beastlykings

It was supposed to rain, but we pressed on, and it ended up being beautiful. Chilly but pleasant. Just cold enough to make you appreciate the warm fire. Plus the sound of the river to lull you to sleep.

Hard to beat!

Hear me out. I've been thinking about the best way to put up solar nodes in my area.

I live in Michigan so the winters are long and usually cold, and can get quite cold on occasion. Less so these days, but still. We all know that lithium doesn't like to be charged below 32f, so that's a problem.

I have one idea for a remote node on my property, to just use a 6v sealed lead acid with a 6v solar trickle charger, maybe a diode in series to the node if the voltage from the panel threatens to go over 7 or 8 volts. Or some kind of shunt, idk that idea isn't fully baked.

I'm also looking into a thermostatically controlled resistive heater. Bump up the capacity of the battery and make sure the panel is big enough to run the heater non-stop if need be. But that idea is also still baking, parts are in the mail and prototyping is yet to be done.

But then I had another idea. What about super capacitors? You can get a 5.5v 10F super capacitor on Amazon for $6. Some chatgpt math (and a proper understanding of the difference between power and energy, or rather ma vs mah) tells me that the storage 10F at 5 ish volts is equal to a nominal lipo at 3.7v and 10mah. Ignoring the fact that the capacitors voltage would drop sooner, and thus you'd lose some energy on the bottom end...

The T114 v2 has a built in solar charger circuit, a standby current of 9ma, and a TX draw of 150ma. So with a super capacitor you could get roughly an hour of idle time, or 4 solid ish minutes of nonstop transmitting. That's more than enough to account for a big cloud passing by, especially if you beefed up the solar panel, or easier yet just doubled or tripled the capacitors, they are pretty small.

The charging circuit might not like the low internal resistance of an empty capacitor every sunrise, but a couple ohm resistor in series would probably solve that.

Yes it's not ideal to have your nodes turning off every night, especially in the winter when days are short to begin with. But could it technically work? I feel like it could technically work. It'd be great in the summer,

My only concern would be the node getting stuck in a weird state if the sky is cloudy and the CPU browns out. It'd take a whole day to power cycle. Probably put a megohm resistor across the capacitor to ensure that it drains fully overnight in that scenario.

Are there any concerns with constantly hard power cycling a node like that? Data corruption?

The lead acid is probably the safest solution, though heavy. And the heater is probably the most compact solution, though more complicated and prone to catastrophic failure. But maybe there is room for super capacitors?

Sorry for the wall of text. Just spit balling.

Edit: HOLD THE PHONE! You can get 500F caps for $7! The reviews say they're actually more like 300F, but even that could idle a node for well over 24 hours, and TX nonstop for 2 hours, which is unlikely to happen. This is a game changer. This could solve the winter lithium problem.. I'm going to try this and I'll report back.

Edit 2: Various super caps and LiCs still on order. But I just came across this in the discord:

"Dendritic degradation happens when charging below freezing. However it’s a slow process. And the slower the charge, the longer the lifetime. With IoT devices the charge rate is quite low and not as critical compared to higher draw devices. Up here winters reach -40 sometimes, and in a lot of cases it sits below freezing for weeks, even months at a time. We’re now in our second winter on the same batteries with no failures (yet). Regular lithium Ion and LiPo. I’ve only done LTO for high traffic nodes that are very hard to access. Otherwise just plan to replace them when they die.

Slower the charge rate / the higher the capacity / the newer the battery / the better the quality the battery, all compound into longer cold weather performance.

There’s other factors too, like the higher the charge rate usually means the more sun/solar activity, which also means if you have a properly setup enclosure, the sun hitting it can be enough to increase the temp by over +20c or even more. This also doesn’t account for the charge/discharge heat being released by the batteries themselves in the enclosure." -Cully@KBOXLabs

So it seems to me I'm overthinking this whole thing.

Maybe a super cap or LiC would be good for extreme longevity. But a decent pair of 18650s might be plenty for something you won't have to touch for a couple years 🤷‍♂️

I'll still do some testing and report back, but I might not spend the extra money making each node supercapped.

I'm still fighting with Amazon to get my first pair of devices delivered, I went with heltec v3s to get started.

But looking at the meshmap.net, it's very very sparse around me. How likely is it that the are nodes that aren't on the map?

Hopefully I can check it out myself soon!

I'm trying to configure the gyro to help me aim. I've tried every configuration I can think of, or find online. I'm slamming head into a wall.

