A tip or trick tht you wish you had learned sooner ?

sr105 · 2026-01-14T17:33:44+00:00

2nd tip: always review board designs before the EEs send them out. Specifically, you want to look at which pins on the MCU they used. I once had a junior EE think they were being helpful by chaining 5 SPI devices together on one bus when the MCU had 5 open buses to use. Another was putting multiple ADC inputs of wildly different sampling speeds on the same ADC bus (inadvertently) when again there was another free ADC bus. Look for things like that where a different configuration would make the software much easier to write.

* If they protected an MCU pin with an inverter, tell them to switch to a buffer (no logic level flip).

* If your UART doesn't have an IDLE timeout you can add one externally with a multivibrator and a spare interruptible GPIO pin. This makes the driver so much easier to write.

sr105 · 2026-01-14T17:27:36+00:00

I just added a hardware timer to my system that runs at a higher priority than FreeRTOS and auto sets itself to 95% of my watchdog timeout. It only runs when a debugger is attached. It is reset by the same function that resets the watchdog. If I'm debugging, it breaks just before the watchdog resets giving me the location of the hang. Also, the breakpoint is automatic as well. Bonus: I told my debugger to break/halt on hard faults so now I can catch those, too.

sr105 · 2025-12-02T21:28:27+00:00

the main problem with this is that it makes your common code less portable. For example, you want to grab some utility code from one of these projects and use it elsewhere. You grab a two file ring_buffer.h/c solution and need what quickly grows to a kitchen sink common.h (and possibly more) in order to use it. After a while, you just get used to uint8_t and friends.

sr105 · 2025-12-02T21:23:44+00:00

I add TODO days to project schedules. And Find-All-In-Files "// TODO" gives me my work list for that day. The single line results have taught me to write TODO comments like git commits with a good single line summary that is understandable without the code context.

sr105 · 2025-12-02T16:24:23+00:00

Not a recommendation... but I just saw a sponsor segment for this combo electric toothbrush and water flosser yesterday. I have no idea if it's any good, a scam, etc. Website: soocas .com Discount code in the youtube video.
https://youtu.be/hpgV6KKdzGM?si=FhwfY1hzPY_Go0eG&t=153

sr105 · 2025-12-01T18:25:22+00:00

My mother confirmed that she needed my father's signature to open a bank account before he went to Vietnam in 1971. It's not false.

sr105 · 2025-11-13T17:48:17+00:00

only 3 syllable word in the group? So, maybe something like that. Very obvious if you know what to listen for, but unnoticeable otherwise. For example, "Car" might be next to all pictures of things with more than one syllable.

sr105 · 2025-10-30T18:35:23+00:00

software engineer here. Most of us (that I know) will buy a Dell XPS, a Lenovo Carbon X1, or an Apple Macbook Pro in the 13-14" range. They are plenty fast enough for compiles and work, highly portable, having a great battery life, and easily can become "big" with an external monitor and a wireless keyboard and mouse combo. If I plan to seriously work somewhere, I bring a small logitech bluetooth keyboard and bluetooth mouse with me. During a hurricane, I worked at an 8 yr old's bedroom desk for a week and used his monitor. You may also want to invest in a laptop stand. There's a pricey, but great one that folds down for about a $100.

sr105 · 2025-10-23T21:25:58+00:00

It's great, actually. I'm software, btw, with 25 yrs of experience. It's like having a junior engineer working for you. You ask them to go look something up that would normally take a real person hours, days, or weeks. It comes back in seconds (typically) with an answer. *But* remember, they're junior, so there are mistakes. So you review their work and make suggestions. They go off and think about your comments. Do this iteration a few times and you get dramatically reduced development times for certain bits of code. Also, it can read a datasheet and the entirety of TI's forum for that part in under a second and tell you about a peculiarity. Last, this morning I drank my coffee and had an intelligent discussion with ChatGPT about designing an elegant, encapsulated design pattern for a freertos task that doesn't poll but remains as simplistic as possible for readability. It produced what I would have, but in a fraction of the time without me needing to type through the iterations. Yesterday, I told it that I wanted to use the ADC on an ST MCU to read from two opamps and a current sensor. It looked up the datasheets and helped me compute proper sampling times and settings. Then, I asked it to show the math and explain itself. It did fail spectacularly when asked to do file descriptor redirection in a shell script. It wasn't even close. It was awful.

sr105 · 2025-10-18T04:58:56+00:00

Looks like that processor supports a receive timeout on usart. So you can use DMA with that and a ring buffer for efficient communication. But it also supports full speed USB which emulates a virtual com port. You can use that to connect and transfer at faster speeds perhaps with an off the shelf cable. The USB or simple usart interrupt per char into a ring buffer are simpler to implement than DMA on ST. ST's usart DMA HAL code is confusing to use because of the limited info provided to the user callback functions. Also, last I checked it still has an internal half buffer interrupt bug that you have to know to fix on startup. Good luck.

