@0h00000000@ioc.exchange

Ben @0h00000000@ioc.exchange · Aug 07, 2026

Replying to @mntmn@mastodon.social

@mntmn@mastodon.social I think there might be incentive Apple and/or SpaceX/Tesla to start fabbing memory - not only for price, but mainly for reliable supply. For speed they could license from Micron. Even LP/DDR4 or something - think about all the processors in all the phones, cars, switches, ground terminals, and Starlink satellites - they all need 'basic' DDR (or LPDDR) - not cutting edge DDR or HBM.

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Ben @0h00000000@ioc.exchange · Aug 07, 2026

Replying to @azonenberg@ioc.exchange

@azonenberg@ioc.exchange You should write a book, "Using GPUs to massively speed up your C/C++ code" - targeted for C/C++ programmers. I'd pre-order it for sure. Chapter 1 - GPUs for idiots and/or programmers too busy and/or lazy - minimal code to speed up your hello world app by calculating PI to 100 digits. Before/after comparison. I wonder if you could use a GPU to speed up a database, like for searching or joining tables, creating/comparing search hashes and the like...

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Ben @0h00000000@ioc.exchange · Aug 06, 2026

Replying to @0h00000000@ioc.exchange

Backside:

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Ben @0h00000000@ioc.exchange · Aug 06, 2026

Replying to @0h00000000@ioc.exchange

Pretty tight on the rear facing board with big filter caps for EMI. The Cat5 will solder straight onto the PCB, and I added a 30 bar pressure sensor for leak testing the stainless steel cases for the first batch.

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Ben @0h00000000@ioc.exchange · Aug 06, 2026

I pulled the trigger on this camera board stack. Alif E8, OVT 8MP sensor, and 10/100 POE. 27.5mm diameter, and probably about 10 mm thick when assembled. I added some debug boards to the design too. I ordered 20 sets, but only 6 assembled, that way if there is a change we can order another batch of PCBs and if not, we can order the balance with PCBs already made.

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Ben @0h00000000@ioc.exchange · Aug 03, 2026

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Ben @0h00000000@ioc.exchange · Jul 30, 2026

I heard/felt a loud thud earlier and wondered what it was. I went outside and saw a SUV had missed the curve in the road and hit our light pole and the neighbors fence. 3rd time in last 12 months.

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Ben @0h00000000@ioc.exchange · Jul 28, 2026

KiCad 9 crashed, so I'm taking this opportunity to install KiCad 10, which will be timely since it has upgraded differential pair tools that I will need later today.

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Ben @0h00000000@ioc.exchange · Jul 27, 2026

Replying to @craigjb@fosstodon.org

@craigjb@fosstodon.org A little bit of silicone grease would give it a nice smooth feel. Need a boot or small o-ring or something to prevent dust and dirt from getting in there and gritting it up though. Check out Mcmaster Carr for o-rings. I use Dow Molykote for submerged o-ring lube, and you can get a tiny 'single' use pouch for cheap: https://www.freshwatersystems.com/products/dow-molykote-111-o-ring-lubricant-6-gram-pillow-pack?variant=13249218609195

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Ben @0h00000000@ioc.exchange · Jul 26, 2026

Replying to @aleksorsist@mastodon.social

@aleksorsist@mastodon.social Good enough, until they release x128.

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Ben @0h00000000@ioc.exchange · Jul 26, 2026

Replying to @aleksorsist@mastodon.social

@aleksorsist@mastodon.social Will it run on Windows 10? Asking for a 'friend'...

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Ben @0h00000000@ioc.exchange · Jul 26, 2026

Replying to @craigjb@fosstodon.org

@craigjb@fosstodon.org I wish the industry would allow finer screenprint line widths. When you have 0201's there's not enough room to cram them all in. I started deleting all of the ref designators off my boards - it was way too cluttered and I never used them. I always have kicad on a giant monitor for a map if needed. This frees up space for important labels.

