TomKeddie
tomkeddie.bsky.social
TomKeddie
@tomkeddie.bsky.social
Full stack hobbyist (from tinytapeout, FPGAs, PCBs, Digital Electronics, SMD, to C, C++, Zephyr, Python, Linux etc). 20+ yrs employed in both firmware and verilog/vhdl.
and China I think (Shein and Temu were mentioned, that is the only part that makes me happy). This is going to create import gridlock. He'll need to hire a bunch of people to process the volume... Oh wait, the existing ones already took his early retirement offer...
February 2, 2025 at 3:32 PM
As in you'll never see the money? or perhaps retirement age will keep moving as you get closer? or "rather burn out than fade away"?
January 22, 2025 at 8:39 PM
Hey Paul, sorry to hear you're not well. Take care.
January 22, 2025 at 5:59 PM
They're ewaste from a company I once worked for. Am trying to rescue them from the crusher.
January 16, 2025 at 6:18 PM
Unfortunately they're all past their shelf life and the lipos have discharged to 0V. So far I've charged up about 10 bands and all came to life. Am getting ready for a charging test of 50 bands. If this works I'll move ahead with distributing the bands somehow (2/2).
January 15, 2025 at 4:12 AM
There is some really good footage on YouTube.

youtu.be/gdk_KUFUp98?...
Black Strathcona: Militant Mothers
YouTube video by Black Strathcona
youtu.be
January 6, 2025 at 11:24 PM
Teenage boys all over Melbourne shed a quiet tear when they retired route 69 in 2004. en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of...

Renumbering all the tram routes in a city at once will surely cause chaos? Especially for the elderly?
List of Melbourne tram routes - Wikipedia
en.m.wikipedia.org
January 5, 2025 at 6:11 PM
Agreed, but there is a lot to know. For instance, am confused about damage due to discharge to 0V - seems to be a lot of confusion around this. Perhaps it's a scientific maybe so the correct answer is maybe?
January 1, 2025 at 11:29 PM
I used to watch my dad do this to his (nylon) rope as a kid. Makes me miss him every time I do this.
December 31, 2024 at 1:37 AM
If it's within the licence it wouldn't be theft. Do you know the firmware? Blinking leds under IR control doesn't seem especially difficult. To me the cleverness is in the PCB design.
December 19, 2024 at 2:57 PM
I needed a NC 120VAC relay recently (to shut off a furnace that misbehaves occasionally), put the relay in a metal wall box and opto isolated the electronics in a separate box.
December 15, 2024 at 10:59 PM
Clearly Darwin has a plan. Happy to sit this one out in Canada and keep our dairy/medical protections strong.
December 14, 2024 at 3:52 AM
It's probably more complicated than this. Might have failed FCC testing with the slot so they had to abandon it
December 13, 2024 at 5:35 PM
I loved it but went with the wrong people so I had to pretend I wasn't enjoying myself. My favourite was the Put it in a Box song but there was so much fun in there. This is an old but good interview with Trey and Matt.

www.npr.org/2019/12/27/7...
'Fresh Air' Favorites: 'Book Of Mormon' Creators Trey Parker And Matt Stone
This week, we're listening back to some favorite Fresh Air interviews from the past decade. In 2011, Terry Gross spoke to the creators of South Park about their Broadway hit.
www.npr.org
December 11, 2024 at 6:52 AM
I also added .md generation from the BoM (see github.com/TomKeddie/pr...). Am keen to add more self-updating documentation stuff to my Makefile so the .md can point to schematic and pcb images too. Unfortunately there is no png generation in kicad for schematic or pcb images yet.
github.com
December 10, 2024 at 6:39 AM
The #kicad placement file format is hard coded (see place_file_exporter.cpp) - I don't have it in me to submit a PR for a variable fields. Instead, I've added support for jlc rotation fixes using a python script (github.com/TomKeddie/pr...). I know there are plugins but I tire of installing them.
December 10, 2024 at 6:33 AM
I've been really enjoying the #kicad cli added in recent versions. It's helped me form the #jlcpcb bom format without needing any plugins (when combined with the awesome dnp enhancements in kicad). See my Makefile at github.com/TomKeddie/pr...
prj-pcb-experiments/2024-clock-retrofit/kicad/Makefile at master · TomKeddie/prj-pcb-experiments
Contribute to TomKeddie/prj-pcb-experiments development by creating an account on GitHub.
github.com
December 10, 2024 at 6:27 AM
The esp32 will run #esphome - I think people have 7 segment clocks running already, if not will be a good excuse to learn how to build extensions. I love being able to do projects that need software but having to write very little of it myself. esphome is gold for this, so capable.
December 10, 2024 at 4:07 AM
Is looking good in #kicad 3d view. Hoping all the mechanical is ok. There's an esp32 on the back, I'll solder that myself. Was an exercise in bait-and-switch as I got excited by all the esp32 IO and then rewired to meet all the pullup/down requirements. Have ir rx, rgb led and button on the top.
December 10, 2024 at 4:04 AM
Wondering if you've posted on the antenna setup you're using? Would be interested to know.
December 9, 2024 at 5:33 PM
All were removed with a Hakko 850D hot air unit I bought on ebay. I was fortunate to attend a soldering workshop in Shenzhen in 2014, this taught me a lot about hot air rework. You need to be patient and use way more heat than you might want to.

youtu.be/LQjV2APK9zQ?...
Advanced soldering demo at Hacker Camp Shenzhen
YouTube video by iantube
youtu.be
December 6, 2024 at 6:03 PM
Enough hair product to start an inferno!
December 6, 2024 at 12:30 AM