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General purpose MCUs built in to LEDs emulate candle flicker

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Re: General purpose MCUs built in to LEDs emulate candle flicker

#141

Post by londons_explore »

ChuckMcM wrote: post #96
crote wrote: post #79

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> at some point I expect to finally see the "blending" of analog/digital chips that allow for a wide range of voltages The irony is that the developments which made dirt-cheap MCUs possible have at the same time basically ruled this out. Digital logic is almost trivial to scale down. With Moore's Law the compute core itself is indeed becoming basically free. However, IO does not scale down: modern chips have far fewe…

I don't disagree at all, this analysis is spot on. The size of discretes on silicon has not shrunk nearly as much as it has for transistors. However, where I am coming from is that because the transistors have shrunk so dramatically it becomes possible to put an entire CPU in the "left over" space after you've placed the discretes. There was a talk at either Hot Chips or ISSC in 2011? about a mixed mode chip where th…

Plenty of chips integrate a voltage regulator so you can run digital logic from as much as 300 volts. Used in the controllers for some dimmable AC Led's for example.

I believe the linear regulator is implemented as a large resistor followed by some zener diode or something. I assume that's so the high voltage doesn't need to touch the silicon, merely the other end of some not-very-good insulator put on top.

Re: General purpose MCUs built in to LEDs emulate candle flicker

#142

Post by mschuster91 »

doubloon wrote: post #103
mschuster91 wrote: post #56

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> We're OK with disposable alkaline batteries, so what makes lithium worse? No we're not. Disposable batteries should not be a thing anywhere, especially not in products where they cannot easily be removed by design. Alkaline batteries may not combust when damaged, but their internal juice leaking out is damn corrosive. > A fully discharged battery shouldn't do much. Even that is enough to light trash compactor truck…

should Apple be forced to produce batteries for 2001 clamshell ibooks?

No but they should be forced to open up the specs after the manufacturer support ends, so that the free market can decide for itself.

Re: General purpose MCUs built in to LEDs emulate candle flicker

#143

Post by rapjr9 »

whartung wrote: post #99
kebman wrote: post #23

I really hate these fake LED candles with a passion. Either put an actual candle on the table, or just put a small cosy light that doesn't flicker.

To each their own. I rate the “run for 6 hours each day” technology as a wonder of the modern age along with sliced bread and the Apollo program. We have about a dozen of these things throughout the house, running everyday. Some on tables, some on counters, some on the wall in sconces. They turn on and off on their own. Don’t have to worry about a cat knocking one over. We replace the batteries I think every 3 months…

Most of the LED candles on eBay just have a one shot timer. If you're looking for the "6 hours every day" candles, here's an example:

https://www.ebay.com/itm/254879583371

Re: General purpose MCUs built in to LEDs emulate candle flicker

#144

Post by exe34 »

lmm wrote: post #47
exe34 wrote: post #19

Earlier quoted context omitted.

How many cars does one smoke in a year though?

The kind of people who can afford to buy EVs buy a new car what, every 3 years? So I guess about 1/3 of a car (or, using the numbers from another comment, about 4000 vapes' worth).

The car is recycled, while the vapes are sent to the landfill.

Re: General purpose MCUs built in to LEDs emulate candle flicker

#145

Post by hiAndrewQuinn »

crote wrote: post #79
ChuckMcM wrote: post #63

I love it. I have noted this article for my talk about how CPUs are free. To appreciate that, you have to understand that when the first microcomputers came out engineers were still in "compute" mode[1], we were lectured that you wouldn't use a hard coded loop to check for a switch closure, you had to use interrupts because otherwise you were wasting all those CPU clocks . And computing at the time was often billed i…

> at some point I expect to finally see the "blending" of analog/digital chips that allow for a wide range of voltages The irony is that the developments which made dirt-cheap MCUs possible have at the same time basically ruled this out. Digital logic is almost trivial to scale down. With Moore's Law the compute core itself is indeed becoming basically free. However, IO does not scale down: modern chips have far fewe…

Made me realize that IO is the fundamental bits-atoms interface, thank you for writing.

