PlumpCat

@PlumpCat@infosec.exchange

Just a cat trying to learn things related to programming and microelectronics. I am here to share what I learn and experience! I am a licensed medical cannabis user and grower so you will see that stuff from time to time, though I will always tag it # medicalcannabis if you want to block those posts specifically.

My main purpose for this account is just to share what I am doing regarding my electronics and programming stuff. Right now I am heavily focused on building a cat tracking collar for stray cats I befriend and will mostly be posting stuff directly related to that and kitties in general. I will always tag my cat tracking stuff # cattracker.

Profile picture is of a stray cat I named Henry. He has the look of a wildcat or small cougar because of his extremely sharp features for a Tabby.

This profile is from a federated server and may be incomplete. Browse more on the original instance.

PlumpCat, to animals

This is my dangerous kitty Penny. She is a very deadly hunter and is very vicious.

She's actually the most gentle cat I've ever met and is the ONLY cat I've ever let play with hands. She never scratches and we play this game every single day.

She is such a nice kitty.

Penny playing with my hand while partially under the couch. I am on the couch and she is attacking my hand. She never scratches and is far more likely to lick your hand raw than she is to actually pierce your skin.

robcee, to Canada
@robcee@fosstodon.org avatar

If you’re in Canuck Audio Mart is an amazing resource for gear.

https://www.canuckaudiomart.com

PlumpCat,

@robcee oh wow thanks for this!!

PlumpCat, to animals

I wish I could be as cozy and content as the Walrus Kitty.

PlumpCat, to animals

Handsome henry

Henry sitting on the porch in all his glory. He looks at the camera and then walks to his food dish.

maxim, to gamedev
@maxim@mastodon.gamedev.place avatar

Today I'm going to hit the button in Steam that will take the game from early access to release. But I do not feel a small victory. I gave the project 5 years of my life, but now I feel nothing. Maybe I'm psychologically devastated and emotions appear later

https://store.steampowered.com/app/1224030?utm_source=mastodon

video/mp4

PlumpCat,

@maxim I made this game a part of my budget for December! I'm honestly SO excited to finally play it!! I hope it does well! It's a beautiful game with an very unique and interesting hook.

PlumpCat, to random

It's not very often in life where you get to try out a new battery chemistry!
I just placed my first order ever for LiFePo4 batteries. I ordered a pack of four in a 14500 size with 600mah capacity. Eneloop NiMH have around 1900mah capacity so these aren't too energy dense, byt each cell produces 3.2v in a very flat discharge curve down to 3v around 10% capacity. For low power devices that can sleep though, this opens up a whole new world for a person like me who is terrified of fire.

I refuse to slap a lithium ion battery onto an animal unless I know I can remove that battery in less than 5 seconds, so I've pretty much never done it. My cat tracker device has gone through a couple different attempts, my last was with NiMH batteries. Unfortunately 3 AA batteries are just too heavy for a cat to use. A single AA battery is an entirely different story.

I will be using a GPS module from Adafruit, a LoRa module also from Adafruit and probably a raspberry Pi Pico. The GPS module will be woken up by the Pico and will get position data. As soon as the GPS module has accurate position data (less than 2 seconds if you warm start) it is put back to sleep. The LoRa module then wakes up and broadcasts that position data recorded on the Pico's flash memory. It is then put into listen mode.

I would like to be able to change the time between broadcasts remotely so that will drastically reduce battery life but it is still manageable. I estimate the collar will be able to broadcast once every minute and have enough battery life to last at least 24 hours. The real world will probably shatter my dreams though.

PlumpCat,

@ScaredyCat some of them do have a BMS, the ones I purchased do not. Or at least I am assuming they have no discharge protection. The documentation is extremely poor but they are sold as "solar light batteries" so there is a small chance they do have discharge protection at the very least. I actually cannot find any 14500 sized LiFePo4 batteries with a BMS or discharge protection or even documentation that is not in simplified Chinese. Lots of 18650 options it seems.

This is all very experimental and I fully expect to lose at least one battery to deep discharge. For now I will just use my nitecore d2 to charge them off device. Andreas Spiess has a great video on LiFePo4 that goes over some cheap charging solutions that I will probably end up doing eventually.

