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[00:07:36] <WormFood> flyback, the model with the fume extractor is nice...that's what I have back in usa.
[00:09:01] <flyback> this is just an iron
[00:09:09] <WormFood> I know
[00:09:09] <flyback> I have a 968 35w iron and hot air tool
[00:09:21] <flyback> replacing the hot air heating core with a 968A
[00:09:24] <flyback> it's old and due anyways
[00:09:27] <WormFood> is that the one I told you about a while back?
[00:09:35] <flyback> new one is spring wound, old one is uneven wire mesh
[00:09:38] <flyback> no
[00:09:42] <flyback> but that one looked nice also
[00:09:51] <flyback> 2930 has integrated heater tips
[00:09:56] <flyback> they cost more but less bullshit
[00:14:06] <flyback> how is life and the business
[00:14:23] <WormFood> business is slow right now.
[00:15:18] <WormFood> http://wormfood.net/project-G540/G540_Schematics.png Just finished this last night.
[00:16:48] <WormFood> I need to go back over it, and double check to make sure I don't have any mistakes in it, but I feel this one is pretty tight.
[00:17:11] <Chillum> nice, gunna make a cheap knockoff?
[00:17:23] <Chillum> very nice layout, my schematics are always a mess
[00:18:16] <WormFood> I put a lot of effort into the layout.
[00:18:48] <WormFood> The goal, is to understand what it is capable of doing it, so that it can be manipulated. As far as I'm concerned, this is already a "cheap knockoff"
[00:19:08] <Chillum> hehe
[00:19:17] <WormFood> If these schematics are correct, then there is enough information there, to be able to write our own software for the FPGA and the MCU
[00:19:41] <Chillum> I just reverse engineered this: www.ebay.ca/itm/381340232628
[00:19:45] <WormFood> Also, it only supports USB 1.x protocol, but the MCU is capable of USB 2.x
[00:19:45] <Chillum> not nearly as complex
[00:20:16] <WormFood> heh. Yeah. A LOT less complex
[00:20:42] <WormFood> What was tricky about making these schematics, is the fact that some of the traces goes under the ZIF socket, so that takes time to map out everything.
[00:21:08] <Chillum> are you taking it apart?
[00:21:15] <WormFood> nope
[00:21:26] <WormFood> I can still use it. I haven't removed anything from the board.
[00:21:35] <Chillum> I had to remove the caps to measure them
[00:22:08] <WormFood> Only one part on my board that isn't labeled, but I can make an educated guess about it's value, based on the datasheets.
[00:22:19] <Chillum> the inductor?
[00:23:02] <WormFood> and I'm not exactly sure what they're doing with that 78L06. The diode to ground should raise it's output to 6.7 volts, but that feedback resistor makes it look like it's being used as a current limiter
[00:23:20] <WormFood> Yeah, the inductor has no markings on it. I guessed the value from the datasheet
[00:25:38] <WormFood> And some of the diodes to +5v confuses me. I'm not sure exactly why they did that. I can only guess to prevent the voltage from going over 6 volts, to those pins.
[00:25:50] <WormFood> anyways, lunch is ready. Chat later.
[00:25:56] <Chillum> cheers
[00:29:37] <flyback> mnight
[00:29:40] <flyback> night
[01:06:38] * WormFood is back
[05:24:20] <julius> hi
[05:40:11] <LeoNerd> I need a source of entropy to randomise an LED flickering effect. Pondering the WDT interrupt sampling a timer. That seems to be the best approach that doesn't involve extra hardware
[05:40:17] <LeoNerd> (e.g. ADC noise)
[05:43:03] <julius> i agree, as a beginner
[05:44:45] <julius> something like rand=(rand*109+89)%251; for a random number between 0...250
[05:45:17] <LeoNerd> Yeah; that's a linear congruence generator
[05:45:21] <julius> combined with the watchdog, who wakes up every x seconds
[05:45:26] <LeoNerd> It's nice, but perfectly deterministic based on the seed
[05:45:57] <LeoNerd> The idea with using WDT is that because WDT uses its own little RC oscillator separately from the main chip clock, it will be uncorrelated, so random with respect to a fast timer clocked by the main chip
[05:46:09] <LeoNerd> So you can use the lower few bits of that to clock some extra entropy into the pool
[05:47:23] <julius> hm, now looking at it. you can predict that random number
[05:48:49] <julius> i know you said no extra hardware, but how about sampling a not connected adc every x seconds
[05:49:24] <LeoNerd> WDT is fine for that
[05:50:03] <julius> but will it not be correlated to its own clock?
