u/frobnosticus

Not really a gripe. It just kinda makes me giggle or roll my eyes depending on my mood. Zooming in on the whole web page doesn't do the trick, since it doesn't scale the canvas as a whole.

So I have to open the thing in a separate tab so I can read the text on half the stuff that has it.

But nooo... "Are you trying to circumvent our revenue stream?" I mean, I wasn't. But now that you mention it I probably should save a local copy.

EDIT: Solved! Thanks to /u/wackyvorlon and /u/chemhobby I figured out the problem: The din rail spec doesn't have those fiddly bits. BUT the ALUMINUM rails DO (at least, every one I've bought.) I would not have thought to check aluminum vs. steel. I was able to order 30 8" steel rails on ebay for a buck a piece with free shipping.

EDIT EDIT: Is...there not 'solved' flair? I didn't see it.

---

If you did even a cursory search for "din rail model" you'll run in to buckets of things for organizing workbenches, mounting this and that, frames for rail, etc.

I've printed a few and they all have a smooth profile.

I've bought a few little packs of rail thinking I'd gotten the wrong ones. But the profile is always the same: an extra...flange (of sorts) on the back side. It makes perfect sense for strength.

But none of the rail I've seen fit any of the inserts on the prints. Fortunately I haven't overcommitted. But I feel like I'm insane.

I'll tweak the models if I have to (I'm not real good at that but I'll hold my nose.)

But for zero of them to work suggests it's me.

EDIT: changed flair from "Advice" to "Beginner question" thinking "advice" might be "offering" and not asking.

---

Not quite sure how (whether) to ask this. I've been a software developer for half a century and a big part of the key to working on detailed large scale projects for me is keeping my head fully immersed in the context of the project.

I've had a pen in my hand for at least that long, but aside from essay style writings exploring ideas I just can NOT seem to manage more than the odd vignette when it comes to prose in general or fiction in particular.

No shortage of ideas, plans, etc.

It's occurred to me over the last couple weeks that the same kind of immersion might be a part of why I can't keep with things.

So...if you're working on something large scale...how do you get yourself in to context?

Physical setting? "The is my writing only desk?" White boards with post-it notes?

Any other cool tricks? I'm super tired of fighting myself just to try and be creative.

o7

So... when you feed a new filament in to the ams ("original" version? that came with the X1C) you push that little thing back a bit and feed the filament in until it grabs. Then it does it's thing.

On bay 2, mine has, for a few months, had some kind of physical obstruction that's keeping it "pushed forward all the way." I've tried pressurized air and all manner of fiddling to no avail.

Today I decided to tear down the ams and just solve the damn problem. (I'm almost positive it's a dessicant bead.)

I got all the way down to having the screws out for the gearing mechanism for the specific bay. But I can't get the damn thing out.

I've had to walk away before...erm....putting myself in a situation where I'd be looking to upgrade. I really can't afford a new AMS right now and would like to get this going if I can.

Is there a teardown that goes all the way down to that level? There's a "one last" catch, a hidden screw, a tab...something I can't see that's holding this thing in.

If not I'll re-assemble the thing and hope like hell I didn't scratch a board trace or something and just rename it "Frodo the Three Bayed." But I'd really rather not.

The repair teardown instructions on the Bambu site are great. But they just don't go quite far enough.

LAPTOP QUESTIONNAIRE

Country

[US]

Budget

[$1000-1500, flexible if I have to be.]

Are you open to refurbs/used options?

[No]

Screen size

[Up to 15"]

Weight limit

[Any]

Purpose

[Development]

Form factor

[Standard is fine]

Intended usage

[Light 3d modelling, c++ programming, local llm if I can swing it (not vital)]

Desired battery life

[5-8 would be nice. I'm usually plugged in.]