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Ben @0h00000000@ioc.exchange · Jul 25, 2026

I was designing this 3 piece 27.5mm diameter camera board to be a rigid-flex PCB, but most PCB houses have trace/space limits of 4 mil on the rigid portion and limit blind vias to one layer deep, which causes challenges with BGAs. Also the 6L rigid flex stackups cause issues with 100 ohm differential traces being too wide. I think I'm going to look at just using very small board to board connectors. The Hirose DF40 20 pin looks promising. Any other recommendations? I'm looking for a board to board gap of about 3-5mm, and the fastest signals will be 2.5gbps MIPI. I'm going to check out Mill Max's website for tiny standoffs, but I can always 3d print something for prototyping.

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Ben @0h00000000@ioc.exchange · Jul 25, 2026

I just saw my first Stalink ad, and it was on Reuters.com (news site). It's also the first time I've seen them offer financing the hardware - $16/mo for 12 mos for the Mini. I think they want to juice the numbers for the upcoming quarterly results. I bet the next Starship launch will carry a load of the V3 satellites to a full orbit as well. This will be good timing to prop up share price since a bunch of lockups will be expiring at the same time.

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Ben @0h00000000@ioc.exchange · Jul 24, 2026

After the storm. Bye bye Bertha, the plants thank you for the rain.

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Ben @0h00000000@ioc.exchange · Jul 23, 2026

It was *really* hot in Houston today where the higher humidity usually moderates the temps a bit. The overnight *low* is going to be 85F!!! The state grid set a new all time record at over 90 GW. Not much wind, but solar was putting in 33 GW, and at dusk batteries peaked at 11.6 GW. That’s a lot of battery power! Wholesale prices were a low of $26/MWH when the batteries where charging and peaked at $349 right at 10PM.

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Ben @0h00000000@ioc.exchange · Jul 22, 2026

Replying to @dlharmon@chaos.social

@dlharmon@chaos.social I know that I3C can coexist with I2C because I2C is supposed to have 50ns glitch filters and won't see the extra fast 10-20mbps traffic on the bus.

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Ben @0h00000000@ioc.exchange · Jul 21, 2026

Baby FPGA! Lattice Crosslink NX, 72 ball WLCSP 3.7x4.1mm, 17kLUT, 4 lane hard MIPI.

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Ben @0h00000000@ioc.exchange · Jul 21, 2026

Replying to @0h00000000@ioc.exchange

This is what I'm thinking. Dividing up assembly into 3 circular rigid flex regions (magnetics/POE power/phy; processing; and image sensor). These would fold up together, and this would be the outside one with all the tall components on the backside. The PHY and the 60v to 3.3v SMPS module would be noisy in proximity to the Ethernet magnetics. The SMPS does have spread spectrum. Cat5 would solder directly to the board. The rectangle represents the transition to flex and it's bend radius.

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Ben @0h00000000@ioc.exchange · Jul 21, 2026

Has anyone had issues with putting a 10/100 Ethernet PHY too close to the magnetics? I have a super compact rigid flex design (27.75 mm diameter), and I'm cramming in the stuff pretty close. I'm maintaining a keep out directly under the magnetics, but the PHY IC body is 5mm away. An app note I read said keep it 25mm away.

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Ben @0h00000000@ioc.exchange · Jul 19, 2026

Replying to @23n27@dgc.social

@23n27@dgc.social I remember using a Mac back in the early 90's and wondering why PC users would ever need more than one mouse button. Then I switched to PC in 95 and wondered how could anyone use a PC with no right click context button.

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Ben @0h00000000@ioc.exchange · Jul 19, 2026

Replying to @azonenberg@ioc.exchange

@azonenberg@ioc.exchange @whitequark@social.treehouse.systems It seems like someone should have solved this problem already. Is there a lib out there to do this? I saw some cool stuff using d3.js in Chrome. Maybe the ideas can be ported over to C++. What does MS Visio do? https://ialab.it.monash.edu/webcola/examples/unix.html

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Ben @0h00000000@ioc.exchange · Jul 18, 2026

My office neighbor is throwing out an ancient PC. Compaq, circa 1999. Should I grab it and stick it in storage for an antique collection?

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Ben @0h00000000@ioc.exchange · Jul 15, 2026

Replying to @dlharmon@chaos.social

@dlharmon@chaos.social I've noticed it with Grainger when doing a google search for something they obviously paid for placement, and clicking gives me a issue. I've seen it with other sites but can't remember specifics.