Here is the video I was talking about. He has a couple.more related to LiFePo4.

https://youtu.be/eiyBavjQ1Rk?si=7Cq97iTHkrQvUnSm

maxim, to fallout
@maxim@mastodon.gamedev.place avatar

When productivity drops, I go back to the atmosphere of a safe place, where I have some other subconsciousness and isolation, it sets me up... it's a fallout universe. I listen to broadcast radio stations from these games (Fallout 3, New Vegas, Fallout 4) I must be sick ☢️

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ObU5qq_Vs5M

PlumpCat,

@maxim my best friend and I used to pretend a nuclear holocaust had occured and would spend entire weekends in the woods pretending things were like that in the fictional cold war stories and movies we had absorbed to that point. We were only around age ten and the first fallout game was still a few years away so all we had was our imaginations, yet we still chose to imagine that.

These days I really enjoy the deep dark winter months and bad bits of winter weather. Something about being trapped in your immediate surroundings with only your house and the things contained within, makes it a very motivating space for me. I've always enjoyed listening to AM radio at night in the winter, despite not particularly enjoying anything that is on AM radio.

dnc, to HotPeppers
@dnc@vive.im avatar

Too many peppers on my hands, who wants some?!? https://www.diningandcooking.com/935294/too-many-peppers-on-my-hands-who-wants-some/

PlumpCat,

@dnc wow!!! That looks amazing! I love peppers! Were these all indoors?

geekmomprojects, to random
@geekmomprojects@mastodon.social avatar

My husband has been growing vegetables in our yard for the first time. The tomatoes are coming in pretty well, but the cucumbers are confusing. The label that came with the plants is in the first image. However, the growing cucumbers never resemble that picture at any point in their life cycle, so we don't know when to pick them. They start off like a dark green spiky orb, then turn into rotund, spiky, gourd-shaped blobs that just keep getting lighter and fatter. It's strange!

a cucumber plant with a hairy green orb of a cucumber growing from it.
A home grown cucumber shaped like an inverted gourd with a dark green bottom and light green top, with spikes on the outside.
An (ostensible) cucumber growing from a cucumber plant. The cucumber is light green and shaped like a comma rotated onto its side.

PlumpCat,

@geekmomprojects there are three possible causes I'm aware of.

  1. Not enough light or heat or both.

  2. Poor soil (for cucumbers)

  3. They aren't being hung so they droop down.

#1 is easy enough to fix in most places. Plant on the south facing side of a building and viola! Heat and sunlight!

#2 is something you would have to look up as I don't have much experience with cucumbers but perhaps looking at.the nitrogen content of the soil they are in is a starting point? Vegetables typically fruit poorly in a high nitrogen environment. They love it when they are first growing but once they start to flower they prefer significantly higher amounts of P and K.

#3 is entirely dependent on the variety but back when I worked on a vegetable farm in the PNW we had a variety that would turn out similar to your cukes if they were allowed to lay horizontally on the ground. We spent a lot of time making sure they were all hanging and properly supported + training the plants in the first place.

Hopefully this gives you a clue! Let us know if you figured out the cause!

maxim, (edited ) to gamedev
@maxim@mastodon.gamedev.place avatar

New important poll 📌

Your primary behavior in Steam as a player

  1. Buy a new game without a discount
  2. Add to the wishlist and wait for a discount
  3. Wait for a 50% discount to buy...
  4. Is there no difference for you, and it depends on the game and mood

⭐ Please write in the comments more details

PlumpCat,

@maxim all comes down to financials for me. Currently I can't afford any games but I will eventually purchase games from my wishlist as I am able.

PlumpCat, to RaspberryPi

Introduction time!

I'm attempting to teach myself how to code using Python, MicroPython and CircuitPython. I am using a device called "Pygamer" that also lets me code games using Microsoft's makecode arcade. I am using a raspberry Pi 4b as my main computer. I chose to use a raspberry Pi 4b for a couple of reasons. The biggest reason is power consumption (8 watts vs 100+ watts) but the other reason is that it forces me out of my comfort zone. I also just wanted to see if it were possible to learn this stuff without a faster computer. It is possible but it's not plug and play that is for sure!

I am teaching myself this stuff becuase I became disabled around 4 years ago and was no longer able to work doing what I used to do (construction). Disability income is not enough to live on and grow unless you work really hard at learning a skill that doesn't require a large financial investment.

My ultimate goal is to reach a point where I can start tutoring programming and maybe even start a summer camp style electronics thing in the future!

