LonesomeLamp

I was going to attempt to turn one into a tablet. I got a 4” resistive touch screen to play with, but I couldn’t get the pi to play with it nicely and my coding wasn’t (isn’t) good enough to take the jab at it. And then the uSD card ended up getting used for other devices (idk where it’s at now or if it even still works). As to my original project here, the pcb, I did a bad error with them. I didn’t bring out the memory select to the connector (intentional), nor did I bring out the IO select (not intentional). And then I was doing a final look over for the updated version and noticed a mistake with it that I also made on the old version. I didn’t connect /RD or /WR to the memory circuit ?‍♂️. Not only can it not (without modification) talk to IO devices, but it can’t even read from (or write to) its own memory bank. Thankfully, as I said, I noticed and fixed this error in the updated/fixed version of the board, which I’ve ordered (along with the parts needed to populate it).

Not only that, but there’s even an updated version that has an internal clock generator as well as support for serial communication, as well as bringing out all unofficial instructions and features of the original chips. I believe the z80, as well as the 8080, are going to outlive any other processors. They’re already somewhere around 40 years old and still widely used in many devices. I only hear of the 8080 being used in hobby projects, but they are being manufactured still. The z80 is still used in the TI-83 as well as being the heart of many microcontrollers, and it’s easy to see why. I once read that the z80 is a little too much for anyone wanting to get into computer circuits, but I actually found it to be a perfect starting point.

I’ll eventually populate one board, but I’ll have to wait to buy some parts to fully populate it. The boards have light scratching across the surfaces. The scratches aren’t too easy to see. It looks like the machine that milled then dragged across the surface while moving because all boards have similar scores of the same shape, size and locations. Rubbing a finger or fingernail across the scratch feels smooth, so they must’ve happened before the solder mask was applied. The scratches are so light, that you need to hold them in the light to see them. I’d be more upset, but these are the boards that I messed up the designs of (which means I’ll be damaging them anyway to fix my errors).

I almost tried to etch my own boards once lol. When I saw it required chemicals I could barely pronounce, I went ahead and gave up. Some of those names sounds like something a teenager can’t easily get a hold of. But yeah, options today, I’m lucky to have. Jlcpcb (the board manufacturer) gave me a coupon for one free smd production run, but they limit it to the parts they have in stock (mentioned previously) as well as only one side of the board. They also give the option to populate only two boards or the entire batch. I’m wondering what they would do for paid population. If they’ll order the parts themselves, I have a board that I *really* need them to populate for me. One component is almost as small as a grain of sand.

They’ll put the parts on the boards if requested, but they’ll only do the ones they have in stock. I would go ahead and do that, but the design uses a bunch of parts I don’t actually want (they’re stand-ins for other parts), so I’ll be doing it tediously by hand When I did the math last night, I found that each board costs about $0.70 before tacking on the $35 engineering fee (a flat rate), which means it would be cost effective to order as many as I can afford. I think it was a bit under $40 for five and then a little over $50 for 20? The next issue is cost of parts. Talking like $60+ for one assembly and like $1000 for 20. I almost added all the bells and whistles lol. I was adding status LEDs to the board when I decided to do all debugging stuff too. And then I realized I’d need upwards of 90 LEDs, so I went ahead and stuck to the basics lol. I can put the extra stuff on their own boards like I planned to do the IO stuff.

I’m still waiting on DHL to get the boards over here. They’ve been on exception for a couple days at the Chinese customs place. In the meantime, I went ahead and started work on version 2. I was challenged to be mean to myself by mixing component types (ones with pins that go through the board vs ones that sit on top). I’ve some final design edits to do and one last and good look over, but it looks like a solid design.

HammerFell - Last Man Standing (I) I am the one (the one) Who lost control (control) But in the end I’ll be the (last man standing) (I) I am the one (the one) Who sold his soul (his soul) Forever gone to be the (last man standing) tall

According to the website’s estimated time of completion, it should be finished by the end of today. I think the shipping I chose was 2-5 days. So uh, I’ll have the boards within a week probably. Yes, there’ll be pics of them UwU. I’ll make another version eventually where I correct that massive mistake about forgetting to rout a signal. I’ve also a few extra stuff to do too, like finding a connector I can actually get a hold of. I also got some footprint conversions to do because the through-hole version of one chip isn’t manufactured anymore whereas the surface-mount version is.

