Tweets
Replying to @tomfleet and @wizardOfRobots
it is solved. Ended up not being nearly as interesting as all that. But thank you so much for your pointers and ideas! https://twitter.com/josecastillo/status/1373397798821969921
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Wow. wow wow wow. square wave issue solved and it was NOT what I expected. like, at all. A fleck of solder had bridged my PWM pin to a neighboring pin that was driven low in my CircuitPython setup (but crucially, NOT in my Arduino test case). I spent a whole afternoon on this. 🤦🏽♂️
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Replying to @tomfleet and @wizardOfRobots
this would be less crazymaking if it were a hardware issue and I just had to respin with a different pin assignment. the fact that I can make a normal square wave on this pin in Arduino means that it’s definitely software, and a solution definitely exists. I just have to find it.
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Replying to @tomfleet and @wizardOfRobots
well, the other pins in this power group act fine; it’s just PA00 and PA01 that are wacky. this leads me to believe it’s something to do with the fact that they’re oscillator pins. I just need to figure out what Arduino does differently from CircuitPython as relates to these two.
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Replying to @tomfleet and @wizardOfRobots
this is promising! two leads: PA00/PA01 can act as oscillator pins (though CircuitPython defaults to crystal-less), so that’s one avenue to explore. they’re also connected to a different power domain, along with 2 other pins. gonna try generating the signal on one of those first.
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Replying to @wizardOfRobots
Thanks for the idea! Frequency looks good, changing the duty cycle changes it dutifully; still only peaks at ~0.2 V. I’m realizing, it’s got to be something with the setup of this pin in particular, PA01. when I generate the signal on any other timer pin, it behaves as expected.
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Replying to @DerWocket
thanks for the suggestion! alas, the plot only thickens… when I set it as a plain old GPIO out, the highest it goes is still 0.2 volts. but again, only in CircuitPython; referencing the same pin in an Arduino sketch, it’s fine. There must be some kind of setup step I’m missing…
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what is this, a square wave for ants?! debugging one last PyCorder issue before I move on: a required PWM signal is only reaching 0.2 V when it should be logic high. Only seems to happen when setting it up in CircuitPython; in Arduinoland it looks fine. no idea what is happening.
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Replying to @GregDavill
been there ☹️
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Replying to @florianherrengt
Microcontroller-driven device with a low power display, aimed at interfacing with sensors and other gadgets. More details here: https://github.com/joeycastillo/pycorder
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My mom got her first vaccine dose today. She texted me to say she had no side effects, then went home and bagged 20 bags of leaves in the backyard. I said “you just can’t stop!” and she responded “it’s a family trait! Just gotta finish.”
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Replying to @MakeAugusta and @adafruit
Thanks for the kind words!! 🙌🏽
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evolution.
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This whole thread is worth reading. “Some people might wonder why a journalist might spend so much time digging in the 19th century. It’s because this history lives with us, reverberates… Slavery was the engine that fueled the growth of so many of our contemporary institutions.” https://twitter.com/rachelswarns/status/1372554608539795457
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Replying to @josecastillo
This would be a good project if you got some of those sweet Sharp Memory Displays that @RWB93174525 was offering a few weeks ago; turn one of them into a gorgeous low-power black and white #CircuitPython gadget! I’ve already found several uses around the house for mine.
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I’d hoped to finish this for @adafruit’s Show & Tell last night; alas, was up late with it in the end. But! The PyCorder is done! Design, BOM, code, (enough) documentation. All up. Relieved; this was an idea that wouldn’t leave me alone until I got it out. https://github.com/joeycastillo/pycorder
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this may be the best error message.
