The Smell of Molten Projects in the Morning

Ed Nisley's Blog: Shop notes, electronics, firmware, machinery, 3D printing, laser cuttery, and curiosities. Contents: 100% human thinking, 0% AI slop.

Category: Oddities

Who’d’a thunk it?

Arduino Joystick: Button Pullup FAIL

I wired a resistive joystick to the knockoff Nano controlling the crystal tester and connected the button to an analog input because I have a lot of those left over and why not. Unfortunately, the ADC returned a sequence of random-ish numbers indicating the button didn’t have a pullup to +5 V.

One might be forgiven for assuming the pads marked R5 would hold such a pullup resistor, had the joystick not been relentlessly cost-reduced:

Keyes resistive joystick – R5 location

One would, of course, be completely wrong.

Having been around this block several times, I measured the pad-to-pin resistances and found R5 firmly affixed to the GND and +5V pins, with the SW (a.k.a. button) pin floating free. Pressing the joystick hat closes the switch next to R5, thereby connecting the SW pin to GND.

Baffles me. Maybe a fresh intern did the PCB layout and just misplaced the resistor?

So I soldered an ordinary resistor (*) between the +5 V and SW pins:

Keyes resistive joystick – button pullup

Now it works just as it should.

(*) For long-lost reasons, I have a zillion 12.4 kΩ 1% resistors appearing in place of simple 10 kΩ resistors.

2017-06-29
Why Electricity Won

Spotted this impressive array at an apartment building:

Gas meter array

That’s just for one wing; the other end of the building has a similar installation. Each apartment has an electric stove and gas heat / AC.

The plumbing!

2017-06-24
Yellowbook Do-Not-Deliver Delivery Option

Last summer I followed the procedure that should turn off (one of) the ersatz “Yellow Pages” directories littering our driveway.

This just arrived:

YellowBook Do-Not-Deliver Delivery

Seeing as how they have the wrong town in my address, there’s still another excuse available.

My guess: they’re paid by tonnage of books delivered and have a powerful incentive to continue delivering all of them, no matter what gets in the way.

You absolutely cannot make this stuff up.

2017-06-18
Amazon Packaging

The ample padding around this bag of fragile pecans leaves nothing to be desired:

Amazon – well-packed pecans

They’re firmly held in place on all sides, well protected from injury, and survived their shipping ordeal unscathed: not a bruise or break to be found. Well done!

That’s not always the case. A padded envelope recently arrived with an obvious wound:

Amazon – envelope perforations

Which came from its completely unprotected contents:

Amazon – unprotected PCB pins

Fortunately, the fragile glass front plate of that OLED managed to put itself flat against a small box inside the otherwise empty bag. it wasn’t broken, but due only to good fortune.

“Static sensitive parts enclosed”, indeed …

2017-06-17
Generic I²C 128×64 OLED Displays: Beware Swapped VCC and GND

A batch of 1.3 inch white I²C OLED displays arrived from halfway around the planet, so I figured I could run a quick acceptance test by popping them into the socket on the crystal tester proto board:

White 1.3 inch OLED on crystal tester

The first one flat-out didn’t work, as in not at all. The original display continued to work fine, so I compared the old & new displays:

OLED Modules – pinout difference

Yup, swapped VCC and GND pins. I should be used to that by now.

I rewired the socket, tried the new displays, undid the change, popped the original display in place, and all is right with the world. Somewhat to my surprise, all five new displays worked, including the one I’d insulted with reversed power.

2017-06-12
Disaster Tourism

Riding around the block after a nasty storm showed far more than the usual number of leaves on the Dutchess Rail Trail:

Wappinger Tornado – Rail Trail near Titusville Rd – 2017-06-01

I spotted several trees down on both sides of the trail approaching Maloney Road, with another large branch across that access ramp:

Wappinger Tornado – Maloney Rd Rail Trail ramp – 2017-06-01

You might be able to see the large tree down across the trail on the far side of the road, up the slope.

Maloney Rd had many downed trees:

Wappinger Tornado – Maloney Rd 1 – 2017-06-01

With chainsaw chips and flare ash piles everywhere:

Wappinger Tornado – Maloney Rd 2 – 2017-06-01

From the National Weather Service:

The National Weather Service in coordination with Dutchess County Emergency Management officials, have confirmed a brief touchdown of a tornado on May 31. The tornado path began near the intersection of Maloney Road and Route 376. The tornado traveled due east along and just north of Maloney Road for approximately 1.25 miles before dissipating. Damage included numerous snapped hardwood and softwood trees and the roof lifted off a shed.

Both of Mary’s gardens suffered beatdowns, with the Vassar Farm plot pretty thoroughly pulverized by marble-size hail; she’s not in a good mood right now.

The DPW crews had plenty on their to-do list, but that branch was gone a day later.

Update: The top of the barely visible tree in the second picture just kissed the trail fence, but a much larger tree smashed both fences on its way across the trail:

Wappinger Tornado – Rail Trail S of Maloney – 2017-06-04

If you need some firewood, maybe you can make a deal …

2017-06-05
Golden Tortoise Beetle

An iridescent ball appeared on the kitchen wall:

Golden Tortoise Beetle – left top – light

Despite the silvery shine under LED lighting, it was a Golden Tortoise Beetle:

Golden Tortoise Beetle – right top

The iridescence shows up better with a bit of underexposure:

Golden Tortoise Beetle – left top – dark

Transparent armor: who’d’a thunk it?

Golden Tortoise Beetle – left front

Mary spotted one in the garden some years ago; I’ve never seen such a thing.

2017-06-04