Tweets
Replying to @tomfleet and @oakdevtech
funny thing: this comment made me go back to the data sheet for the module I want to use, and it turns out it runs on 3V. I’m shocked, as I’ve never seen one of this type that didn’t run on 5V. So it turns out the whole hypothetical in this thread is moot: I don’t need 5V. 🙃
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Replying to @tomfleet and @oakdevtech
thanks for the recommendation! also, is it fair to say that this chip is running $4+ right now because of the silicon shortages? I wish there were a website that would tell us what these parts were meant to cost in normal times.
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Replying to @arturo182
I don’t know when I stopped feeling this way or why, but I’ve felt much happier ever since I left perfection behind and embraced good enough. (tho I still feel irrational embarrassment about that guy in my past who wasn’t remotely good at things)
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electronics twitter hypothetical: I have a coin cell (2.5V~3.2V). I need 5V. And I don’t want to burn a lot of quiescent current. I’m looking at something like the MAX17220, but it feels overkill: meant to supply 225mA, but I’ll only ever need 30µA. Does something exist for this?
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Replying to @abetusk
Here it is! I cleaned up the main script eventually — I can dig up that version if you want it — but the most useful thing here is at the bottom of the page: a patch to the Adafruit ht16k33 library that makes it work with the 8-digit modules. https://gist.github.com/joeycastillo/a2ef23566188c3e1bce9268421a7794d
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Replying to @abetusk
The amber 14-segment digits were from Adafruit, so I know those will work. The red and green I got from aliexpress, which is kinda the wild west. The green were very dim at 3.3V so I had to dial the brightness back on everything else to make it match. I have some code somewhere…
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Replying to @abetusk
The gist is each module has 8 characters, and a 5-pin header on one side / socket on the other. You can control up to 8 of them on an I2C bus by closing some address jumpers on the back. You also supply them with 5V power; each module has its own 3.3V LDO. https://mobile.twitter.com/josecastillo/status/1297651924775374851
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Replying to @abetusk
I did make that! Never documented it well, but I did share the designs and BOM at least. It’s in the linked folder, OSO-ALMO (for ALphanumeric MOdule); you can even get the SMT assembly done by JLCPCB, they should have all the parts. https://github.com/joeycastillo/Feather-Projects/tree/main/Totally%20Not%20Feather%20Related
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Crypto is over. This is the year of keto currency. Your groceries are made of meat, and you pay for them with meat, and they increase in market value until you die of heart failure and/or cows belch the planet to suffocation. https://twitter.com/matterpoetry/status/1477766373153464322
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Another section of the watch interface guidelines done! This one’s a deep dive into the display: capabilities and limitations, and strategies for getting the most out of it. I’d say buttons next, but I really need to hunker down and focus on campaign prep. https://joeycastillo.github.io/Sensor-Watch-Documentation/wig/display.html
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new year, new profile pic
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Replying to @josecastillo
Battery test, day 54: last night I was by a campfire with some friends, and the watch got hot. Battery voltage had been down in the 2.97 range, but I noticed it at 2.99 volts near the flames. This morning it’s back to reading 3.00 volts. I think we’ve still got some time on this.
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Replying to @kfury
Someone just tell me when I can transition from “anxious” to “stoked”.
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Aw shit, here we go again. https://twitter.com/josecastillo/status/1212252151793274881
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Replying to @josecastillo
To be clear: the vaccines and boosters clearly provide a high level of protection against severe illness from Omicron, and you should absolutely get both of them to protect yourself and others. Still, it seems like folks with boosters are still getting hit, which is interesting.
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Honest if naïve question: given the high number of mutations in Omicron, how differently people seem to react to it and how resistant it is to vaccines, boosters and COVID-19 antibodies, what’s the point where it starts being a new virus? When might we start calling it COVID-21?
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Replying to @SignalSkew
This tweet got me curious about what the various structures are doing, and I was pleased to find that there’s a video (by @electronupdate1) breaking it down: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a2IY89FAjZE
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Replying to @willianpaixaoo
I have a prototype NFC accessory board here; I just haven’t had the spare cycles to assemble it or write a driver. Right now I’m focused on the things that I need to finish V1 with the temperature sensor; as long as I know the main board works, folks can swap sensor boards later.
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Replying to @willianpaixaoo
Today I should probably be focused on materials for the campaign, but I’m so close to finishing a chapter in the watch interface guidelines that I want to just get that knocked out and return to campaign prep over the weekend. There’s software stuff too but that can happen later.
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Replying to @willianpaixaoo
Software aside, the big thing is prepping the Crowd Supply campaign, which I hope to kick off next month. But I’m also working on a final design for the temperature sensor accessory board (flex PCB’s coming Monday) and an improved panelization for manufacturing the final boards.
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wow. JetBlue’s SAT-NYC flights were cancelled both yesterday and today. I got out *just* in time. https://www.businessinsider.com/why-airlines-canceling-flights-covid-omicron-staff-shortages-2021-12
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Replying to @josecastillo
the impetus for this tweet is that something reminded me of a feature I wanted to build for the Open Book’s reading software, and I realized that I’m SO MUCH BETTER at ALL OF THIS than I was two years ago. If I did it now it would slay. but for the moment, I have to stay focused.
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finishing is the hardest part. Starting’s fun. 90% of the work is fun. Then I get to the last 90% and I just want to hack on something else. I’m not gonna. I’m gonna get this watch thing done if it kills me. but if it doesn’t, I plan to get back to the book next year, as a treat.
