day I stopped counting of #arcade summer: I had lots of work this week outside of arcade projects so I only logged a couple hours but I'll just post the completion of yet another project, MacroPed! Why use two limbs while coding and have your other two jut sitting there wasting space? Make them useful by putting macros on the floor. This pico-based mechanical switch macropad lets you do that with a bunch of configurations for cad, vim, browsing the web etc. I wrote a couple keymaps but you can add your own too. (PRs more than welcome!) find out about it at github.com/Devnol/MacroPed
Day n+1 of #arcade summer: This weekend I barely got anything done due to some other things but I did finish the physical design for my foot pedal macropad, routed all the cables and wired up everything together. Continued working on the code a bit but it's crashing in some places, I'll need to figure it out tomorrow.
Day 23 of #arcade summer (probably, I've lost count by now): Continued working on my foot pedal macropad today, started printing the ring that will hold all the switches together and did some code refactoring. I realised I should probably add a window for the status led and a passthrough for the bootsel button in my cad model, I'll add that to my to-dos for tomorrow.
Day 21 of #arcade summer: Yesterday and today I didn't do much, I tried starting building something with #blot but I kinda left it in the middle: A little generator for putting different kinds of borders around a post-it note for decoration, like you can do in pages in Word. Did a solid and a dashed line but not much else. Then I remembered I had another old project in the backlog, A pico-based macropad for your FEET! (Trust me it makes sense). I had designed and ordered some boards last year using the OnBoard grant, wrote some basic code and did most of the 3d modelling but left it at that. In this coming week I've left I'll try to make some progress in that front and try to finish it all off. Today I designed some bridge things to align all the footswitches together in a sort of arc on the floor so you can easily access them like you would with keys around the home row of a keyboard.
Day 20 (dang) of #arcade summer: Today I got to finish the pcb design for PinPoint, my diy bluetooth tracker project I’m making together with @leost. I also added a usbc power in port for my portable monitor project and the new enclosure for that is printing at the moment. Tomorrow I’ll either work on making an enclosure for the tracker or maybe do something entirely different. Perhaps try blot or continue working on my unfinished foot pedal macropad
Day 19 of #arcade summer: I finished the pcb design for the BLE tracker @leost and I are working on. It still probably needs some stuff but overall it’s complete! (P.S. if you have any EE knowledge I’d love to hear your input on this, it looks correct technically but I still feel like I’ve forgotten some passive or something like that. Project is up on github: github.com/pinpoint-dev/tracker
Day 18 of #arcade summer: The board for our bluetooth tracker is taking shape! made an outline for it, added a buzzer for finding and a pin header for programming, as well as a coin cell slot on the back for a cr2032 battery. We’re thinking of also adding a usb header for easier dfu programming but we’ll see how that goes.
Day 17 or #arcade summer: I had some extra time today so I got a couple hours into this open source BLE tracker I’m working on with @leost. Couldn’t find a symbol for KiCAD for the Bluetooth module we’re using so I had to make my own. Thankfully the stock KiCAD lib had a similar module but still having to cross-reference three datasheets was a pain. I got it in the end though and got it loading in eeschema and pcbnew. (Just realised I have to fix that keepout tomorrow)
Day 16 of #arcade summer: I’m starting a brand-new project today (this always goes well), making an open source BLE tracker for FindMy together with @leost. Today was mild setup day so I got to work making a hardware repo: github.com/pinpoint-dev/tracker, doing some sketches and finding where to start designing the board. We’re probably going to be using this Ebyte nRF528 SIP, which has very little docs and design files available so I’ll have to do those myself (fun!). But that’s for tomorrow, now I gotta go rest because I also have classes tomorrow…
Day 16 of #arcade summer: I took the leap of faith and ordered a small batch of the pcbs I needed for my wii mini mod. I opted for cheap shipping because of course and I really hope they arrive fast enough for me to try it out before leaving for vacation. With that, I’m finally out of hardware backlog projects to wrap up for arcade so I think I might go on with doing some ysws’s from hackclub or maybe redo my personal website? We’ll see… Super stoked to be done with all the things I’ve had on a shelf for the past 2 years though.
Day 15 (I think?) of #arcade summer: I finished the pcb model for my Wii mini today and 3d printed a mockup of the board to do some test fits. It looks like it might barely fit but I’ll have to investigate tomorrow. Here’s some pics from the fit test process, model and pcb are up on the github.