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Ben @0h00000000@ioc.exchange · Jul 15, 2026

Replying to @mntmn@mastodon.social

@mntmn@mastodon.social

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Ben @0h00000000@ioc.exchange · Jul 15, 2026

Replying to @mntmn@mastodon.social

@mntmn@mastodon.social Yeah, I do that sometimes, I like eating cake, but then I don't like the waistline later. Maybe your chip is doing an OS context switch or something during that pause? Maybe you could put a scope probe on that interrupt handler and see when it fires in relation to when it's handled later in the code.

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Ben @0h00000000@ioc.exchange · Jul 15, 2026

Replying to @MrDOS@hachyderm.io

@MrDOS@hachyderm.io Well, on this board I have a Alif E8 MCU that has 20Mbs DDR I3C, a Lattice Crosslink FPGA, a ST pressure sensor, and Bosch IMU and a Bosh magnetometer. I'm still in bring up mode, but I have gotten them all dynamically addressed and read back whatever vendor code register they have. I don't have any legacy I2C parts on this bus. For me the big draws with I3C are dynamic addressing, speed, and in-band interrupts. I also liked the fact that I3C was fast enough to both program the FPGA, but also serve as peripheral register access to the FPGA after it was programmed. I'll post an update after I get the FPGA flashed from the MCU. Hopefully later today. Ask me my thoughts again in a few weeks, lol.

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Ben @0h00000000@ioc.exchange · Jul 15, 2026

I'm finally looking at flashing the FPGA from the MCU, and the 40k Lattice NX parts have a ~155k sized bitstream. So, when using I3C they can take it all in one chunk, or if breaking into multiple chunks, you cannot have a I3C stop condition until the very end. Well, my Alif MCU has a max I3C transaction size of 65k. The vendor driver does not expose a way to not end with a stop - and the methods I need are all declared static. So, I have to copy and paste their static methods into my own c file, and strip them all down to the very basics to do this. Sigh.

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Ben @0h00000000@ioc.exchange · Jul 14, 2026

Yay!!!!!!

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Ben @0h00000000@ioc.exchange · Jul 13, 2026

Replying to @azonenberg@ioc.exchange

@azonenberg@ioc.exchange @craigjb@fosstodon.org these would be pretty cool for architectural lighting. They come in different color temps, these are 5k with a CRI of 90. There is a whole ecosystem of solderless mounting and reflectors and such (see pics below) but at 50mm they wouldn’t work for the small size I needed. They also come in different sizes and wattages. These are 12w at a Vf of about 33volts, used with a TI buck/boost IC.

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Ben @0h00000000@ioc.exchange · Jul 13, 2026

Replying to @azonenberg@ioc.exchange

@azonenberg@ioc.exchange that’s a TI humidity sensor, with a 4 Bar pressure sensor right next to it. I put those on there so I can monitor for leaks when I do pressure testing.

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Ben @0h00000000@ioc.exchange · Jul 13, 2026

Replying to @craigjb@fosstodon.org

@craigjb@fosstodon.org I gotta get better at applying the thermal paste, I shouldn't have that much squeezing out.

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Ben @0h00000000@ioc.exchange · Jul 13, 2026

Replying to @craigjb@fosstodon.org

@craigjb@fosstodon.org Same customer, different piece of the larger project. These are lights for an underwater robot that cleans industrial water reservoirs. About 10% of the time the water is hot, 65C, so I needed a MCU to throttle down the output power based on die temp. They need stainless steel, but it's not a great heat conductor. So we'll see how these work.

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Ben @0h00000000@ioc.exchange · Jul 13, 2026

Replying to @0h00000000@ioc.exchange

I also used PVC wire instead of high temp PTFE insulated wire for the LED. Ooops. The reels looked almost identical.

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Ben @0h00000000@ioc.exchange · Jul 13, 2026

Replying to @craigjb@fosstodon.org

@craigjb@fosstodon.org you need some mini bleachers with lego men looking up at the scope like a cinema.