Please list, in order of most important to least important, the priority between Size, Weight, Performance, Battery life

[Performance, size, battery, weight]

Info/Requirements

[SSD >= 1T. I'd really like 64g of ddr5. But I might be dreaming at my price point. The more ports the better, bonus points for full size keyboard, I'd really prefer win10 pro to win11 (and will likely replace an 11 install). I'll be running dev in wsl mostly, freecad, openscad, several slicers, esp32 dev environments and such.]

I have an "AI Thinker ESP32-CAM" board (with it's 340 usb board plugged under it.)

Generally I use platformio. But I couldn't get even a hello world to work with this board. No errors. (Indeed it seems to build, upload, and go into monitor mode just fine.) Just no output over the wire.

I stripped down a python script I use to read other ttyUSB devices. I figured "Ah! if the code is pushing, then I'll build -> deploy -> dump out of platformio and run the python script."

Nothing.

So I grabbed the appimage of the Arduino ide and set the board up and wrote a hello world and...tada! Worked a treat.

Now. Here's the weird bit:

Start with all IDEs down and the board plugged in. Cold booted the computer.

• Kick off VS Code/PlatformIO. Customize the hello world string. Build and deploy. Same as always. Exit vs code
• Open a new terminal window, navigate to the monitor.py and kick it off. Hangs. No bytes are ever available on the read queue.
• Open the Arduino ide.

The second the Arduino ide opens the project, the python script starts pulling data that's verifiably from the platformio built code, off of /dev/ttyUSB0.

The monitor pane in the ide is also scrolling data.

What gives? The Arduino ide has got to be doing something to the port, the board, something. I assume it's related to the 340 usb adapter board. It's the only thing that makes any sense to me (which I understand has nothing to do with whether it's the culprit or not.)

As it stands I can't use these boards until I get through this madness.

Any ideas? This is so strange that it's taken me hours of isolation to get to the point where this was provably and repeatably the case.

tl;dr: "I'm gonna stop you right here." This is me trying to get my elisp legs, not me trying to merge those modes. "Just use org-mode" isn't on the table. This is just a fun project for me to get my arse in the deep end.

• The outline.el code in 30.1 is about 2k lines and looks pretty tight. (It's enviably lispilicious and has a lot to learn from.)
• The emacs wiki mode I've been using (for literal decades) is emacs-wiki.el, 2.72 and it's HUGE. Plus it seems like it was written by a human (or, well, half a dozen.)

But there's all kinds of stuff in emacs-wiki I'll never use. Inter-wiki linking (cool, but not for me), project management of some nebulous kind and...well, I could go quite on.

My thinking is: WikiWord handling isn't that tough a problem in the abstract (or in other implementations I've spun up in other languages.) But the breadth of interesting edge cases in the code is really impressive.

The white board diagram of merging the two block of functionality is pretty simple looking to me. I could make arbitrary decisions about areas of overlap and be pretty happy with it as an 0.1.

But my GOD is wiki mode a beast.

So:

• Strip the cool stuff out of wiki mode and see what I'm left with?
• Create a "bare minimum" outline-mode script and see if I can shoehorn it in?
• Grab my books and try to spin up my own wiki mode adjunct code to fold in to outline-mode? (Actually, this seems completely preposterous and...might still be easier than trying to grok wiki mode as it sits.)

Is this outside the world of a minor-mode for one or the other?

I mean, both are doing some fancy manipulation, so I'm not sure I could easily create a "mixin" that wouldn't well and truly bork the state transitions of the content handlers of either or both in the process.

How would you attack such a thing?

[ Also, yes...I'm not averse to a sidebar conversation about "If I wanted outline mode to support wiki words what I'd really use is..." But I have the time, energy and inclination to learn this stuff, so this is my best shot. ]

Whatcha got? I'm going to start ripping and tearing and seeing how far I can go until I can break both of these things in the meantime.

o7

tl;dr: 3d printing is great for prototyping and quick hit stuff. But the results are just not substantial enough.