Day 14 of #arcade summer (somehow I lost my streak, damn you scrappy!): Yesterday. I assembled the portable monitor and got it working, I’ll put it away for now as I need some help by my grandmother to make a cover for it. That marks the 3rd project finished this summer, hooray! Now today I got back to working on a mod for the Wii mini that lets you connect a gamecube controller. I’ve started designing the pcb and I’ll need to redo my old 3d printed mount for the connectors. Tomorrow I’ll wrap up the pcb and maybe get to that 3d mount again
Day 12 of #arcade summer: I’m really losing momentum with all the classes and stuff but I’m still getting at least a couple of hours a day in. Portable monitor is pretty much done with all 4 parts fully printed. Honestly it turned out better than I expected, especially that 🔥 hc embossed logo! I just printed the front bezel but I still haven’t assembled that, though the key part missing is a cover to flip around and hold the screen upright. I don’t have a sewing machine to do that or know of another way so I’ll leave that currently and figure it out later with a little help from my grandmother. In the meantime, I got to find other projects to work on, of which I have lots in the back of my mind. I’ve been really exhausted this past week with everything but at least it feels good knowing I’m finally popping things off my backlog after years of having them stale sitting in a shelf (I bought parts for this monitor in the summer of 2022).
Day 11 of #arcade summer: I’m really losing momentum here, I only got 2 hours today and 2 yesterday but regardless, 2/3 active projects are finished now and the 3rd just has a lot of printing that needs to be done. I’ve printed 1/4 panels of my portable monitor thingy for which I’m still not exactly sure how it’ll work out in terms of standing upright. I still have 15-some hours of printing left on a bunch of other different parts but so far it seems promising. If only I could get more consistent bed adhesion for these wide parts…
Day 9 of #arcade summer: Another finished project today! I only managed to clock in a few hours today but I did finish up the Juicebox, my diy powerbank made of 2 18650 cells and a pd-compatible multiport travel board. After calibrating the charge controller the cells work fine and I did manage to charge both my 5000mAh phone and give a little to my mother. pretty small but powerful battery, I'll probably use it to power a wii or my portable monitor too since it can do 9 and 12v as well.
In about 10 hours of cad and a few more of printing, my 2nd #arcade project is finally complete!
I’ve always like those Ridge key cases but 100 bucks is just insane (and they don’t even fit european sized keys). So, I designed my own. Enter, The Summit: fully open source, 3d-printable with just a couple machine screws of assorted sizes. I unfortunately ran out of this beautiful blue filament but ngl i kinda dig the two-tone look with the white.
Github is here: github.com/Devnol/The-Summit (will add pictures and final f3d/STLs a bit later)
Day 8 of #arcade summer: My ender is finally starting to catch up to all my queued prints. The control board enclosure for my portable monitor is finally ready (see previous scrapbook post). I think I’ve worked out all the kinks from my key holder, though it’s still printing at the moment and finally I think I finished the design for the powerbank enclosure, though it’s still untested. I did print the bracket that will hold the board and battery holder together and beautifully soldered the connections (inhaling abs vapor mixed with flux is delicious btw).
FINALLY! The enclosure for my portable monitor is fully complete! The compliant buttons work and all I need to do is wire up a speaker and wait for my usbc pd trigger to come in so I can forego the 12v barrel jack. here's a quick video of it in action:Day 7 (wow! a full week huh?) of #arcade summer: I came home really late today and had a bunch of things to do so I started today’s run really late. Did 3 hours, one on each of my 3 running projects. It is now 3am and I have a lesson in ~7 hours. Woo! In any case, today was a bit of a quick fixes day, I made some little changes both on the portable monitor driver board case and the keycase I’m working on but most of the significant progress was made on my powerbank design.
I made a very rudimentary box to basically friction-fit the driver board and 18650 enclosure, poked some holes through it and made a nub to press the button that most definitely won’t work. These are all things that need to be worked on tomorrow though, for now I really gotta run to bed.
Day 6 of #arcade: My key holder Ridge clone is almost ready! I’m still missing some tolerances here and there and I need to figure out a way to embed a hex nut without creating a bad seam with the next layer but other than that it’s ready! I also started yet another cad project today, a small PD compatible powerbank with replaceable 18650 cells! It’s currently charging and I’ve barely started working on its enclosure but tomorrow is a day too and I’ll work on it then (or later tonight if I just don’t sleep).
Day 5 of #arcade summer: My folding key holder is complete! I have modeled all of the features I needed and it’s looking pretty good, at least on-screen. I printed some tests but they had some things I needed to change and I almost ran out of my blue filament so I switched to the new white one I got by Rosa3D. As it turns out this one’s pretty bad so I either need to dry it out or it just doesn’t print. I’ll leave it on the heatbed overnight to dry it and try again tomorrow.
