After a little bit tinkering, changing board thickness, adding a rough edge cutting and re-aligning the length of data pins, it's finally starting to look like something 😆
It's going to be 0.8 mm, 2 layers PCB, which you'd use directly like a usb-c extender.
The schema so far.. Since the USB-C females are reversible by the internal wiring of the connector, I didn't have to worry about the second side. However, for the males, the situation is different. That's why I had to wire the male ends of the connector. This ultimately made it more complex.
By the way, I will open-source this when it finishes 🙏
I have various USB-C devices that inherit usb-c connector but designers did not give a damn about the USB standards, so only old usb-c to usb-2 cables work, and not usb-c to usb-c cables.
If you plug this in between, it'll complete the missing resistors and (hopefully) allow your device to work with usb-c modern cables.
Even the famous Planck keyboard, which I've used for a long while, has this issue.
@mangeurdenuage@grillchen@kaia What power bank is that? I’m thinking about getting a new one, my existing one’s #USBC port is starting to get worn down.
When all these revelations (or wider reveals) of anti-consumer practices come out, there's still a pretty significant group that will keep buying and using these products, despite the disadvantages, and then (in some cases) blame everyone else, just because they don't care enough about that service to switch away. Even though good alternatives exist.
Like #Apple, with iMessage/#RCS and soon #USBC.
Like #Reddit, with their API changes and following actions.
Like #Twitter, with Mr. Hate Enforcer.
Ich finde es gut, dass die EU Apple von #Lightning auf #USBC gebracht hat, wenn auch aus einem anderen Grund.
Die bisherigen Stecker zeigen keine gute Qualität. Irgendwann auf dem Weg hat Apple zudem von vergoldeten Steckerkontakten, vermutlich Kupfer-Nickel-Gold, auf Kupfer Nickel Zinn umgestellt, was bedeutet, dass die Kontakte früher korrodieren. Bild 4, unten rechts, ist ein unbenutztes neues (gewebtes) Kabel. Grund zu schauen waren Ausfälle beim Laden in der Familie. @apfeltalk@Apfelfunk
You should be able to plug both ends of a #USBC cable into a #macbookpro and have it work as a cable tester to tell you what power and data specs the cable supports.
Der Markt für USB-C-Hubs ist kaputt, oder? Ich hatte noch selten solche Schwierigkeiten, anhand der Auswahl bei a*n ein brauchbares Produkt zu finden. Und noch nie so viel wieder als offensichtlich Schrott wieder zurück geschickt.
#UnpopularOpinion: #usbc is a shit of a port. It feels like cables barely fit, are difficult to connect with 1 hand and to disconnect as well. I still prefer #lightning, despite slower speeds.
The photos are stored as JPGs which can be read by any normal graphics program. They also contain the thermal metadata which you can extract with specialist tools.
Here's the full photo taken with the camera. It shows the interior of an office with some computer equipment on a shelf.
Because the optical camera is quite some distance from the thermal camera, it doesn't cope well with close ups - as you can see. Luckily, this can be adjusted in the UI by pressing the up and down keys.
As well as static shots, it will take video - 240x320 resolution and 25fps - well, ish. It looks a bit jerkier than that to me. But it is good enough to see what's going on.
In this video, I've recorded a bath filling up. Towards the end, I've changed the settings so it shows more of the real-colour video with the heat overlayed.
Amusingly, it shows up as 1f3a:1000 Allwinner Technology Prestigio PER3464B ebook reader (Mass storage mode). Nevertheless, the 30GB volume was mountable and had an IMGS/ directory full of JPGs.
There is a Windows app, which I was able to run in PlayOnLinux. It offers a few features, such as being able to change the colour scheme of the photo, and pick out specific temperature points.
The button layout is a little odd. The buttons feel nice and are responsive. But I would have expected the "Enter" button to be in the centre of the directional buttons.
It is a little slow booting up - but then, this isn't designed for quick action shots.
After taking a photo or a video, it asks if you want to save it every time. That's a little annoying. There's 30GB of storage and photos are only about 300KB - so it should be good for about 100,000 photos.
The videos are recorded without sound. A cheap microphone would make it easy to narrate what's going on in a shot.
Weirdly, the bundled app doesn't work on videos.
There's no expandable storage - the 30GB is plenty, but sometimes it is easier to shove an SD card into a computer.
Finally, there's no mounting point. Other cameras I've tried have a connector so they can be attached to a tripod. This is strictly hand-held only.
This costs £200 - £250 depending on whether the algorithm likes you. Astonishingly, that's cheap for a thermal camera of this quality!
If you're into DIY, or you want to check the thermal efficiency of your home, or you just want to see how hot things are - this is a useful bit of kit. It's sturdy and well built. Dragging images and videos off it is a breeze - even if you don't use the official app.
The interface isn't the greatest thing in the world. But all you need to do is point and click. It's the sort of thing that's unexpectedly handy around the house with all sorts of tasks - from checking if the radiators are balanced, to seeing if a hidden plug is spewing heat.
£200ish isn't cheap cheap. But it is cheap enough that most geeks should have something like this. Also worth buying for community groups who want to check for heat leaks in their properties.
If you are happy with the slight user-interface oddities, and don't need a tripod mount, this is an excellent gadget.
I needed to read and write NFC cards on Linux. I only buy USB-C peripherals now, so I found the brilliantly named "ACR1252U-MF" which appears to be the only USB-C reader on the market. Total cost was about £35 on eBay.
It's a cheap and light plastic box with a short USB cord. When you plug it in, there's a flashing light which can't be disabled. When it is powered up, or it detects and NFC chip, it makes this weird and scratchy beep:
So now with my new iPhone 15 officially that means the last device I regularly use that isn’t USBC would be my iPod Classic. Guess I will have to buy the Tangara music player to fix that but won’t be here until September and the hold button is broken at the circuit board, so gonna have to deal with that for a few months.
There’s also my @system76 Pangolin and @purism Librem 14 that use barrel jacks but that is a different story #USBC#iphone
One “fun” realization that USB-A chargers deliver 5V - period. USB-C doesn't do that blindly since it needs to know what power to deliver. So… the same cable plugged into a A to C adaptor can work fine, but do nothing when plugged into the same device from a Type-C charger 🤯
The FNB58 also shows capability of batteries, compares cables & even shows a tiny oscilloscope trace of voltage, current & data lines.
The Framework laptop has several little slots which can be used be used to expand the functionality of the laptop. They convert the internal USB-C ports into a different sort of port.
It is a much more capable reader. It uses micro-USB rather than USB-C, which isn't insurmountable using a flexible male-male cable. What about the dimensions?
Ignoring the USB jack, the board is about 50mm long. That would leave about 2cm sticking out of the side of the laptop. Which isn't too bad. The width is within what we need. There's even an updated version with a slightly different spec.