So for now, as I learn, I document everything. I am attempting to build somewhat of a curriculum while I also learn the fundamentals. One day I'll use these materials in my lessons!

I'll be working on this stuff for the next few years as I have a roadmap that leads into 2028. Here is hoping by 2028 I can laugh at my terrible attempts at programming today!

I will mostly be using microcontrollers for my journey as devices like the adafruit Pygamer and pimoroni PicoSystem are relatively cheap and they give you a choice of a few possible languages to learn. Not only that, the extremely limited hardware forces you to focus on game design principles and coding with memory in mind. This will keep me from running away with ideas like I did back when I was playing with Godot as I am very limited in what mechanics I am able to implement!

Those tiny game systems are going to be the basis of ALL my projects moving forward. The Pygamer especially as I was able to grab a few right before they sold out for good!

My favourite genre of games are RPGs and text based adventures. Ever since coming on Mastodon I have been thinking about what it would take to make a vision impaired or blind friendly rpg/tba. This would be my ultimate goal, to code accessible games but for now unfortunately I'm going to have to use the materials that already exist which don't have vision impaired people in mind whatsoever. That is okay though. I will be keeping accessibility in mind once I start actually coding my own game!

I never shared anything on the old social media sites but Mastodon seems infinitely more friendly and filled with similarly motivated people. I look forward to sharing with you guys and meeting others who are doing the same!

Hashtags:

#Introduction #CircuitPython #MicroPython #MakeCode #MakeCodeArcade #RaspberryPi #Adafruit #Arduino #LearnToCode
#Pimoroni #Microcontrollers

freemo, to Electronics
@freemo@qoto.org avatar

Am i the only one who collects every possible chemistry of battery he can get his hands on?

PlumpCat,

@freemo I would if I had run into half those chemistries! I'm a HUGE fan of NiMh though. LiPo is amazing for it's unlimited form factors and unparalleled power density.

NiMh wins in the cold, it wins when it comes to overcharge (which lends to really flexible trickle charging options with tiny solar), it's form factor means you can add it to anything that would take 3 double A's and they are just neat overall.

LiFePo4 however is quickly becoming my new favourite!

geerlingguy, to RedHat
@geerlingguy@mastodon.social avatar

Red Hat's response: https://redhat.com/en/blog/red-hats-commitment-open-source-response-gitcentosorg-changes

So... it was all about the "freeloaders". Can people stop telling me that this whole thing wasn't about freeloaders now?

PlumpCat,

@danb @geerlingguy pretty sure it can be summed up with a single picture

PlumpCat, to python

I am currently learning #Python and have a few devices that use either #MicroPython or #CircuitPython but I think the device that has the most potential is the #adafruit #pygamer. It boasts an extremely powerful #SAMD51 MCU and a whopping 192K RAM amongst a host of other nice little treats like a microSD slot, a really nice screen, 1w speaker (very loud!), 350mah LiPo and charging circuit using microusb and is laid out like the perfect #TinyGames device! It can run circuitpython, #arduino and it works with #makecodearcade!

I managed to grab a handful of these (thank you beautiful gf, I pay you back) from #digikey last month when I saw their stock had dropped from somewhere around 60+ units to 19. Thankfully my gf could lend me the money and now I have the brains of ALL my future #electronics projects!! I am an extremely lucky cat!

I learn best by doing! Having concrete, real world examples to experience first hand is key to me teaching myself how to code.

I am excited to share this #SelfTaught journey with the fediverse and I hope to meet some like minded individuals!

Is there anyone out there who is attempting to teach themselves programming by themselves? I'm sure I'm doing things inefficiently but I'm okay with that. I'm having a lot of fun so far and with time I will be creating some very fun tiny games using circuitpython mostly. #SoloDev

What are or were the methods you used when you were trying to #LearnPython? #LearnCoding #LearnProgramming

A close up of an unpacked and uncased Pygamer.

cta, to random
@cta@social.ordinal.garden avatar

I have been teaching for a while...happy with it. Spending the summer looking at the environment...seems fine? Not totally sure why I would switch away from MP, CP seems only marginally more convenient. Perhaps you who are reading this feel strongly one way or the other? If this is the case I am interested to hear your thoughts!

PlumpCat,

@cta if you are teaching MicroPython, I can see why you wouldn't think CircuitPython is worth trying.

Here is my perspective as a beginner not in school and without a mentor.