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Ben @0h00000000@ioc.exchange · Jul 13, 2026

I mounted the LEDs on an aluminum heat spreader I had cut at Osh Cut and added a bolt on thermistor on the back side. When inside the stainless steel case, temps hit about 44C at 6 watts, or half power. The smaller cap looks much better, 82uF at 63V. The plan is to eventually use a PCB thermistor thermally coupled to the heat spreader with a spring terminal and a SMD part that themally conducts but is electrically isolated. I gotta test it out and probably tweak the fit some.

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Ben @0h00000000@ioc.exchange · Jul 12, 2026

Replying to @tom_verbeure@mastodon.social

@tom_verbeure@mastodon.social @craigjb@fosstodon.org Good catch. I was reading that section again just now, and one could read that as saying it won't support eDP that doesn't support that while leaving the question of standard DP unaddressed. I did see a section that says you can turn of ASSR for "standard DP" mode. In my searches I 've seen many posts about how to get it working, but not one yet that it will or won't work. IDK...

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Ben @0h00000000@ioc.exchange · Jul 12, 2026

Replying to @poleguy@mastodon.social

@poleguy@mastodon.social "If you ain't rubbing, you ain't racing"

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Ben @0h00000000@ioc.exchange · Jul 11, 2026

Replying to @azonenberg@ioc.exchange

@azonenberg@ioc.exchange That's a lot of work to do at ~60Hz!

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Ben @0h00000000@ioc.exchange · Jul 11, 2026

Replying to @azonenberg@ioc.exchange

@azonenberg@ioc.exchange I'm curious, how do you handle the storage and display of waveforms? Are they just collections of dots and rendered as such? Or do you draw lines connecting the points?

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Ben @0h00000000@ioc.exchange · Jul 11, 2026

Replying to @azonenberg@ioc.exchange

@azonenberg@ioc.exchange Any reason you aren't using SVG or similar for icons to scale at any resolution?

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Ben @0h00000000@ioc.exchange · Jul 10, 2026

Replying to @craigjb@fosstodon.org

@craigjb@fosstodon.org You're right, I should embrace a 'growth' mindset. Go big or go home. lol

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Ben @0h00000000@ioc.exchange · Jul 10, 2026

Replying to @azonenberg@ioc.exchange

@azonenberg@ioc.exchange What if you removed a Intel southbridge from a dead board and made your own card... lol I wonder how many man hours it would take, I mean the coding alone. I'm guessing the register info is unpublished? Maybe there is a VM fix to use a different card?

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Ben @0h00000000@ioc.exchange · Jul 10, 2026

Replying to @azonenberg@ioc.exchange

@azonenberg@ioc.exchange You would think there would be some USB 3.0 add on cards for older PCs. Now if it's Intel or not... I'm guessing Asmedia is in the after-market cards like Siig, etc?

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Ben @0h00000000@ioc.exchange · Jul 10, 2026

Replying to @azonenberg@ioc.exchange

@azonenberg@ioc.exchange I wonder about the Raspberry Pi RP1 southbridge - it has 2 XHCI ports. I wonder if they sell it standalone? https://pip-assets.raspberrypi.com/categories/892-raspberry-pi-5/documents/RP-008370-DS-1-rp1-peripherals.pdf

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Ben @0h00000000@ioc.exchange · Jul 10, 2026

I think I made these holes too big…

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Ben @0h00000000@ioc.exchange · Jul 10, 2026

It's obvious in hindsight, but cost $850 to learn... UNC vs UNF threads means coarse vs fine. I was under the impression that you had to specify threads per inch. Doh!

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Ben @0h00000000@ioc.exchange · Jul 10, 2026

Replying to @azonenberg@ioc.exchange

@azonenberg@ioc.exchange Beautiful! You guys should put those online and sell them, and make more for other cards. Maybe the domain spicyPCIeCoolers.com is availble?

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Ben @0h00000000@ioc.exchange · Jul 10, 2026

DAC dimming is working. 12 watts of LED is pretty bright! I’m using heat sink for test since I haven’t coded the thermistor measurement and control loop yet.

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Ben @0h00000000@ioc.exchange · Jul 10, 2026

Blinky light, yay!

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