Billy Squire - The Stroke

Hm? And thank you for the compliment. I want to cancel my normal socks and replace them all with thigh highs ^-^

YEAH, SAME!! Like, I wouldn’t just take it from anybody and I couldn’t just be like “hey, let’s do this.” I would need to be built up to the act, but I feel like sometimes, that would be a very easy task. I have had thoughts before like “if someone would give me a back massage right now, I’d let them plow me.”

UwU thank you. It actually isn’t that impressive once you know how it all works. It’s mainly just connecting lines and dots lol. You may have heard of a mobile game called…Pipes? I think? Flow? I think it was Flow. Anyway, it’s a game where you lay out colored pipes from point A to point B, you gotta take up all the spaces and your pipes can’t cross. It’s almost the exact same with PCB design. Connect A to B (and sometimes C and D and E….) and don’t cross the traces. “Filling in the squares” is done as the very last step and isn’t even required (“Filling them in” just means the copper doesn’t get removed from the surface. The actual tool in-program is called a “fill zone”).

Uhh…gimme a bit. I should be able to find them easily enough, but I’m at work and someone came walking in needing the phone (and now he’s waiting for a ride). And also I gotta run and do a couple quick things in the next..let’s say one hour because the person taking me home tends to show up an hour early and sometimes even sooner (so really, anywhere between 10 and 40 minutes from right now).

Oh? I think I’ll hold off on that until I reach that limit. Other than the occasional pic, I don’t really post much media. The stuff like videos get YouTube links. If I start getting more active with drawing, though, that’d be a different story. I would believe she’s the second character I ever created (first was a goat). Anyway, I once got the idea of a cow character wearing cow print clothing. As far as I could tell, I’m probably the first to draw it. I’ve seen other art that was drawn later with it. But also as far as I can tell, even now, I believe I am the only one to draw a cow poopin’ in cow print panties. Tbh, I think I’m the only one so far to draw messing in cow print… ?

Imagine waking up in the middle of the night trying to eat your pillow, but the pillow is actually this thing xD. I’m gonna have to make that a meme now that I’ve said it

I already named the dragon Aurora Lin, but those are good suggestions. I’ll keep them in mind for if I adopt another (excluding the fact that I already did recently and still need to name her o.o). Locks would be a good name for the horse, though maybe an alternate spelling? I’ll think on that one. I think I can work something out using that as a starting point.

Having only 7 MB of media space available to me, I’ll post the clean versions, but I did make a few messy alts. The character is my OC, Brielle. Pre-post edit: they’re only a few KB large, but I’ll keep the messy ones out anyway, unless requested ÓuÒ. I also have them posted to my Twitter

Does it count if it’s in my head? Queensrÿche - Walk in the Shadows

I’ve had a few sets in the past. At one point, I had what I’m guessing was Z scale. The loco took a single AA battery lol. I don’t recall a whole lot about it. It came with a very small number of scenery items. Like three trees and a couple power poles. I only remember playing with it once, but I forget why. Probably space or something (I do remember being in the kitchen at the time). At another time, I had one of those massive sets that sits under a Christmas tree. It took C or D size batteries and would also actually make smoke. I’m wanting to say my actual first set was HO scale. I’m not sure where we got it from, but I do remember afterward, we went to the science museum in Tennessee (that was fun). That set lasted a short while before breaking. My next “set” was also HO, but it was given to me in pieces by a cousin (idr why he said he took it apart). As to my current set, I’m waiting for new tables before I do anything else with it. I do have one steam locomotive/tender that still needs worked on (new motor and some wire and it should be good to go).

An update to my stuffie situation: I still don’t have a replacement. I did, however, find a few potential candidates. Mostly bears, but there were a few others, including worms. Yeah, they have stuffed worms… There was also a cigarette (body pillow), booty (knit pillow) and a chicken nugget (cushion). I’m being serious. They’re on Etsy. The chicken nugget looked like it might be good quality tho lmao. Tbh, they all did. But anyway, I’m still keeping my eyes out for cow or skonk. Oh yeah, I also found some giraffe and I think one elephant. Of course there were several others, but I’m only listing the ones of the size I’m wanting.