[05:50:46] <LeoNerd> It's an unrelated clock, though
[05:51:04] <LeoNerd> It's also not terribly accurate.. it's a cheap RC oscillator so it'll easily drift with time/temperature
[05:51:08] <LeoNerd> it's good enough for a random source
[05:51:12] <julius> ah
[05:57:29] <WormFood> It's not "random" per se, because it is predictable
[05:58:15] <LeoNerd> It's not though
[05:58:24] <LeoNerd> These are uncorrelated oscillators
[05:58:45] <LeoNerd> Run Timer0, say, off the main fCPU at its fastest rate, and sample the bottom few bits of its counter during the WDT warning interrupt
[05:59:06] <LeoNerd> As I said, the WDT uses its own uncorrelated oscillator, whose timing will be independent of the main fCPU
[05:59:13] <WormFood> But they have the same starting point, and in the short term shouldn't be too hard to brute force their values.
[05:59:29] <LeoNerd> Short term matters not to me. This will be running for hours
[05:59:36] <LeoNerd> Over hours it will drift in an unpredictable way
[05:59:56] <WormFood> well, for an LED flickering, the entropy pool should be irrelevant
[06:01:00] <WormFood> It's not like you're doing secure crypto with it.
[06:03:02] <WormFood> I mean, should be irrelevant from a technical standpoint. If you're doing it for the learning experience, then that's a whole different story.
[06:54:14] <Lambda_Aurigae> I've done random sampling of an unconnected input pin for random data.
[06:54:30] <Lambda_Aurigae> err...not so random sampling
[11:22:31] <Deskwizard> 0/
[11:22:47] <Deskwizard> any of you guys use eclipse with the avr plugin ?
[11:23:06] <Deskwizard> I somehow can't get it to work since china invaded and I hat to wipe the OS
[11:24:10] <Deskwizard> the edit and new buttons for setting up a programmer dont work, and it reports basically no MCU compatible...
[13:34:24] <anonnumberanon> New content on the humanoid biped robot project, enjoy:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JQdXDg9PtzY
[13:34:39] <anonnumberanon> AVR programming and robot building and stuff.
[13:40:22] <rue_house> :)
[13:51:57] <CasperAtWork> one step closer to the end of the human race
[13:55:56] <Deskwizard> hopefully, we can get a little good times before that happens :P
[14:33:23] <jancoow> Hi. Can someone help me compile something? I keep getting a error. I'm building on linux a avr nut-os
[14:33:41] <jancoow> https://jancokock.me/f/f613a
[14:34:08] <jancoow> these are pre-defined examples by ethernet, but i can't make them.
[15:26:51] <Lambda_Aurigae> Deskwizard, never got eclipse to be useful by itself, much less with any plugins.
[15:28:35] <Deskwizard> Lambda_Aurigae: yeah, i'm slowly giving away with that idea... not worth the pain, just too bad since I had it working a couple days back but meh
[15:29:09] <Lambda_Aurigae> vi, kate, or gedit,,,along with a makefile or some other batch file for building is all I use.
[15:35:08] <Emil> makefiles are shita
[15:50:37] <Lambda_Aurigae> makefiles are black magic of the worst kind.
[15:52:02] <LeoNerd> I use Makefiles for driving my AVR build stuff
[15:57:31] <Xark> Lambda_Aurigae: Nonsense. :)
[16:01:55] <twnqx> Xark: want me to show you some makefile (unrelated to compiling, totally) that is pretty much black magic? :P
[16:02:40] <twnqx> i mean, it's pretty high up on the list of my worst ideas ever, in retrospect
[16:05:23] <Xark> twnqx: I have had to work with some monster makefiles on past project, so "I'm good". :) However, a makefile is a reasonable way to organize a project (and doesn't have to be all crazy).
[16:05:31] <Xark> projects*
[16:05:39] <twnqx> true...
