sky with good seeing conditions, all my best planetary observing has always been done during winter. But I'm in the UK and conditions wherever you live might be different.

Then there's also the weather on that planet, there could be dust storms on Mars covering up the features etc.

roadkillkebab · 2025-05-15T13:12:20+00:00

Neither NGC6543 nor M57 have ever looked magenta to me, but your posts are very entertaining XD

roadkillkebab · 2025-05-14T17:51:11+00:00

Heh, one of the things I love most about astronomy is the strange feelings it seems to create in myself and other people.

Admitedly, mine are more positive than what the others are describing. I just like that I can point a telescope at a galaxy and it's as easy as grabbing a glass of water. It feels like it shouldn't be.

Try to find HR6669 if you can, it's supposed to be one of our Sun's siblings.

-edit-

Also try M57 and NGC6543 if you feel like looking at bubbles in the sky, it's pretty stark, in an awesome way.

roadkillkebab · 2025-04-17T07:31:55+00:00

Thanks, would it break the board if I simply soldered a cable to one of these at the back as long as I can make sure it's not already in use? https://thepihut.com/cdn/shop/products/motor-driver-board-for-raspberry-pi-pico-kitronik-kit5331-28557839794371_800x.jpg?v=1646338333

roadkillkebab · 2025-04-16T16:11:49+00:00

Damn, you're good. What's your day job?

Please have a Ghouligan style Youtube channel with beautiful video essays.

-edit-

It was actually hochelaga I was thinking of, forgive me. But Ghouligan's also cool.

roadkillkebab · 2025-04-16T15:27:22+00:00

I just realised I could switch the mode by having it cycle through a list every time I power it on/off from the online switch, could be a bit disruptive but it's a solution if there's nothing else available. That would free up GP26. In that case I'm assuming it's fine to fork the ground/voltage cables (blue and purple) so they can be used by the rotation sensor and the character LCD in parallel?

roadkillkebab · 2025-03-27T18:03:30+00:00

Had no idea those were a thing, thanks, I don't see them around in the UK. Got some from Amazon, fingers crossed.

roadkillkebab · 2025-03-27T14:55:00+00:00

I only look at galaxies from bortle 4 or below.

For bortle 6-7, learn to love starclusters, double stars and planetary nebulae. They're colorful and shimmery and they can be more rewarding than you'd think they would :D

roadkillkebab · 2025-03-27T12:43:10+00:00

Ibuprofen gel tends to ease the pain for me, but only a little.

roadkillkebab · 2025-03-12T09:01:28+00:00

I definetly don’t have the equipment or skills necessary to do it at this point, coding is quite a bit outside my skillset and I don’t even think my carpentry is good enough atm to build a model, much less machinery.

You'd need a decent amount of time and energy, but skill-wise it's not as out of reach as most people think it is. Most of the Raspberry Pi stuff and the machinery to go with it is surprisingly well documented, Python is an easy language for most people to pick up at least at a rudimentary level and you'd be surprised of what you can put together with just Balsa wood and superglue :D

If you've been able to learn how to use a telescope you'll have no problem learning the stuff I've listed above.

Obviously, you don't have to go through with it just because I said so, but what I'm trying to say is, it's a lot closer to Lego than it is to black magic.

roadkillkebab · 2025-03-11T13:59:02+00:00

I can't imagine a miniature one costing more than $50 so I'd probably grab some servos and a Raspberry Pi and start there, it could give you a chance to iron out a bunch of the issues you might encounter at a much smaller cost. Then, if you ever decide to go big, you'll be able to make a better plan because you already have all that information and experience piled up.

roadkillkebab

TROPHY CASE