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RT @MakeAugusta: If you haven’t seen the livestream we did with @josecastillo @helenleigh and @crowd_supply, check it out. We were doing t…
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Replying to @josecastillo
all of this is to say: it was a productive year. #yearinreview, 22/22
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Replying to @josecastillo
Which brings us to today, and the end of the year. With luck the @Crowd_Supply campaign should be up in a few weeks. I have work to do for that; I sense it too will require new skills and old. But soon, I hope, this seed planted one year ago will bear fruit. #yearinreview (21/22)
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Replying to @josecastillo
UX design: https://twitter.com/josecastillo/status/1474107494393950214
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Replying to @josecastillo
Machine learning: https://twitter.com/josecastillo/status/1468334402325606402
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Replying to @josecastillo
Motion sensing: https://twitter.com/josecastillo/status/1466410517082296321
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Replying to @josecastillo
Custom LCD fabrication: https://twitter.com/josecastillo/status/1462812664183373834
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Replying to @josecastillo
Manufacturing: https://twitter.com/josecastillo/status/1459571019958607873
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Replying to @josecastillo
By November it felt like the work was reaching a crescendo: new skills, old skills, new processes and experiences, all coming together to make this thing real. Graphic design: https://twitter.com/josecastillo/status/1458103288428212227
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Replying to @josecastillo
October: we have Movement. A single application, built atop the Sensor Watch Library, that manages many watch faces. Within a month @tahnok’s beats face & stopwatch would join over a dozen watch faces like Clock, Temperature & Battery #yearinreview (14/22) https://twitter.com/josecastillo/status/1450192394532659206
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Replying to @josecastillo
September: validation! The first community contribution. @tahnok built the first third-party application for the Sensor Watch: a beat time display. I had always imagined people writing their own apps for the watch; he went and did it. #yearinreview (13/22) https://twitter.com/tahnok/status/1436322833450348544
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Replying to @josecastillo
…and I wrote a useful application to take with me to Yellowstone, which would have been rad if I hadn’t lost the prototype 18 hours into the trip. (12/22) https://twitter.com/josecastillo/status/1428057241761034241
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Replying to @josecastillo
I also hand-assembled a few of them. (11/22) https://twitter.com/josecastillo/status/1426307006013526016
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Replying to @josecastillo
August. The Sensor Watch Library. Where before I was hacking on one-off projects in Atmel Studio, by August I’d managed to create a library of API calls, as well as a coherent framework for building apps for the Sensor Watch platform. #yearinreview (10/22) https://twitter.com/josecastillo/status/1421961570783989764
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Replying to @josecastillo
July! USB and UF2 bootloader working. Both of these were prerequisites for the platform as I envisioned it; both were things I knew we’d need as far back as January. Inch by inch, the progress adds up. #yearinreview (9/22) https://twitter.com/josecastillo/status/1412568021026099200
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Replying to @josecastillo
June. Still working full time, but I did manage a vacation. Scrolling through old tweets, I think I did some Open Book work in the latter half of this month? But mostly, I took a much-needed break. (8/22) https://twitter.com/josecastillo/status/1403092105262768128
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Replying to @josecastillo
May. Another rev. By now I understood the SAM L22’s RTC peripheral well enough to add a low power external wake interrupt on one of the buttons. Also: in hindsight, this may have been the start of me getting over my impostor syndrome. #yearinreview (7/22) https://twitter.com/josecastillo/status/1394875998722691074
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Replying to @josecastillo
April. I²C support. I remember reading @theavalkyrie’s Gemini firmware, and trying to implement my own thing from scratch; alas, my register-fu wasn’t strong enough back then. Still, using ASF, I was able to get something working. Progress comes in inches! https://twitter.com/josecastillo/status/1386515726740164609
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Replying to @josecastillo
March! A milestone. I’d never done a panel of PCB’s before. I was still working basically full-time at this point, and splitting my time with Open Book stuff. I do recall the “life” part of the job-work-life triangle being very out of whack in this moment. https://twitter.com/josecastillo/status/1371615657364754432
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Replying to @josecastillo
By the end of February my nights and weekends were filled with work on rev 4, and the thing made sense! I could see the whole platform inside my head. Still, there was a lot of work to do to make it make sense outside my head as well. #yearinreview (4/22) https://twitter.com/josecastillo/status/1363532110057902081
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Replying to @josecastillo
30 days from inception, I had a third revision assembled, and I began hacking on the Sensor part of the Sensor Watch. I was still working full-time as a software engineer at this point. TBH, I still look at these timestamps in disbelief. #yearinreview 3/22 https://twitter.com/josecastillo/status/1359732962628091904
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Replying to @josecastillo
The Year of the Watch began on January 10. @oshpark’s Super Swift service makes this timeline feel impossible, but I swear this is how it happened: I had the first prototype assembled eleven days later, and a second prototype soon after. #yearinreview 2/22 https://twitter.com/josecastillo/status/1352459044460654594
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#yearinreview thread? #yearinreview thread! This was a big year for me. I had a job again, for some of it anyway; upped my freelance rate substantially, and ended up with a good job-work-life balance. But let’s be real: this was the Year of the Watch. 1/22 https://twitter.com/josecastillo/status/1348474279952855044
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Flying today, back to NYC, and this time I am worried. There’s no question: Omicron is here at this airport. There was a time in this pandemic when it would have been reasonable to hope that the virus might not be on my flight. Today it’s unreasonable to imagine its absence. 😷🤞🏽
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Replying to @GregDavill, @colinoflynn and @RebelbotJen
Same tbh https://mobile.twitter.com/josecastillo/status/1440748305231724551
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Broke: cars allowed
Woke: cars prohibited
Bespoke: pedestrians welcome
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thinking back to this article from the other day. I imagine we are all alone with our thoughts at the end. I wonder how many folks spend their last moments on this earth reminiscing about something they thought was life, but was really just capitalism.
Anyway happy holidays y’all
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