From what I can tell, the game now only accepts "steam controller" input. Which means the right joystick isn't actually a joystick, it's a weird virtual joystick, and there's some conversion going on. So when the old methods for getting gyro input are used, ie "as joystick" or "as mouse", the input is completely ignored by the game.

I've tried configuring a fresh controller configuration based on a standard controller, but then the game things I'm trying to use a keyboard and mouse and ignores all controller input.

Now, if I set gyro to "right stick (steam controller logo)", then suddenly the gyro starts affecting the right stick. But instead of being a relative input, as in when I pull the left trigger to aim, use the current gyro position as zero, and all relative movement should be applied to the stick. Instead it is an absolute value, with the movement being relative to the calibrated location of gravity down. So when I pull the left trigger, I immediately stare into the sky.

I think the solution to this is the "auto world tilt" option, but that is only available in the "gyro to joystick" configuration, which of course doesn't work.

Am I missing something completely obvious here? Can someone please guide me in the right direction? I miss gyro aim.

Thanks

Hi there, I've been wanting a framework for awhile now, just haven't pulled the trigger yet. I was perusing the website today, comparing the price and performance of different configurations, when I realized that the 16 needs a 100w power adapter, 180w if you've got the graphics card.

This is a dumb question, because obviously it would charge fine with the lid closed and idling or turned off. Or I could just upgrade my power adapters. But I have a lot of 65w USB C PD chargers in my house and cars, and I was wondering if anyone has tried using them, and if so how effective is it?

Like, 180w is a lot of power. If I'm just working on spreadsheets or something, I'm imagining it would charge just fine? Under a heavier load I would probably start to slip backwards? Where's the line? Movie watching? Light gaming?

Just food for discussion I guess, I still haven't pulled the trigger haha.

Thanks!

The civet processed beans? I'm wondering if it's all hype? Or worth buying a bag to try?

Edit: Thanks for the responses everyone! I'm gonna pass on it 👍

I'm new to backpacking, did my first trip this year with a hammock and had a great time.

Trying to get my wife into it with me. We're planning on going to Iceland in September, no trees. Plus she sleeps cold so she'll probably be more comfortable if we're in the same tent.

I'm looking to spend as little as possible, we're really not sure this will be our thing going forward, it might just be something I do solo. And we already have a big six person tent for glamping with a big air mattress.

I'm hoping for under $200, less if possible.

But I also don't wanna buy garbage, or carry something excessively heavy.

Suggestions?

Edit: this seems popular and well liked? https://www.rei.com/product/185632/rei-co-op-half-dome-sl-2-tent-with-footprint

I've been printing PLA for years, never got into PETG or ABS. I'm trying to print these feet for my chair but they keep cracking when I install them.

The first time it happened, I realized that the chair the STL was made for, and my chair, are slightly different models. Or at least I assume as much because the diameter of the clip on the STL is 12.5 ish mm and my chairs poles are 14mm. So I scaled up the model until the diameter of the clip was just a fuzz under 14, just slightly snug.

(Edit: I looked it up, the chair this was made for has 13mm diameter poles, so my scaled version is flexing even less than this guy's was! Something has to be wrong.)

I printed a whole foot, and it broke. I printed some sample clips of varying sizes and settings, and most of them broke, though not all, and I don't see a pattern.

Printer is an ender 3, one of the upgraded models, don't remember which. It came with a glass bed and has the updated hot end shroud design as well as the vertical screen and quiet motor driver 🤷‍♂️

PETG is Kingroon black, cheap stuff yeah I know, this may be my problem. But I print cheap PLA almost exclusively and I've only been burned once by crappy filament. Problem is I don't have any reference for how PETG should react in this situation.

Settings are 245c hot end, 70c bed. Everything else is the default settings for prusament PETG in super slicer 2.4.

Nozzle is stock .4mm. Layer .2mm.

I've tried 2 perimeters, and 3. 25% infill, and 31% infill, both gyroid. I want this to stay lightweight.

The STL is angled so the layer lines on the clip are about a 45 degree.

The ambient temp in the room is 65-70, radiant heat so no drafts, and honestly the room is kept at 65, the printing slowly brings it up to 70.

I've read that lowering fan speeds at different times during the print can increase strength, but I've never messed with that stuff before, never had to.

The filament is brand new, though I suppose it could be moist from the factory. Humidity in this room is about 50%, filament is normally stored in a dry box.

Any suggestions? Is this normal? I know PLA would crack if I tried to flex it that far to clip it on, but the maker of the STL seems to think it's fine with PETG. Thanks in advance!