Day 4 of #arcade summer: Unfortunately my parts weren’t here on time so I had to get started working on a different project (boo hoo). I’ve always liked the Ridge keychains but 100$ is just prohibitive. To this I say: YOU WOULDNT DOWNLOAD A KEYCHAIN
Enter, The Summit! An open-source “demake” of the ridge keychain designed for fff production in mind, coming soontm to a github near you. github.com/Devnol/The-Summit
Day 3 of #arcade (Wow, streak has really started to get going huh!?): Today I worked again a bit on the portable monitor project, fixed some flaws I noticed on yesterday’s print and added a cute little hc flag on the back of the panel case (no clue how I’ll print it). Parts and filaments I ordered should be coming in tomorrow so I can work on other projects and test this one out physically.
Day 2 of #arcade. Managed to get 3 hours clocked in despite all the classes today. I’m actually making pretty good progress on this project! I’m pretty sure I finished the driver board case, hopefully this print iteration will be the second to last (no way it’s the last knowing me lol). I also worked on the monitor case a bit and kicked a few things off the to-do list.
Testfitted the print. Looks like I did miss some things when making changes. The screw holes for the IR mount are a little too tight and the clamp for the lvds cable is too low down, so yes, I’m gonna have to do a reprint tomorrow. Bummer.
Day 1 of working on my massive backlog of projects for #arcade: I had this portable monitor project that was left stale for a while, started working on it again and I hope this gives me good motivation to complete it. Keeping the streak alive isn’t gonna be easy with summer classes and stuff but it’s probably my last year on hack club so I’m gonna give it my best shot.
Made a github repo to house all the design files github.com/Devnol/Port-a-panel (although working with Fusion and github is pretty inconvenient). I worked a bit on the enclosure of the monitor’s driver board, fixed some physical issues with the design and made the mating of the parts a bit better. I still got to go buy some filament before I can print these and try them out so I have some time to do some changes in CAD and perfect it before running the next test print.
I haven't scrapbooked in years but I needed to justify this to my self somehow so here we go:
I found an old Black & Decker Dustbuster car vacuum in my basement and kinda needed exactly that for my desk and server room so I what every sensible human being would do and drilled a hole with a barrel jack for it. It used to have a long 12v car cord hard-wired to it so I snipped it off and made it work for both. Small issue is it's like 6amps and my desk psu only does 3ish but it's probably fine 🔥
Been a hot minute since I posted here but oh well I think this is worth sharing: We're at Tzoumerka in northern Greece and today we went up mt. Strogoula (which means something along the lines of "round"). Here are some pics from the hiking refuge we reached up the mountain after a 3ish km walk.
Arrived at paxos this morning and our apartment is amazing! I also finished adding a projects list on my website and a scrolling cue. I really like how it turned out on mobile but desktop has a bit of work left to do.
after the trip to greece-but-50yrs-ago-and-scam island of sicily, we are leaving for the Greek island of Paxos. However, that means we had to wake up at 4 in the god damn morning to make a 500km drive to the port that has ferries there and catch the 10:30 ferry. (Now if you'll excuse me I need to physically temporarily die).
Finally left Sicily and returned to Greece! It wasn't the best trip I've had but it wasn't bad either. (P.S. @cfanoulis et. al. plane stans we flew on one of the new Airbus A320's with the new Aegean logo and improved wings!)
Last full day in Sicily: Today we visited the palace and church inside it. Nerd highlight of the day is that there was a lion sculpture that was scanned with photogrammetry and 3d printed!
Day 6 of 🇮🇹: it is statistically certain that I now have some form of SARS/HIV/Hepatitis/Meningitis/PTSD/USB or HTTP
Day 5 of sicily: cool church in Corleone, also what the fuck is this crossbar in our new apartment
Day 4 of Sicily: today we went to a beach that's just like the one next to my village in Greece and then we went to the valley of temples in Agrigento which is, well, full of temples
daddy Elon contracted me to come to Mars Day 3 of Sicily: we visited the volcanic mt. Etna (this is just a landscape the mountain is much higher)
day two of Syracuse, Sicily.
Image captions:
• Pythagoras memorial
• This tree generates its own supports for overhanging structures
• I paid 12 euros for this
34th rule of Italy: if it exists there's pasta of it
Started adding a projects list on my reactjs website, it’s not complete yet but here’s two I added for a start
Giving people reasons to call me delusional day 4: did a semi-marathon around my village and explored some places I haven't really been to much. Tip: wait for the sun to go down before you start, yesterday I cycled half as much and sweated twice as much.
