Chris M.

JLCPCB is an offshore (Chinese) low cost quick turn PCB manufacturer that can also perform PCB assembly (SMT components only). I've had a half dozen or so boards built by them so far and their SMT assembly service has saved me countless hours of populating SMT passives (resistors, capacitors, inductors) under the microscope. Here are some things I've learned while using jlcpcb that will likely save you a TON of time and effort. #1. JLCPCB's parts library is NOT the same as LCSC's JLCPCB (PCB fab + assembly) is related or owned by the same company that owns LCSC (parts supplier, think DigiKey, Mouser, Arrow) BUT JLCPCB's parts library is only a relatively small subset of LCSC parts . You'll want to search JLCPCB's parts catalog for parts, these are the only ones that JLCPCB can populate on your PCBs. Don't do what I've done and put together a BOM for a PCB using LCSC parts and then find out that 90% of these parts aren't availa...

If you've been keeping up on tech news you've likely seen the positive stories reassuring you about the upgrade to Windows 11: Windows 11: Just say no | Computerworld No, you don't have to upgrade from Windows 10 to ... - CNET WHY did I get my hopes up? - Windows 11 Announcement There are a number of unpallatable things being pushed in Windows 11 ( specs ): "You need a Microsoft account" - what? why do I need this? any privacy concerns? "Trusted Platform Module (TPM) version 2.0" - again, why is this necessary? Windows 10 works fine without it... Shifting CPU requirements - A month ago the Windows 11 compatibility tool said you needed a pretty new CPU (for no technical reason anyone can figure out), now it looks like a wider range of processors are supported. This is a remaining area of confusion. Not excited about Windows 11? There are some options: Switch to OSX (via Apple) or Linux Remain on Windows...

2019-02-24 update: Wrote this back in 2014 and only got around to publishing it now after making some final edits. After the final repairs listed here the hot water heater worked without issue until we moved a few years later. It felt, and still feels, like this was just one of those products that was launched with known issues and that it should have had some design changes. Instead they kept shipping the same design for a number of years inspite of knowing a number customers would have to deal with them. In this case the condensate pan was made of inappropriate material for the fitting attachment that was intended for use, and the condenser had a design or manufacturing flaw that caused a serious galvanic reaction. It's too bad that so many people had a negative experience with this relatively new technology given how energy efficient heat-pumps can be. - Chris 2013 We've had a string of issues with our new GE GeoSpring Hybrid water heater. Many reviews on Amazon ...

Omega2S Omega2+ If you are as big a fan of the Omega2 as I am I'm guessing you want to do as much with the platform as possible. Recently I've been looking to get a low cost Linux system on a CANbus, to sniff on some traffic. What are the options for adding a CAN interface to your Omega2, either when you are designing a solution or looking to easily add it to an existing system? eLinux has a great guide on a number of CANbus adapters that I'd recommend to anyone looking to integrate CAN into their system. Interface Typical use case Available on Omega2 / Omega2S serial (via SLCAN) Design-in/Add-on Simple protocol but not considered reliable, efficient or fast by Linux CAN developers . SPI Design-in Not usable , the Omega2 (MT7688 cpu) is only half duplex SPI Software SPI Design-in Higher cpu load than hardware SPI USB Design-in/Add-on Available (Omega2 has one USB host port) Note that all of the design-in options could be used ...

Gmail address mapping Gmail has some interesting rules that it applies to email addresses. Gmail ignores periods, '.', and all of text after the plus, '+', character up until the '@. Others have written pretty extensively about the situation, I'll try to be brief here. Using periods to make email addresses easier to read You can insert periods to make your email address easier to read, Email sent to Will go to John.Doe@gmail.com -> JohnDoe@gmail.com j.doe@gmail.com -> jdoe@gmail.com Unique email addresses for each site Using '+' you can use unique email addresses when registering with websites. This can make it easier to figure out who might be selling your email address. Email sent to Will go to JohnDoe+somesite@gmail.com -> JohnDoe@gmail.com JohnDoe+anothersite@gmail.com -> JohnDoe@gmail.com If spam starts arriving on one of these site specific emails you can be pretty sure ...

I’m new to golang modules . Here are some of the things that I wish I had known when I started using them. There is no reason to set GOPATH One of the things I struggled with was how to reconcile modules with the single workspace directory recommended in the golang docs and what was previously where GOPATH would point. With go modules you wouldn’t normally set GOPATH. Everything is a module Everything is a module. Even your application. This is something not immediately obvious or mentioned anywhere. Every module has to have a name If you aren’t planning to import or share your application/package then you can use a non-repository name like myapp . When you initialize go modules you can do: go mod init myapp If you’d like to share this as a module you’ll want to use its web location instead like: go mod init github.com/user/repo Packages need to be fully qualified If you had a subdirectory of your application called mypackage then you’ll have to adjust your impo...

If you have one of these Graco battery powered swings you are probably familiar with the cost of C batteries! The swing takes four of them and they only last a handful of days. I'm not sure if the newer models support being plugged into the wall but ours didn't. If you are a little familiar with electronics and soldering, here is a rough guide on how you can modify yours to plug in! I wasn't sure how exactly to disassemble the swing side where the batteries were. I was able to open up the clamshell a bit but throughout this mod I was unable to determine how to fully separate the pieces. I suspect that there is some kind of a slip plate on the moving arm portion. The two parts of the plastic are assembled and the moving arm portion with the slip plate is slid onto the shaft. Because of the tension in that slip plate it doesn't want to back away, and because of the mechanicals that portion of the assembly doesn't appear accessible in order to free it. I was...