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Replying to @tomfleet
Remote control for a robot vacuum cleaner. we inherited it from a friend and it gave us years of service, but once it bit the dust, the remote became dead weight in a junk drawer
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I gotta say, I’m not wild about the process I took to get this elastomer strip. luckily I’m more of an outcomes-oriented person. Design files here, tho a word of warning, this was a hastily put together gadget; no highly esteemed deed is commemorated here. https://github.com/joeycastillo/Feather-Projects/tree/main/SAML22%20Feather
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broke: storing numbers in the blockchain.
woke: pretending you’re storing numbers in the blockchain.
bespoke:
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Replying to @peppertronics
A few years back I registered one of my domains for the longest period available, which means I have it through my mid-forties. Felt weird about it then; will feel weirder about it when it comes time to renew…
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Replying to @Jaxter184
Two different ones in the end, both available from LCSC. The chunky one on the Open Book is https://lcsc.com/product-detail/5-way-Tactile-Switches_XKB-Connectivity-TM-2027_C318948.html and the slim one on the Pycorder is https://lcsc.com/product-detail/5-way-Tactile-Switches_Korean-Hroparts-Elec-K1-5202UA-02_C145900.html
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Replying to @josecastillo
finally: the Pycorder. This rev uses a navigation joystick instead of a touch panel. I plan to make one of these for me, but assuming it works I’m just going to publish the design so folks can DIY it; no tindie store for this one. I’d recommend getting it in After Dark anyway :)
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Replying to @josecastillo
Next: the Open Book Abridged Edition. The plan here is to validate the design and see how well a Pi Pico could work driving a low-cost variant of the book. My e-paper supplier is out of stock for a few more weeks tho, so this is just a prototype for me; release will have to wait.
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Replying to @josecastillo
First up: baby’s first panel. once I get SAML22 TinyUSB stuff figured out, I plan to hand-assemble a small run of the sensor watch PCB’s and put them on tindie. I think the platform holds promise. But only if I can get hardware into people’s hands (or on their wrists, as it were)
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also in today’s mail: more things to assemble. I said there were three projects I needed to focus on? Here are the three. (thread, 1/4ish)
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Replying to @josecastillo
Busted eufy remote seems to have elastomer strips inside, but they have extra non-conductive padding on both sides, so they’re a bit too thick. Some delicate x-acto work might make it fit. No idea if the pitch is fine enough but I can find out by, y’know, trying it.
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Replying to @stillchip and @travisgoodspeed
Yep, tho that website (and Fujipoly) both seemed like suppliers for thousands of units (contact-us-for-a-quote style) and not small quantities like the screen manufacturer I bought from. Other folks have pointed me to eBay which seems like it’s my best option in this situation.
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Replying to @ElectronVillage
I will say, it feels a bit odd that the glass is in the catalog of a big supplier like DigiKey, but I have to go to eBay to find the mating part. like I assume at high volume I’d have them custom made, but offering the screen in small qty and not the strip feels like half a thing
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Replying to @ElectronVillage and @pebble_dev
Thanks for the suggestion! eBay is always the last place I think to check, but there seems to be a Nintendo gadget that uses a strip of similar width, and the pitch looks fine enough. https://www.ebay.com/itm/Conductive-Rubber-LCD-Zebra-Connector-55x4x1mm-Nintendo-Elektronika-Game-Watch/143927042869
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Replying to @travisgoodspeed
It’s not, not yet anyway; for my F-91 watch mod I’m going to stick to keeping the original display for now, just to keep things simple (and embrace the ethos of reuse). This little feather project is using a more generic off the shelf LCD: https://www.orientdisplay.com/products/od-372-lcd-glass-panel/
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Replying to @josecastillo
in the meantime I guess I’m going to go find a busted pocket calculator that I can scrap for parts? Or take apart some other LCD-oriented gadget in my house that I think I can do without…
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Displays are in and 3D printed bezel fits nicely! Alas, this is not yet a success. I knew this LCD needed a zebra strip connector; what I didn’t realize is that it wouldn’t come with one. Where does one even find these things? They must exist and yet my search is coming up blank.
