111–120 of 132 posts
My brand new M1 Mackbook Pro has only one working port. I didn't notice it until I tried to save something to a USB drive. Neither charging nor USB works on that port. Talking to Apple tomorrow. Hopefully still under warranty.
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I wish Zwave/zigbee were more practical to use. I'm not too worried about someone local pulling readings out of the air, but giving all of this crap access to my wifi, relying on cloud services that could go down at any time, and even adding a bridge straight in (your SIM comment) is just rediculous. For things like cameras or other high bandwidth applications wifi makes sense, but for the usual sensor/switch stuff,…
> I wish Zwave/zigbee were more practical to use. That is essentially what Thread is: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thread_(network_protocol) It takes the Zigbee protocol, but adds encryption and makes devices IP-adressable. All of the major players are committed to supporting it, too!
Apart from the processors, I'm amazed/bewildered that USB is now complex enough, that the power component of it has its own serial communication protocol (USB-PD), which also has a vendor registry and is extensible with proprietary messages - and by the looks of it, is already in widespread use for all sorts of things that have nothing to do with power delivery. Isn't this sort of reinventing USB on top of USB?
When I lost the charger for my Nintendo DS, I was able to MacGyver one out of a piece of cardboard and two strips of aluminium foil. A quick look at the USB-A port spec, and pin locations on the similar-to-USB-but-proprietary DS charging port indicated it was a very simple construction. Amazingly, this hack worked successfully and I was able to have my yearly Elite Beat Agents binge. The hardest part was actually not…
I did the same thing for my 2DS XL, but instead modded the device with a non-PD USB-C breakout board. Works great with both USB-PD and regular USB-C chargers and cables. https://nullsum.net/posts/usbc-mod-new-2ds-xl/
Now, in the days of complex calculated power delivery negotiation, a hack like this would be impossible.
The only devices I've seen _require_ USB-PD are PC's. All the modern phones, headphones, and gaming handhelds I've seen with USB-C do not require USB-PD and charge just fine with a USB-A to USB-C cable.
Better yet, these devices all use a standard USB-C port instead of a proprietary one. The only gotcha is that some USB-C devices break spec and don't work with some USB-C to USB-C cables. Both the Pi 4 and RG351P suffer from this.
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I don’t know about that. The physical port is still useful for hard resets and management of a “bricked” device (granted I’ve only needed that on an older device, and never on the model I currently have).
Does Apple still get a cut in lightning licensing? If so I think they will move engineering heaven and earth to avoid losing that revenue stream so also agree with the above poster that I’d put money on moving to the wireless.
There is zero possibility that third-party licensing income for the Lightning port standard is a consideration in any engineering decisions at Apple.
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I forgot to take my MacBook Pro's charger with me but could still charge it using my iPad's charger (USB-A to USB-C, mind you) - albeit very slowly. Still better than nothing, though. If only iPhones had USB-C…
Yes, Apple seems to be very confused in this regard. They’ve committed to USB-C for all of their computers, but then are continuing to push lightning for all the other portable devices. It’s hard not to be annoyed at them about this. Enough to not buy Apple again? No, not yet, but I’d be lying if it’s not a reason why I’ve delayed purchasing a new device. It leaves a bad taste in my mouth, and makes me grumpy. So I’l…
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There should really be a database of such devices.
The FCC probably has that data, though probably not in a form that you can filter by "IoT" and it's conceivable that only an internal radio module is registered for cheap devices that didn't undergo regulatory testing.
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> I wish Zwave/zigbee were more practical to use. That is essentially what Thread is: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thread_(network_protocol) It takes the Zigbee protocol, but adds encryption and makes devices IP-adressable. All of the major players are committed to supporting it, too!
That's not entirely what I mean though. The real issue is having people like my parents get used to using a hub.
Once again i'm amazed what ALSO has a processor in it. I'm wondering if at some point I'll just see it as normal that nearly every device, no matter how static it may seem, has more processing power than my first computer.
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Now I'm curious about the things you're building. They wouldn't happen to be on a blog somewhere?
No, I don't have a blog. These are just my private projects that I make for my own use. I am working as a software developer and learning electronics as a hobby. The backlight is going to be a box supplied directly from AC, connecting up to 6 strips of individually addressable WS2812 RGB LEDs, providing up to 10A at 5V (50mA per LED == 200 LEDs at full power). It will be connected using galvanically isolated Full-Spe…
This works for now because my primary use-case is ambient lighting when the room would otherwise be dark. I'm planning to build some larger-scale higher-density light panels to provide more illumination for those dark winter days.