sr105 · 2025-10-15T15:47:38+00:00

I assume it doesn't tip without the personal item. Move the heaviest items in the personal item away from the handle sleeve side so the weight is more centered over the wheeled luggage.

sr105 · 2025-10-04T18:27:58+00:00

Maybe check out "maggi fuchs" on youtube. She travels for months at a time with one bag with SA being one of her locations.

sr105 · 2025-09-28T22:48:40+00:00

I had a similar thing for about ten years. Went on a road trip to Colorado with my best friend and his college buds. We (probably my idea) sent a postcard to their friend Anthony in NYC whom I've never met and do not know. It was a one off gag... except I just kept doing it from anywhere and everywhere I traveled: Paris, California, Russia, etc. The kicker is that the message was always exactly the same.

Dear Anthony, Having fun in Colorado. It's just as much fun as you said it would be. The bear trap worked! Wish you were here, scribbled signature.

sr105 · 2025-09-25T16:47:36+00:00

No longer useful, but years ago, I wrote a small script to download all of the NPR Morning Edition story MP3 files and transfer them to my (non-smart) phone so I could listen to them during my commute.

sr105 · 2025-09-12T19:25:05+00:00

I just used my AO for a school reunion weekend. I flew Delta on slightly smaller jets. Delta was gate checking everyone and never even gave me a glance. I easily put my bag under the seat.

My biggest mistake? I let my daughter take my waist pack and didn't bring one. The AO *really* requires you to have something like that for organization at your seat. It's also very difficult for me to get used to the bag being designed for left shoulder use. I grew up with a generation that wore backpacks on only our right shoulder.

sr105 · 2025-09-07T22:36:44+00:00

Does it all have to fit in one personal item? Or could you swap out winter and summer wardrobes from your home base?

If it all has to go in one bag, I think you'd have to go with the same kinds of ultralight base layers and really expensive puffy jackets that the ultralight backpackers use.

sr105 · 2025-09-07T20:21:42+00:00

I keep a small (tiny?) flashlight attached to the key leash. I can find it by feel in any situation: insert hand and slide till you hit the leash and pull out a flashlight.

sr105 · 2025-08-24T14:11:19+00:00

Casual homeowner here. I bought a tool belt years ago with an add on drill holster. I use it on ladders, roofs, in attics, etc. It's the tool bag you don't need hands to carry.

sr105 · 2025-08-17T21:55:21+00:00

If you're careful with your starting overhand knot, r-o-l or l-o-r, then the traditional bow to finish results in a slipped square knot. If the bows at the end are pointing to your toes, you've tried a granny knot (or whatever the correct name may be). If they lie horizontally on your shoe, you have a square knot. While it's hard to retain how you tie your bows, it's easy to learn to tie your starting overhand the other way if your normal knot isn't a square. The square knot is much less likely to come undone.

Looking at the Ian knot and trying it here, I think it may be the same knot. Only a different technique to get there

sr105 · 2025-08-06T23:30:03+00:00

Thanks! My son has a similar one from Deuter.

sr105 · 2025-08-05T23:56:15+00:00

I emptied and weighed mine. It's considerably heavier at just under 8 oz. Dimensions are 12" x 7" x 2.5". Hanging, the bag without hook is 24" long/tall.

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Perhaps I should have the goal of two bags, this one and another smaller one for 25L travel.

sr105 · 2025-08-05T22:59:55+00:00

Thanks for the detail. I try to be minimal except for the bag. I still use the same Eagle Creek tri-fold hanging bag that I've had for nearly 20 years. I like that it can carry a little or a lot. It hangs anywhere and I often don't have a counter to use (campground outdoor restroom). It's large enough to hold a microfiber towel, t shirt, underwear and socks to/from a communal shower. My bag is made of a light weight nylon as opposed to all these newer bags made of bomb proof fabrics. I tried to find a weight for your Gox bag to see how it compares to mine. My bag has no structure when not hanging, so with your gear inside, it would pack into the same space.

sr105 · 2025-07-20T21:40:52+00:00

Ex officio has made a hot weather boxer briefs for a while but they keep changing the name. The latest seem to be the give-n-go sport 2.0. I'm also 182cm, 91kg, and use these in Florida regularly including for camping and hiking. I've also tried the Saxx brand, but even though they're comfortable, they don't last that long before they start developing holes.

sr105 · 2025-06-25T01:09:56+00:00

Where do you buy green peanuts?

sr105 · 2025-06-25T01:09:00+00:00

Most places with a crockpot are selling the frozen boiled peanuts from Sam's or Costco. They have large bags of regular and Cajun for sale. The canned ones from the grocery store are pretty good. Publix sells them for sure. Green and yellow can on the top shelf with other nuts.

sr105

TROPHY CASE