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I think once this first pandemic is over, I’m going to keep wearing a mask. Less a light blue “I’m in my own aseptic environment” mask; more a thick black Wild West “I’m dressed to rob this stagecoach (and also cholera is a thing)” mask. Because let’s face it: masks are cool.
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huh. Today I learned. https://twitter.com/recursive/status/1371129397323821065
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Replying to @josecastillo
I have a blinking light. which is a better blinking light than last time because at least this blinking light is telling me something. unfortunately the message is ’lol ur code’s not working.'
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i am not good at this low level stuff. The build went fine, I can program the board; the problem is me and my seeming inability to program things. I wish I could just sit my board atop a USB spec and have it learn by osmosis; alas this is not what they meant by ‘machine learning’
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Replying to @josecastillo
Just felt like I should mark the occasion somehow.
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Replying to @josecastillo
Eventually, a thin veneer of normalcy returned. I left quarantine, having never had the virus. We learned more; masked up; stopped washing our quarts of milk from the grocery store. I eventually returned to New York; quarantined and locked down again.
And now a year has passed.
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Replying to @josecastillo
Anyway at this Zoom party, one friend began to play a haunting acoustic cover of “Have You Ever Seen the Rain” by Creedence. And I don’t know why, but that’s the moment it hit me. “Someone told me long ago: there’s a calm before the storm. I know, it’s been comin’ for some time.”
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Replying to @josecastillo
Somehow between the adrenaline of fleeing, the worry over my status, the fear of breathing indoors, I hadn’t had a chance to process the deeper realization that the world had changed; that death and fear was with us now. That there was a before, and that now we live in the after.
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Replying to @josecastillo
But of all the zoom moments, one sticks out. It was a virtual birthday party for two friends. IRL they often invited friends to read, sing or share art at their parties. This year, it was happening on zoom, spread across three time zones, about a week into my 14-day quarantine.
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Replying to @josecastillo
Stranger still to hear stories of NYC’s lockdown from afar. One friend spoke of ambulances lined up like an airport taxi stand. On a zoom call one night I heard a siren though the headphones. One friend said it was outside his window. Another said there was also one outside hers.
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Replying to @josecastillo
It was a strange time in Texas. There was still a sense that the virus was an “over there” problem. My folks called an HVAC technician to service our air conditioner; he refused to come in when he saw a truck with New York plates. The roadblocks at the state line came soon after.
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Replying to @josecastillo
Made it to West Virginia before a friend convinced me to head south again. Worked out an aggressive isolation strategy with my family. It didn’t feel perfectly safe, but NYC didn’t feel safe either. What was safe now? I finished the drive, sleeping at rest stops in the truck bed.
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Replying to @josecastillo
Then the next morning, turned around and drove back north. Called home; told my family that I’d gotten out too late. Coming to Texas was too big of a risk. There was no test for the virus at that point, and I felt like a guided missile driving from a hotspot to my childhood home.
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Replying to @josecastillo
I left in a jumble, wearing gloves and a bandana over my face. Crossed the bridge into Manhattan; saw crowds wandering SoHo, oblivious to what was coming. Made it to VA that night; camped on forest service land. With one bar of cell signal, read estimates of NYC’s true caseload.
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Replying to @josecastillo
It was Wednesday night at my favorite bar. Told the bartender I might be gone for a bit; skipping town over virus fears. I’d planned to pack over the weekend and leave Monday morning. Then the next day Tom Hanks had it; the NBA canceled its season; and I decided to leave Friday.
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Replying to @josecastillo
I’d been isolating since the start of March. NYC had 2 positive tests in its first 2 days of testing and still the city felt like a petri dish. Tho I must I confess I did go out one last time. March 10. I knew I shouldn’t. But it felt like it might be the last moment of normalcy.
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So this is one year for me. A year ago today, I spent the morning cramming as much of my life as I could into my truck, and fleeing New York for two weeks of quarantine and four months of lockdown in Texas. Reviewing my notes from that time, and it is wild to remember the moment.
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