[16:07:00] <twnqx> ah, lucky, don't have it on an accessible computer, or i'd have bpasted it :D
[16:07:29] <Xark> For most AVR projects, you can just use a shell script or batch file (as compilation times are generally not a big deal on modern PCs). :)
[16:08:07] <twnqx> this one is for transcoding
[16:08:57] <twnqx> involving source-autodetection, and automatic selection for source-destination codecs, involving parsing of meta-files and auto-updating dependencies based on the existence of other files
[16:09:30] <Xark> Fun.
[16:09:34] <twnqx> oh yes
[16:09:57] <twnqx> the most unmaintainable mess i ever wrote, in the several kilobytes size :P
[16:10:36] <twnqx> mostly undebuggable, and less relation between the mistake and the results than templated c++ :D
[16:10:54] <Xark> Hehe. Reminds me of calculating Fibonacci sequence with make ->
http://hastebin.com/cadiqopofu.rb
[16:11:41] <twnqx> yeah, syntax like that makes up the most of it :P
[16:22:04] <jancoow> ugh.. everytime when b uilding nutos i get errors..
[16:23:45] <jancoow> eeprom.c:(.text.OnChipNvMemSave+0xa): undefined reference to `__eeupd_block_m2561' does someone know this?
[16:23:52] <jancoow> these are pre defined function but i can't make them
[16:24:20] <Xark> jancoow: Are you building for AVR 2561?
[16:24:45] <jancoow> yes!
[16:26:40] <Xark> jancoow: Looks specific to that project AFAICT. Have you "grep'd" for eeupd everywhere in the project? I suspect it is an address in EEPROM, but only a guess...
[16:28:46] <jancoow> Xark: well i'm very confused how to build nut/os . It should be "run the ./config, and then make" but that gives error's to. There are like 15 pre defined function and each of them are giving the same problem with the __eeupd_block_m2561 for some reason
[16:28:59] <jancoow> maybe i'm doing something stupidly wrong but i have no idea :(
[16:30:53] <Xark> jancoow: You are on Linux? I would try to see why "./configure" is failing....
[16:31:47] <jancoow> Xark: yes i'm on linux! And i'm sorry i was saying it wrong. ./configure is running good. But when i do the same makefile in the same directory (so the root), which should run all the underneath makefiles recursivly is failing with some other errors in other files
[16:32:40] <Xark> jancoow: I see. Have you looked at
http://www.ethernut.de/en/tools/commandline.html ?
[16:32:41] <jancoow> i will give you the errors, wait a sec :). Thank you for helping so far
[16:39:19] * Xark goes to make more coffee... :)
[16:40:28] <jancoow> Xark: nice, i'm with a beer now :). You are a hero. I should read the whole ethernet website. It works now, i had to compile the binaries first.. Thanks mate!!
[16:40:46] <jancoow> i'm so stupid, but i'm learning :)
[16:41:02] <Xark> No problem. Glad I was able to help (even if just via Googling). :)
[16:41:09] <jancoow> all these C and makefiles are new for me
[17:20:02] <julius> be careful, makefiles can steal you soul
[17:20:16] <julius> especially if you come from a sane language like python
[17:22:46] <Xark> python != sane. If it was they wouldn't have to keep re-writing it in incompatible ways. :)
[17:30:53] <LeoNerd> Huh.. This is odd... I'm playing with PWM on an ATmega328P. I want three channels of LED control. I'm using A and B of timer0 (which is 8bit) and A of timer1 (16bit)
[17:31:45] <LeoNerd> I've got timer0 in PWMFAST mode, and timer1 in PWMFAST10 mode. But I find that if I want the channel brightness to scale with the OCR* register values, with 0 being off and max (0xFF or 0x3FF) to be brightest, then I have to have the timer0 OCMs in CLEAR mode, but the timer1 in SET mode
[17:32:09] <LeoNerd> If I put timer0 in SET mode, the output is inverted.. as you'd expect. Buuuut.. if I put timer1 in CLEAR mode, the LED never comes on. ever. It's permanently off
[17:32:14] <LeoNerd> Am I doing something wrong there?