Devnol induces physical self-harm by riding a bike with 45°C direct sunlight day 3: rode to the local beach and back and made an ursa minor with a long ass tail
cycling cycles day 2: yes, that is a bike lock
getting thicc legs day 1
Today I bought a UPS for my server and finally completed the first version of github.com/devnol/powerSurge, a raspberry pi pico-based dumb shutdown system. It detects when the power falls out and while the server is running on the UPS power, the pico pulls low the power button of the server, telling it to finally shut down safely and without loss of any data. In the future I plan to add a restart feature if the power comes back up after a specific amount of time and an ambient thermometer so that it shuts the server down if the temperature gets over the specification. If you have a homelab and like tinkering with hardware this project might be for you, so if you want give it a follow on GitHub to get updates on my progress on it.
Secured my self-hosted websites with Let’s Encrypt today! It was so simple I can’t even believe it worked.
Fixing a broken nintendo switch lite today, I'll be livestreaming on :youtube: in 80 minutes youtu.be/caj03Or-84M
Finally finished my 2fa token generator! Source code at github.com/devnol/pico-2fa-tokenFinished the circuit for my off the grid OTP token powered by the Raspberry Pi Pico! I will make the display work tomorrow. For now it outputs to serial Code and schematics here (not ready yet): github.com/Devnol/pico-2fa-token
The hardware part is complete! The black power supply is used for probing whether the power from mains has fallen, the white power supply is for providing constant power to the pico, the large board is the target machine (my server’s front I/O board) and the white breadboard is a voltage regulator!
Set up Cloudflare Argo Tunnel so I can now ssh to my server without the need for a port forward or a direct IP exposure. Everything gets routed through cf and only the emails I whitelist can login with OTP, GitHub or Google
FINALLY completed the main part of my personal website, hosted on GitHub Pages and written in ReactJS! devnol.github.io
This animation took so long I don’t even wanna talk about itReceived my Heck Club Stonkers today from @cfanoulis! They look thicc, my favorite is the Macintosh one
Today I worked on my personal site again, I rtfm and learned how to use components, state hooks and added these buttons that change depending on which button you click. Next I will populate these buttons and add actual proper content devnol.github.io
Started making my personal website with React! It’s not ready yet, but so far React has been pretty simple and easy to use. It’s not much right now but that’s all I had time for today. devnol.github.io
Feeling kinda reactful today, I think it’s time for me to make my personal Website cuz I still haven’t done that somehow lawl
I had no school today so I sat down and fixed one of my old projects! github.com/Devnol/Time-Bombpsa: f*ck cloudflare
Today I played cookie clicker and discovered that the whole earning system relies on a single function (I’ll let you find it on your own). Then things got a little bit out of hand…
I’m not that good at drawing and graphics design but I made this logo for my new GitHub org (What I like to call a startup without the bureaucracy) that @Odyssey346, @Midou, @akisblack, some others and I are working on: Neutron Technologies.
Today I called my ISP for the 5th time complaining about how I can’t open ports 0-1023 and I found out what I had to do to fix it. And it worked! I currently have my raspberry pi and portainer network forwarding at port 80. I also learned how to use the nginx reverse proxy to show different pages depending on the subdomain!
Today I had to migrate my data over from an old freenas server via cli so I learned to use most unix commands for data handling with their most important flags such as ls, df, cp, mv, mount, umount, mkdir, split and rm.
This is the so-called server: a decapitated Clevo laptop from 2009
Today I watched the Hackropolis Teachable Machine workshop @cfanoulis and co. did last Wednesday made by the one and only @matthew (happy b’day btw) and made a proof of concept implementation of the children’s game 007 (some call it James Bond): 007test.devnol.repl.co
I went outside today (I know, shocking innit? There was no power or internet so not much else to do) I built a snowman with a friend.
Day 2 of Pico desk clock, didn’t have much time today so I worked on the Fritzing Hardware schematic.
Day 1 of making desk clock for the RasPi pico, I implemented a date selector (with days in a month actually being based on the month and whether the year is leap) as well as made the input controls for the system (output is currently USB serial but will be i2c display)
Soldered the pins on my raspberry pi pico and wrote a little program that turns the led on when you press the buttonFor all you Raspberry Pi Pico fellas with macs that use vscode (that narrowed it down a lot geez), I made a repo with all the hard work of getting the pico-sdk to work in your development environment already done! github.com/Devnol/pico-boilerplate All you have to do is follow the getting started guide on the Pico website!