PCB = Printed Circuit Board I decided to finally design a motherboard for my homemade computer. I got all the questions answered that I had, stuff like “how do I design it to connect to other boards?” I sat down, drew out the schematic via the appropriate program (KiCAD), assigned the footprints, laid out the traces, everything. To pay for the boards to be manufactured, I used a $50 gift card I got from my health insurance for my second Covid vaccine (and then I had an addition $5-$10 to make up with debit card lol). The boards got approved for manufacture, the files were sent and the next day…I realized I may have made a critical mistake. I was able to check the design and the mistake had not been made, but then I noticed a little design choice I made that was less than intelligent but didn’t matter a whole lot. And then I noticed a mistake that actually does kinda matter…a lot…but the boards were already getting manufactured (and still are in production, btw). I can fix the mistake I made easily enough. I’ll just destroy the connection that was less than smart to make and then use a wire to replace it with the connection I forgot, but we’re not done with the story yet. I went ahead and took count of what parts I would need and started adding them to a list. A handful of LEDs, some resistors, IC sockets; mainly stuff I don't already have. And I learned my next critical mistakes. Two of the IC sockets I need either don’t exist, or cost about $10 each because they’re special purpose (have levers to clamp and release the chips). I can forgo the sockets because they only exist to allow you to replace chips after the soldering process (they also help people new to soldering because heating up the chip’s leads for too long can damage them. The sockets take place of the chips while soldering and then the chips inserted afterward). Okay, so I have to forgo at least two of the sockets, but that’s all, right? My connector of choice to go between boards: floppy drive data cable. Can’t find those connectors either ?‍♂️. Okay, so I guess I’ll buy a few male headers. I’ll be able to use the cable still, but the board won’t have that nice rectangular guard the cable slips into. And then I remembered a few other design choices I forgot about. I gave it a barrel jack for power (yet another part I couldn’t find) and labeled it for 5 volts. I wanted to use the connector from pc power supplies so that I could use 12 volts to power the LEDs (via transistors or driver chips) and the 5 volts for the chips. I also kinda forgot to add a reset button. Actually, I chose to add that to something else and then later realized I should have put it on the main board. Anyway, remember how I said I paid around $60 total for the boards? I went with the website that does batches of five (so I’m getting five for about $10 each, including shipping). These boards are quite ambitious for me. I decided, because I had the option, to design it as a four-layer board. This means the top side has some traces, bottom side has some, and there are two more layers *inside* of the board (essentially, two two-sided circuit boards sandwiched together). And let me tell you. All four layers were desperately needed. I was down to the last three connections to make and thought I was going to have to redo about 20% of what I already had to be able to finish. *EDIT* I forgot that I was going somewhere with that last paragraph lol. The five boards costed about $60-$65 through that website, but another website was asking about $130…for three boards…

I recently bought me a new guitar. It’s maple wood and kinda heavy UwU. It plays nice, but it doesn’t sound too awesome plugged in (knobs sound “dirty” and the switch acts weird). I learned a small finger exercise and am trying to be able to shred it lol.

Yeah, at least a little, lol. But how far into it should I look? I don’t really care about labels, but sometimes they help, and sometimes not having one is a hinderance. Ultimately in the end, it doesn’t matter because I know what I like and want. If I’m in the mood for [A], then I’ll do it. If I’d rather it be (B), then I’ll go with (B). I might not want either, to which I’ll lie around or whatever and just, you know…not. That’s what’s important. But again, sometimes having a label helps. It’s easier to give answers to questions about your sexuality when you can just say “gay/straight/bi; fem leaning” as opposed to “well, I like women, but I wouldn’t mind taking a load from that guy or getting handsy with him and her both,” etc. I’ve already talked about this a little bit with other people. Earlier in this thread, I saw a question get asked to OP that basically boiled down to “is it the person or the [kink]?” This is basically what someone else brought up to me, which has been on my mind too. Do I (currently) feel this way about myself because it’s truly how I feel, or am I feeling this way because the socks are making me feel good about myself? It’s already decided that I’m going to test it to see. Next time I gotta do laundry, I gotta wash the thigh highs too. When I do, I’ll go a week without wearing them to see if my opinion about myself changes. Well, the test is to see how I feel about taking certain selfies (a test to see how the socks affect my self confidence when being worn (sounds like a bad rpg mechanic lol)).

Small chance I caught it a second time, but it may have just been a minor head cold (we lost power at our house for one day and two half days and it got *very* cold (and I finally tried bed wetting, but those are different stories for another topic lol)). The third shot is basically just a booster. It’s said to help with the omicron variant.