[17:42:52] <LeoNerd> I wonder if my register writing code is wrong somehow
[17:44:10] <Deskwizard> LeoNerd: watch for |= vs =
[17:44:15] <Deskwizard> got me more than once
[17:44:46] <Deskwizard> LeoNerd: post your timer init code, maybe ill see something
[17:46:02] <LeoNerd> Mm... it's nontrivial... but OK ;)
[17:46:50] <LeoNerd> ... fscking 503 from pastie.org
[17:47:03] <LeoNerd> oo :(
[17:47:17] <LeoNerd> http://paste.scsys.co.uk/505150
[17:50:20] <Deskwizard> wow, I wasnt expecting that lol
[17:51:59] <Deskwizard> LeoNerd: not sure if that applies, but double check the timer1 mode table, I know when I was playing with attiny4313, top was OCR1C not OCR1B as I expected
[17:52:15] <Deskwizard> try adding OCR1C = half just for kicks
[18:05:41] <LeoNerd> Hmmmmm
[18:05:59] <LeoNerd> I'll just print the values of TCCR1* to the UART and see what it says
[18:06:02] <LeoNerd> decode manually :)
[18:24:21] <Deskwizard> hehehe that too
[18:40:35] <sebus> drinking + coding = bad idea
[18:40:36] <sebus> ó_ó
[18:49:16] <Casper> sebus: depend what you drink
[18:49:23] <Casper> and how close the toilets are
[18:52:24] <sebus> Casper vodka :D
[18:53:23] <Casper> yeah that's a bad idea
[18:53:40] <Casper> unless it is dealcoolised vodka
[18:58:03] <Xark> Very difficult to maintain the "Ballmer peak". :)
https://xkcd.com/323/
[19:01:39] <Lambda_Aurigae> so, windows 8 was them experimenting with a mixture of cocaine, heroin, and lsd?
[19:02:18] <Xark> Pretty much (although I think heroin might be a new Win10 thing). :)
[19:03:05] <sebus> Xark haha :D
[19:03:21] <sebus> I knew somoeone will drop this here
[19:06:50] <Lambda_Aurigae> coding is best done with an IV dew or doctor pepper feed.
[19:19:23] <m3chanical> Lambda_Aurigae, these days mountain dew feels too sugary for me >.> I used to love it, too.
[19:19:34] <Lambda_Aurigae> I do diet dew.
[19:19:38] <Lambda_Aurigae> diabetic, doncha know.
[19:19:50] <Lambda_Aurigae> probably from all the dew I drank in my younger days.
[19:21:16] <m3chanical> hah
[19:21:19] <m3chanical> diet dew isn't too bad
[19:21:30] <m3chanical> hard to find, though, interestingly
[19:21:37] <Lambda_Aurigae> easy to find here.
[19:21:44] <Xark> Coffee for me. :)
[19:21:54] <Xark> (Or occasionally tea...)
[19:22:21] <m3chanical> seconded, on the coffee. i realized my fiancee has like 10lbs of tea, so i'll probably get started on that lol
[19:22:28] <Lambda_Aurigae> I just cut my soda intake back dramatically.
[19:22:39] <Lambda_Aurigae> was drinking at least a 2-liter a day if not sometimes double that.
[19:22:50] <m3chanical> oh damn
[19:22:56] <Lambda_Aurigae> most coffee is too weak for me.
[19:22:58] <m3chanical> of diet, at least?
[19:23:01] <Lambda_Aurigae> coffee must be percolated.
[19:23:05] <Lambda_Aurigae> yeah..diet.
[19:23:10] <m3chanical> i imagine full sugar soda at that amount would be murder
[19:23:24] <Lambda_Aurigae> drip coffee is just,,,,eewww.
[19:24:05] <m3chanical> i really enjoy pour-over coffee (chemex)
[19:24:20] <Lambda_Aurigae> no clue what that is.
[19:24:23] <m3chanical> got into it three years ago and it has ruined me for any other coffee
[19:24:40] <Lambda_Aurigae> coffee must be cooked in a percolator pot,,,percolating for at least 20 minutes.
[19:25:33] <m3chanical> some people would probably kill me for putting it like this, but it's kind of like drip coffee, but you have better control of the variables (heat of water, time spent brewing), and the filter is conical which helps to better distribute the water.
