u/jacod1982 — reddlx

Breadboard vs PCB

I have a comment that I just want to leave here for no particular reason other than I think it might be a good philosophy…

I’ve started down the road of the Ben Eater projects, by starting with the EEPROM programmer, and have learned that it is a great idea to, as soon as I have validated the circuit for whatever module/widget you are currently working on with a breadboard, that it is a great idea (especially if I know I’m going to be using this circuit/module/widget further), to get it onto PCB as soon as possible. That way, there is at least one less layer of potential troubleshooting to do in future.

Edit: Forgot to mention that I have undertaken that as I go further down the Ben Eater rabbit hole, I undertake to make any and all circuits and PCB designs available under OSHW (probably CERN license) on my GitHub. Links to follow…

reddit.com

u/jacod1982 — 6 days ago

▲ 6 r/learnpython

Interfacing with Arduino hardware

Not sure if this is the right place to write this, but I feel like I want to put it here mainly because I still consider myself a beginner at Python… But please feel free to point me elsewhere if this is the wrong forum…

I was working on this earlier this afternoon - it’s a little project to build a custom EEPROM programmer using an Arduino as the hardware platform driving this, and exposing a software interface of sorts over a serial port via USB, that I then am working on a Python script to control the hardware and do things like read the EEPROM contents and write files and things to it, and it struck me how amazingly awesomely cool this is!!!

I am so excited right now! I can write code to send serial commands to a piece of custom hardware to read and write data to an EEPROM! Isn’t that just so awesome?!

reddit.com

u/jacod1982 — 22 days ago

▲ 37 r/beneater

EEPROM Programer

This isn’t something big or anything like that, I’m just looking for someone who understands the gravity of this to celebrate with me…

I have been working on this on and off for a few weeks, and this afternoon I realised that I have now learned how to build a piece of custom hardware to interface with an off the shelf EEPROM and save data values on it, and am controlling this via USB, using software I wrote myself! And I can now use this to read single bytes right from a CLI! Writing works as well, just haven’t fully implemented it yet any further than the PoC stage…

But this just feels so cool right now!!

u/jacod1982 — 22 days ago

▲ 2 r/ANBERNIC

Need help with RG35XX

Hello friendly Redditors, I have an interesting problem with an Anbernic RG35XX that I am attempting to repair for my partner, as it is one of their favourite handheld consoles.

The core problem is that the device does not seem to be charging. I cracked it open, and can confirm that with a USB C cable connected there is indeed +5V present on the VBUS pins at the connector. However, when this cable and also the battery is connected, I am only seeing around 0.6V on the two test pads next to the battery connector. However, when I probe these two pads without the USB cable connected, it reads at (very nearly on the dot) 3V. Now, I know that this means that the battery is simply too far discharged to be of any use, but the fact that I see almost 0V when the USB cable is connected, makes me suspect that the power controller is faulty.

I have located the data sheet for this part, and have got access to the tools and equipment required to replace this IC, but obviously don't want to do so if I haven't first run more comprehensive checks on it, for which I am currently waiting on a new set of needle probes, but in the meantime, I was curious as to whether this is a known failure mode?

u/jacod1982 — 2 months ago

▲ 7 r/PCB

For your consideration and comment I present my latest creation, a simple programmer for the 28Cx range of EEPROMs. I have a couple of upcoming projects and experiments for which I need a programmer, so instead of simply buying one, I decided to build it myself. It's already working fine on the breadboard, so I think I am ready to move onto the PCB stave, as this is going to be a tool and I don't want to have to fiddle with wires getting dislodged and all the other things to keep in mind when working with a breadboard.

How bad is this design overall? Keep in mind that while this is definitely not my first PCB design, I have not done any designs in probably 10+ years, so am rather rusty. Plus, this is absolutely not my day job, I'm just a simple hobbyist...

u/jacod1982 — 2 months ago