---

I've got a couple projects that are driving me bananas (short a trip as it is.) There are certainly buckets of other projects. But those two are sufficient to capture the spirit of what I'm talking about.

• The nearly ubiquitous red "desk radio" from cyberpunk 2077. I adore that thing and have wanted to build one since I first saw it.
• An old school monolithic "dumb terminal"

I've printed the radio in pla as a test to make sure the mesh extractions worked (took some tweaking.) But it, like just about everything I print using pla or petg, just feels like something I made in the kitchen with mom from a kit with Vincent Price's face on the box.

A compound curve terminal housing adds challenges of heat dissipation and the like.

So what's the level jump from 3d printing? Large pieces. Compound curves, reinforceable...

I've got a bad feeling it's "mill out of aluminum and add an enamel finish." Which, as a software guy is far beyond my (current) skill set.

tl;dr: What I'd really like is an app that, when I hit a button or a rocker or...whatever...showed me on screen what the "common name" for it was. I don't even know what the X4 tutorial is asking me to press. (I'm more interested in the generic solution than the game specific one.)

I kinda feel like a fool here. (Not a problem, confusion is my happy place.)

I'm WAY out of my depth. There are a couple games I keep bouncing off of because the controls are too complex for keyboard and mouse. So I've got the 1600M with the throttle thingamabob.

Okay, so they seem to be recognized and the game in question (X4) has a bunch of "load profile for stuff that looks like what you've got" options.

But when they say things like "press button X" is...there a chart of how this maps to these controllers? Does everyone just know what this all is? I've tried diving into the input mapping xml but that's not really that helpful since it's just symbolic names anyway.

Loaded the profile and found....fire pauses, and there's a zoom. But I literally (for instance) can't walk.

Point me to the M that I may R it. (The literal Manual isn't particularly helpful.)

EDIT: Awesome! Thanks yall. I skipped specific errors because I figured my problem was entirely conceptual rather than syntactical, which seems right. I'm going to try a few things here before "calling it" and report back.

o7

---

So, I'm coming back to C++ now that I'm retired and people can't make me use duck type garbage languages anymore. (sorta just kidding. I adore the few I use.)

I have this:

struct ConcreteEvent { *bunch of ints and a std::string or two* };

class ABCHandler {
  public:
    virtual void handle(const ConcreteEvent&) = 0;
};

Sure. no big deal. There are half a dozen concrete implementations.

In the before time I would have done this:

class HandlerChain : public ABCHandler
{
    private:
        std::list<ABCHandler*> chain;
    public:
        void handle(const ConcreteEvent& e) {
          for (std::list<ABCHandler*>::iterator i; chain.begin(); i != chain.end())
          {
              i->handle(e);
          }
        void add_handler(ABCHandler* h) { chain.push_back(h); }
};

Enveloping object owns the handlers and devil take the hindmost.

Nowadays I'm sure I'm supposed to use some std::unique_ptr<> somethingorother. But I've been banging my head against template error message explosions for a few hours.

"In a perfect world" Even the list contents would be some thin concrete envelope, if only for the fig leaf of object semantics.

It's perfectly acceptable for the "HandlerChain" class to have true ownership. But the handlers have to be created outside because some require complex initialization (database/socket stuff, etc.)

If nothing else, what's the right search term? You start looking up C++ list of functions/functors and well...you get everything.

So I haven't been a TTRPG guy since the 80s. I love the source material dearly though, but only started diving in after 77 came out.

I keep seeing things like comments on the music video talking about "yeah but she was Militec/PD" (I forget.)

Things like Spider Murphy in the flashback, Rache, etc.

Is there a "If you want the full background story content..." master source book list someplace?

I'd love to catch up.

tl;dr (at the top because I'm not a psychopath.): Is there a table (or place I should host a table) of dev boards and supported features and libraries? (beyond basic capability comparison charts?) Things like Micropython/Arduino framework support?

EDIT: A note about espboards.dev: It's an incredible resource with just truckloads of data. But it still doesn't seem to quite cover the "dev setup" differences that are getting me all torqued.