[19:25:41] <m3chanical> maybe my description is awful
[19:25:47] <m3chanical> but it's great coffee
[19:25:52] <m3chanical> 20min percolating coffee sounds intense
[19:26:08] <m3chanical> i can understand why other coffee is too weak ^^
[19:26:57] <Xark> I do pour-over usually.
[19:27:09] <m3chanical> it's so good!
[19:27:39] <m3chanical> I got my start on coffee while in the Navy. ship messdeck's coffee is the most vile of liquids
[19:27:47] <m3chanical> so pour-over was a massive upgrade
[19:27:48] <Xark> Yeah, I ditched my crappy Mr Coffee Junior I was using after trying that. :)
[19:27:59] <m3chanical> yeah - the difference is incredible
[19:28:04] <Lambda_Aurigae> if I can pour the coffee in a glass and shine a light through it and see the light,,,it's not strong enough.
[19:28:15] <Lambda_Aurigae> but, I'm like that for tea too.
[19:28:24] <m3chanical> i think my chemex achieves that level of opaqueness
[19:28:29] <m3chanical> i'll have to check next time
[19:28:46] <Lambda_Aurigae> it should corrode steel and clean the tarnish off silver dangit!
[19:29:00] <m3chanical> haha. i wonder what that does to the esophagus!
[19:29:34] <Lambda_Aurigae> cleans off the taste buds nicely.
[19:29:39] <Xark> I just have a cheap ceramic pour-over "funnel" and put Melita or similar filters in it...
[19:29:48] <m3chanical> Lambda_Aurigae, I bet.
[19:29:56] <m3chanical> Xark, is that the Hario V-60 one?
[19:30:25] <Lambda_Aurigae> occasionally I make coffee in the cast iron frying pan,,,just because I left the percolator at home by accident when going camping.
[19:30:31] <Xark> No, more like
https://a248.e.akamai.net/f/248/1/1/demandware.edgesuite.net/sits_pod26/dw/image/v2/AAFV_PRD/on/demandware.static/-/Sites-starbucks-master-catalog/default/dw3c2bd920/images/upload_here/Fall_13/08-19-13_3/wood_pour_over_stand_cone_set_us_0.jpg
[19:30:45] <m3chanical> Lambda_Aurigae, that sounds totally hardcore
[19:31:20] * Xark notes Lambda_Aurigae wasn't kidding about the IV drip of caffeine (even if taken orally). :)
[19:31:26] <Lambda_Aurigae> filter the grounds with your teeth.
[19:31:35] <Lambda_Aurigae> cowboy coffee.
[19:31:47] <Xark> Coffee "oatmeal". :)
[19:31:55] <Lambda_Aurigae> but I don't drink coffee much these days.
[19:32:46] <Xark> m3chanical: That Chemex looks cool though. I might have to try it...
[19:33:49] <m3chanical> that picture you linked is very similar to the hario v60
[19:34:14] <Xark> Yeah....it is quite similar.
[19:34:15] <m3chanical> the chemex makes the best coffee i've had. i highly recommend it
[19:37:04] <m3chanical> Xark, how's the coffee from it?
[19:38:20] <Xark> Good. :) I got an electric kettle that will heat water to 190F or 200F (vs boiling - which is a bit too hot) and it makes a very nice cup of coffee.
[19:38:53] <m3chanical> Lambda_Aurigae, Ah, I thought it was called cowboy cofee. My dad used to make that stuff while camping, when I was a kid
[19:39:13] <Xark> I also like that I make each cup fresh (as opposed to waste half a pot - or have yuckky stale coffee later).
[19:39:20] <m3chanical> Xark, that's awesome. i've been thinking of getting a single cup pour-over
[19:39:55] <Lambda_Aurigae> Xark, one stupervisor I had in the military had his own coffee pot that he kept coffee in all day long...I don't think he drank anything else,,ever...
[19:40:19] <Lambda_Aurigae> in the morning he would just add coffee to the old grounds and pour the old coffee from the night before back through the machine.
[19:40:28] <Lambda_Aurigae> nobody else would drink anything from that machine.
[19:40:47] <m3chanical> military folks are crazy about their coffee. i had a chief that was advised by medical to stop drinking coffee... because his pee was brown
[19:41:30] <Lambda_Aurigae> I didn't drink coffee in the military.