Re: General purpose MCUs built in to LEDs emulate candle flicker

#146

Post by eternityforest »

makerdiety wrote: post #94
ChuckMcM wrote: post #63

I love it. I have noted this article for my talk about how CPUs are free. To appreciate that, you have to understand that when the first microcomputers came out engineers were still in "compute" mode[1], we were lectured that you wouldn't use a hard coded loop to check for a switch closure, you had to use interrupts because otherwise you were wasting all those CPU clocks . And computing at the time was often billed i…

> I have noted this article for my talk about how CPUs are free. If teeny computers are free, and if I want to re-program them for my own use cases and personal applications, then why do I have to still spend nearly a thousand dollars or two on embedded systems development equipment like microcontroller development boards, JTAGs, ICEs, ROM flashers, UART-based bootloading solutions, and other delicate programming int…

So many products would be better if they just used a Wemos S2 mini or similar $5 microcontroller board.

I understand why everything uses custom designed stuff for cost, but I don't get why people think it's somehow the better or more "professional" approach to do everything yourself.

Modular stuff with common high level modules is just so much easier to repair, modify, and recycle.

We need an ISO standard for these little modules so we can get back to vacuum tube era level of repairability.

Nearly all modern gadgets(General purpose computers and phones aside) could be made from a common set of 30 or so modules plus minimal custom stuff.

Re: General purpose MCUs built in to LEDs emulate candle flicker

#148

Post by Karliss »

kragen wrote: post #11
mikepurvis wrote: post #9

Earlier quoted context omitted.

At a certain point it's more about the semantics of what a "computer" is. I don't know if I'd count an ASIC from a musical greeting card, though; and even within general purpose devices, microcontrollers vs microprocessors are typically delineated by the presence of an MMU.

the 6502, 8080, z80, 8085, 8086, 65816, 68000, and 68010 were universally described as microprocessors, not microcontrollers, but did not have mmus built in (and of these only the 68010 could easily have one bolted on, as i understand it) i think typically the thing that distinguished these from microcontrollers like the 8031, 8051, 8748, 8751, pic1650, etc., is that the microcontrollers had program memory built into…

Arguing about hard definitions differentiating microprocessor from microcontrollers based on single feature is pointless. It's a vague product/marketing category for certain usecases. There will be group of features that are more likely included or not included, but for most of them there will likely be exceptions. And the set of available features available MCUs and microprocessors change over the time. As technology improves both microcontrolers and processors are gaining new capabilities.

* MCUs usually have program memory builtin. But then there chips like RP2040 or ESP32 which while considered MCUs are used with external Flash memory chips for storing the firmware. * MCUs usually have builtin RAM. But there are also some capable of directly using external RAM. * Then there are things like apple M1 chips, with a lot of stuff builtin you still don't call them MCU. * A bunch of ARM application processors/SOCs/Microprocessors might have enough resources builtin that they could be used as more or less standalone microcontrollers, without external RAM or flash memory. * some early microprocessors used external MMUs and it took some time until the processors settled on architecture that's closer to how we have things now * early personal computer processors were in a weird category in terms of price and processing power, in certain time period it wasn't impossible that similar microprocessor chip was used both for as main computer CPU and also for peripheral devices.

The microprocessor name in my opinion at this point is slightly outdated. It's not like anyone beside hobbyists is making non micro processors out individual relays, transistors or logic chips.

Re: General purpose MCUs built in to LEDs emulate candle flicker

#149

Post by codedokode »

There are lot of MCUs around us but they are locked down and not reprogrammable. For example, if your microwave oven or a smart bulb breaks, you cannot reuse its MCU for anything else. Don't you think that MCUs must be reprogrammable, resolderable and reusable?

Re: General purpose MCUs built in to LEDs emulate candle flicker

#150

Post by magicalhippo »

kebman wrote: post #23

I really hate these fake LED candles with a passion. Either put an actual candle on the table, or just put a small cosy light that doesn't flicker.

My SO trialed a few different LED tealight ones to find some that "flicker right", ie not annoyingly (to her anyway).

She then drilled out parts of the core of some large candles using a hole saw, and put these LED candles in there.

So now she enjoys candles every evening without the fire risk, poor indoor air quality during winter season and the expense of new candles.

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