Am finally getting back to this fitness band project. I have something like 8000 of these nrf52 based bands stored under my house. I have open source dfu images to replace the stock firmware and schematics. (1/2)

Oh yeah.

Next victim in my quest to move more things to open source control is an led strip controller. The WR3 came away easily but this controller routes all the buttons and leds though another micro and uses it to talk to the WR3 over uart. Have removed the other micro and will strap the IO to the esp.

In today's lesson on cursed dimensions we tempt you but then deliver all but the things that are really useful.

Every now & then I come across parts in my collection priced in $NT. I was last in Taiwan in early 2000, that's a while ago. Whole lives have been lived since I bought these. I took them back to Australia with me & then moved to Canada with them. People talk about food miles, I have part miles.

Am replicating a complicated layout in #kicad using the reference image feature. It works well. Have exported the dxf and laser cut the outline in paper - tolerances are large so it fits well first time.

Made some #esphome boards last year & am deploying one to control an unreliable furnace. It's a simple design with a flexible, opto-isolated IO section. The mains power conversion is handled by a module. Had to make mods this time as the (external) relay coil current is too high for the opto. 1/2

Our postal service in Canada is on strike but JLCPCB global direct line still delivers for $us1.50 by some miracle of financial trickery. Planning these for giveaway at conferences, they're plain white label pcbs for bag tags etc. These are 1mm thick, still strong.

Sump pump service time. Has been making a different sound for a few months now. Fix was easy, the float had slipped down & the pump was sucking dry at the end of each cycle. Probably reduced the lifetime. Installed this about 10yrs ago when I realized water was coming up through cracks in the floor.

It's official! @crowdsupply.bsky.social's Teardown will be returning to the mall in June 2025 and they are still letting me run it.

Keynotes will be Cory Doctorow (author, journalist, activist), Kate Stewart (VP of Embedded at Linux, Zephyr, RTOS) and bunnie Huang (hardware hacker, author).

Spent some time this week on a #homeassistant #esphome roller coaster. For some time now it's been hard to find retail devices with esp8266 in them, they're mostly all made by the same CM (Intertek?) and have switched to the wb3s. Bought some treatlife units but new model & no esp. (1/n)