[19:42:17] <Lambda_Aurigae> my tech school roommate drank jolt cola though.
[19:42:24] <Lambda_Aurigae> only way he could stay awake during class.
[19:42:59] <m3chanical> "tech school," were you in the air force?
[19:43:23] <Lambda_Aurigae> yup.
[19:43:26] <m3chanical> i only had jolt cola once
[19:43:36] <Lambda_Aurigae> that shit was like syrup.
[19:43:46] <Lambda_Aurigae> twice the caffeine and all the sugar of regular cola.
[19:43:49] <Lambda_Aurigae> and super jolt
[19:44:00] <Lambda_Aurigae> twice the caffeine and twice the sugar of regular jolt.
[19:44:07] <m3chanical> cool! i know lots of people who were in the air force. they seem to be happier than navy people lol
[19:44:08] <m3chanical> good lord
[19:44:30] <Lambda_Aurigae> airforce was more like a 9-5 job.
[19:44:47] <Lambda_Aurigae> for most of us anyhow.
[19:44:53] <Lambda_Aurigae> unless we were under lockdown or something.
[19:45:16] <m3chanical> that's not bad
[19:45:35] <Lambda_Aurigae> uniform was the worst part of it overall.
[19:46:00] <Lambda_Aurigae> my first duty assignment, however, was non-uniform...civvy clothes for a year and a half right out of tech school.
[19:46:15] <m3chanical> oh man. that sounds awesome
[19:46:38] <Lambda_Aurigae> other services would come to our mess halls for chow too cause we had the best food.
[19:46:41] <m3chanical> i agree about the uniform. people encouraged me to get into the reserves when I separated ... the major thing that stopped me was having to wear a uniform again lol
[19:46:52] <m3chanical> nice
[19:47:22] <Lambda_Aurigae> I got extra training as an emergency combat medic and got to go camping with the marines.
[19:48:35] <Lambda_Aurigae> set one broken finger, put on a dozen or so bandaids, and that was the extent of real medic work for me....
[19:48:45] <Lambda_Aurigae> most of the time I just monitored nuclear weapons testing.
[19:49:25] <m3chanical> that's interesting. how does that monitoring work?
[19:49:37] <Lambda_Aurigae> watch the squigglies and hope not to see certain patterns.
[19:49:43] <Lambda_Aurigae> we monitored world-wide testing.
[19:49:50] <Lambda_Aurigae> scorekeepers basically.
[19:50:16] <Lambda_Aurigae> using seismic, hydroacoustic, emp, light sensors, x-ray, and gamma ray sensors.
[19:50:36] <Lambda_Aurigae> stationary and mobile ground systems as well as satellite.
[19:50:38] <m3chanical> neat. what was the range on the sensors?
[19:50:47] <Lambda_Aurigae> worldwide.
[19:51:09] <Lambda_Aurigae> sats have imaging and non imaging visible and ir, x-ray, emp, and gamma sensors.
[19:51:16] <Lambda_Aurigae> seismic systems can see around the world.
[19:51:33] <Lambda_Aurigae> hydroacoustic is more for underwater but can see shit around the world too.
[19:52:03] <Lambda_Aurigae> the satellite systems include DSP as well as GPS and others.
[19:52:07] <m3chanical> that's pretty cool
[19:52:10] <Lambda_Aurigae> GPS is the best.
[19:52:25] <Lambda_Aurigae> non-imaging visibie and ir, x-ray, emp, gamma
[19:52:38] <Lambda_Aurigae> the emp is a 3 axis antenna system
[19:52:42] <Lambda_Aurigae> so you can tell direction.
[19:52:52] <Lambda_Aurigae> get direction from 3 or more sats and you have a pinpoint location.
[19:53:35] <Lambda_Aurigae> the world's most expensive and accurate lightning sensor.
[19:53:41] <Lambda_Aurigae> 11600 miles up.
[19:53:54] <m3chanical> that's crazy
[19:54:04] <Lambda_Aurigae> 11hour 56 minute orbits.
[19:54:25] <Lambda_Aurigae> if it weren't for NDS, GPS wouldn't have flown.
[19:54:33] <Lambda_Aurigae> they had the money for the GPS sats but not for launches.