---

I adore this architecture. I really do. Please don't take this as petulant redditor complaining about Espressif. It's 137% not that. These things have absolutely shocked me with their flexibility.

My problem is I'm a casual user (though a systems programmer.) So every few months I'll reach in to the bin of boards because I want to spin something up.

And, because I'm NOT the most stable of all humans I end up in this loop:

• Whups. That doesn't have wireless. Fair enough.
• Okay this has wireless but I can't find a mini usb.

Then the fun stuff...

• Can I use circuitpython/micropython with this? Well...looks like they have it for the C6-1N8. But is that "close enough" for the C6-1?
• Ah, screw it. I'll pull up Platformio. Ah, yeah, there's the board. Oh crap. It doesn't support the arduino framework, just espidf (too new.) Fair enough.
• Okay here's one. A NodeMCU. That's...ooh, Wroom based no circuitpython. (Not that I'm married to CP/MP. I just sometimes wanna spin something up quick as a goof.
• Nope. I've got 327 of the NodeMCUs. Heck, maybe I should just pull out an 8266....yeah that's not gonna work.

fast forward:

• Oh, that LOOKS like a CYD. But it's a different sub-model so I can't flash cool weallknowwhat on that.

The last time I went through this I said "screw it, I'm gonna use Pico 2Ws" and after 2 hours (please laugh with me at my madness) I found out that no, I didn't have a bad batch of Pis. I had a charge only cable. I looked back at the "don't use these" box of esp32 dev boards, back to the cable and wondered...

"To make a long story...err...to stop shy of a Russian novel"...

I'm trying to start a new project and I'm bouncing off the same crap again.

I'm starting to build myself a little spreadsheet of these things because I can't seem to find one that's at this "Okay monkey, that's a phillips head screwdriver and you've got a flat head screw. Stop that" level.

It occurred to me that the answer to "Am I the only..." is ALWAYS no. So...a simple page with a chart and some pics for easy board identification? Maybe as a github repo? I know lots of pieces of this for this board or that are scattered across the innertubes.

If it's out there, by all means point me at TFM that I may R it.

EDIT: Formatting.

tl;dr: Rule #1: Don't fly anything you can't afford to lose. But rule #2: Play how you want. I ain't here to yuk anyone's yum.

I love my nice quiet hidden hunting rifle build. I get between 2k and 3k from a roost before I even get agroed.

But I keep trying to join events now, thinking at L90 I'd be able to contribue, and I'm getting absolutely flattened.

There are half a dozen players around in full T60 with Gatwhateverthehecks just bouncing all over the place.

Do I just have to hold my nose and figure out how to play with PA on a sneak speced character now in order to contribute?

What say ye?

(Also:

• Why, when I go in to my favorite hunting grounds do all the mobs suddenly drop dead at once? It happens all the time. Log in, clean up inventory, head to Welch...see a bunch of mole miners milling about, blink, and they're all dead. What gives? Didn't used to happen.)

EDIT: I'm a doofus. I just tripped over "infrared touch frame." I'm going to start with that and see if it serves well enough.

TL;DR: I want to build the "big touch screen desk/table" but don't even know where to start looking. Yes I fully acknowledge this is utterly beyond my current skill set.

I REALLY want the touch screen transparent 30"ish monitor. But I'm not sure that's even real technology.

If I could do design and development work on such a thing I'd be unstoppable. (He says, with the full awareness of "real productivity is right around the next blind corner" delusion.)

If I separate the ideas of display and interactivity (which I suppose I have to do) then the display problem goes away. I could just get a big monitor and rip it out of it's case.

But precision multi-point touch interface without using an array of cameras in the naive sense..

For 5 figures I'm sure there some conference room nightmare. But I don't have that to spend on this and...I mean, where's the fun?

But this "can't possibly be THAT much of a nightmare" to build, can it?