CircuitPython is much easier to learn than MicroPython almost entirely due to the entry level learning materials that are available. As a beginner, there aren't many books or online tutorials that break things down into tiny, digestible parts.

Say what you want about adafruits supposed market capture but part of the reason people believe that about adafruit is becuase adafruit has an incredible amount of information, documentation and tutorials that walk you through all the key parts of CircuitPython. Without it, I certainly wouldn't have chosen the pygamers as the devices for my future projects.

Which, sure, I'd learn more by building my own but right now I'm trying to focus on programming, not electrical engineering.

From a beginner's perspective with no set curriculum, MicroPython was extremely difficult to find existing materials on that did not assume you were already proficient in programming basics. Adafruit doesn't hold your had, rather they just toss you a really in depth manual and let's you have at it.

I love pimoroni as a company that makes good stuff but their documentation is pathetic compared to adafruits. That only means something to beginners. If I had more experience I'm sure I'd feel a lot more comfortable with the paucity of information pimoroni gives you.

At least from my perspective, if you already understanding programming and actively teach MicroPython, then I would be surprised if CircuitPython mattered in your world!

PlumpCat,

@andy_warb @cta Props to adafruit for facilitating the creation of those things. I'm not typically a brand fan boy but I've become absolutely addicted to their show and tell episodes they do on the tubes. It's actually what lead me to Mastodon!

People can bash adafruit if they want but in my opinion they are similar to the raspberry Pi foundation. The incredible communities surrounding both brands and the awesome amount of work both communities do and publish is a great boon to anyone looking to learn this stuff!

All this to say, if anyone is looking for a potentially lucrative project, a "MicroPython Basics for New Coders" book or website would definitely get my money.

PlumpCat,

@ScaredyCat @andy_warb @cta oh? I've done some searching online but google is so unreliable nowadays I am unsure if I'm searching the wrong terms or what. When did they do this if you don't mind me asking?

PlumpCat,

@ScaredyCat @andy_warb @cta so we're they for or against NFT's? All I can find in the search is adafruits own comment on them. Google is broken as we all know.

PlumpCat,

@ScaredyCat @andy_warb @cta wow I wish I could find this but I'm honestly turning up nothing. That isn't to say it's not out there but I certainly am failing to find even a whiff of what you are saying.

7 hours later edit: ya I wasted way too much time trying to dig anything up at all. Even a comment made by another. There were a TON of anti NFT things related to them and adafruit swears up and down that they have never had anything to do with NFT's aside from their Nice Fin T-shirts.

Without actual evidence I can't believe it at all. I am always glad to change my mind when their are facts but in this case, there isn't anything. The only slight hint at maybe something was going on was a Facebook post in. December 2021 making fun of NFT's and had a hashtag that said whatmanwillbanmenext?

I assume they got a TON of pushback when NFT's were slamming into the scene with their obvious trolling.

I'm just gonna have to continue believing they aren't a terrible company and so far that seems to be true. Are there things that aren't good? The data leak ya they should have emailed people but they also made a good point in that it didn't expose anything that a person could really act on. Stupid to have happen anyway though.

PlumpCat,

@ScaredyCat @andy_warb @cta thank you for this, I searched everywhere trying to find convos like this. It seems pretty clear what they did was a major fuck up. Their anti-nft page leaves a bad taste in my mouth now.

I'll still continue to patronage them becuase my ENTIRE curriculum is centered around their stuff,
but I'm not going to sing their praises as much as I once used to. I still will but it's good to know this.

Thank you.

PlumpCat,

@ScaredyCat @andy_warb @cta it is always good to know this stuff so we can make informed decisions! People and companies make mistakes and sometimes those mistakes carry a mark for life. Is what it is. Hopefully they are a bit better today because of it.

morxemplum, to reddit
@morxemplum@mastodon.social avatar

Already deleted off my phone lol. Tbh, was much easier to do than Twitter because there is far less to care about. Honestly, I hope people jump ship to an alternative, just like what happened with Digg.

is looking good right now. I'm glad to see the word is spreading around. Gives me a tiny bit of hope for people.

PlumpCat,

@morxemplum I've heard rumours creator is a LaRouche Nazi.
https://raddle.me/f/lobby/155371/warning-lemmy-doesn-t-care-about-your-privacy-everything-is

https://mstdn.social/@feditips/106835057054633379

is a much better alternative

PlumpCat,

@morxemplum I agree! I am just glad it all works together.

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