Orpheus

Oh, sorry. I guess I wasn't clear I simply meant "having posted here, I'm off to read other 43oh threads and see if I can contribute there, because it feels wrong to only show up for the giveaway". Believe me, I understand the necessities of board administration.

I know it's the rules, but this just feels wrong. I'm off to see if I can find some actual thread to contribute to.

I apologize if this is common knowledge, but if it isn't, it should be: I learned years ago that TI's e-Store regularly failed (in diverse ways) when I used Firefox. I'd have expected them to fix it by now, but they don't seem to have. My first failure on a given purchase always reminds me to switch browsers (I use Chromium, which is the open source browser that Google adds its spyware to to make Google Chrome. It can be a little extra work to install, depending what OS you run, because it's a volunteer effort, but if you read the Chrome TOS, which basically lets them spy on EVERYTHING, yo

"IPS Community" is the default banner for IPB board software (I've been an IPB admin for a donkey's years) Interestingly, I initially read it as "Stellaristi" as in "Stellaris cognoscienti, Illuminati etc.", and typed it that way for weeks -- but I must have been consistently typo'ing it because I got here anyway. Then I figured out it was Stellarisiti, but couldn't decide if that was supposed to signify "Stellarisity" (the property of being Stellaris or stellaris-like) or Stellaris City. TI's video seminar pronounced it more like the latter, but it was subtle -- and who says THEY guessed

Go ahead and use a digital voltmeter on a voltage setting. That's the most straightforward first step Today's digital voltmeters are going to have an input impedance of 1-10 Mohms, which won't bother the batteries. NOTE: don't use it on the current setting, which has near-zero input impedance. That could blow the batteries. Current should only be measured with the meter in series between the batteries and a known safe load, like the circuit it power -- at least as long as the circuit is working. If the circuit is shorted internally, it's no longer a known good load. Analog voltmeters (

Cool. Thanks. I figured as much, but I also figured it would be better to get a proven answer about e.g. conflicting or overwritten registry entries than to guess or try to trace them out from the existing install.

Here's a total newb question for you (but one that others may have) I don't recall the details, but when I got into MSP430, I downloaded and installed all the avalable tools onto a Windows machine on my bench, and I messed something up beyond the ability of an un/re-install to fix. This ended up costing me over a year in getting started on the MSP430 Launchpad, because there was always something more "ready to go" on my To-Do list -- and by then I no longer had as much available time. Maybe it was just me, but I seem to recall I wasn't the only one who had issues with the setup back th

What blog mod are you using? I've been debating one for my IPB board

I ran this through a graphics program to obscure personal info and reduce the file to a reasonable size. I hope that doesn't mess up your validating forensics

I've experimented with many ways of cutting or scoring PCBs over the years. My favorite is based on a pencil-like 1/8" micro die grinder (often $10-20 on sale at Harbor Freight). Its size and 56,000 rpm makes even my trusty Dremel feel clumsy (caution: don't use cheapo generic cutting wheels at its full speed) -- but it's not suitable unless you have a compressor. Usable, but less good, is an oscillating saw (like the Stryker saw used to cut casts without harming skin) Harbor Freight's single-speed (11,000 strokes/min) which is often as low as $17 (and rarely sells for as much as $30,

I recently bought a Tektronix 2440 from an estate liquidation sale for under $150 including S/H. When it came out in the late 80s, it cost more than most cars; I was doing biomed consulting at a local major engineering school which shared one for 3 floors. I could tell from the pic that it had been well-cared-for, and but I bet the seller was scared to death by a flurry of system failures on boot (if it had passed the detailed system self-check, they'd have posted a pic of the summary screen). I was 90% sure that this was solely due to a failure of the built-in batteries. I replaced them w

Great! I was dismayed to see the old deal ca 4pm, but seeing "Sold out" after entering the captcha just after 5pm. I'm glad it was a screwup. I'd hate for TIdeals to become a 'blink and it's gone' that I can't research before buying, or a random "get" like Sparkfun free day. (my whattheheck-its-free Free Day purchases, always stuff I might not otherwise have bought, have turned out to be more than worth my Free Day time expenditure, but TIdeals is meant to be a different kind of deal)

Rosin (aka colophony) is basically purified pine resin, heated to drive off the terpenes, etc. It's the stuff that forms the core of the rosin core solders you get at the electronics shop Chemically, it's mostly abietic acid, a mild organic acid that is generally inactive unless heated, and pretty mild even then. They say you should thoroughly clean it from sensitive or delicate PCBs, and I do (now) to be on the safe side, but I've also seen it sit on solder joints for decades without ill effect -- it anything it seems to protect them from oxidation. I have 30-year old projects with big dr

Dang. I had this reply half-finished on my laptop since Friday morning (it's been a busy day) I built something like this last year, because I was curious how much power my electric range was drawing each month The results inspired me to buy a single inductive burner for most of my daily cooking, and the energy savings has been substantial. Not only that, but my kitchen doesn't get uncomfortably hot in the summer. It's especially good when making great long-simmered stock, because you can safely wrap the stockpot with a towel, since the burner never gets hotter than the stock pot (21

BTW, if any of you are looking for an inexpensive higher power hot air gun, Harbor Freight has been having a dual heat (300C/600C = 572F/1112F) on sale for $9.99 a lot lately (here's a coupon; I think you can use the barcode # on their website, too) I'm not sure how it would last for a home renovation project, but my unit, at least, has held up well for tinkering.