[19:55:00] <Lambda_Aurigae> the US Air Force said, you put our 14 million dollar package on your 50 million dollar satellite and we will pay for launches.
[19:55:35] <Lambda_Aurigae> and that's how the US Air Force took control of the whole GPS project.
[19:56:15] <m3chanical> ahh, interesting
[19:56:15] <Lambda_Aurigae> and I have code floating up there written for a 4004 processor on the block-2 gps satellites.
[19:56:40] <m3chanical> air force is in charge of the atomic clock right? iirc the atomic clock is used to synchronize the gps satellites
[19:56:46] <Lambda_Aurigae> yup.
[19:56:54] <Lambda_Aurigae> and they have the SA button too.
[19:57:00] <m3chanical> SA button?
[19:57:17] <Lambda_Aurigae> the one that encrypts the data so your accuracy goes from 1 meter to 1 km in 40ns flat.
[19:57:29] <m3chanical> ahh
[19:57:39] <Lambda_Aurigae> they encrypt the lower bits of the clock signal.
[19:57:53] <m3chanical> i worked on navigation systems in the Navy that required encryption. i never quite understood why
[19:57:59] <Lambda_Aurigae> now you know.
[19:58:17] <m3chanical> indeed!
[19:58:28] <Lambda_Aurigae> if they encrypt the gps signal then only those with the crypto gear built into their gps gear will be able to use it.
[19:58:49] <Lambda_Aurigae> and they can actually encrypt the entire signal.
[19:58:53] <m3chanical> radar and navigation stuff was my favorite to work on.
[19:58:57] <m3chanical> that's cool
[19:58:58] <Lambda_Aurigae> cutting off everybody.
[19:59:17] <Lambda_Aurigae> except for those who have the decryption gear.
[19:59:18] <m3chanical> to lock out everyone but those in possession of the yearly crypto, eh?
[19:59:25] <Lambda_Aurigae> yearly?
[19:59:28] <Lambda_Aurigae> RIIIIGHT.
[19:59:30] <Lambda_Aurigae> try daily.
[19:59:47] <m3chanical> huh. our gps only updated yearly.
[20:00:12] <Lambda_Aurigae> we got a week worth of keys once a week 4 days in advance of running out.
[20:00:34] <Lambda_Aurigae> I bet if it came down to full encryption, you would have gotten updated keys.
[20:00:49] <m3chanical> ahha
[20:00:56] <m3chanical> we did operate in 'mixed mode'
[20:02:43] <Lambda_Aurigae> we operated in full encryption mode all the time.
[20:03:09] <Lambda_Aurigae> but we worked from the other end of the stream.
[20:03:22] <Lambda_Aurigae> s-band and l-band downloads from the sats coming down to us constantly..
[20:04:41] <m3chanical> that's really interesting. there are occasions where i wish i'd have joined the AF instead. some of the technology stuff they work on is really cool
[20:06:21] <Lambda_Aurigae> s-band every 6 hours, give or take a few minutes depending on the availability of a ground station.
[20:06:29] <Lambda_Aurigae> l-band every 30 seconds in half second bursts.
[20:07:09] <Lambda_Aurigae> which we got through a million dollar antenna,,,one of 3 in the world at the time,,,
[20:07:29] <Lambda_Aurigae> 128 element phased array antenna, 2 meters tall, 1 meter diameter, dome topped.
[20:08:12] <Lambda_Aurigae> this was back in the late80s/early 90s.
[20:10:37] <Lambda_Aurigae> I got out in 1992.
[20:13:18] <m3chanical> phased array antennas are awesome
[20:14:26] <Lambda_Aurigae> yeah.
[20:14:26] <Lambda_Aurigae> in the vault we couldn't get radio reception.
[20:14:40] <Lambda_Aurigae> we had an extra feed off the antenna, however.
[20:15:04] <Lambda_Aurigae> so, we rigged it to the fm radio then called a local station and asked the location of their antenna...got lat and long.
[20:15:45] <Lambda_Aurigae> from that we figured out where to point a beam and were able to tune the digital feed system to the fm station frequency.
[20:15:49] <Lambda_Aurigae> and,,,got radio reception.
[20:16:05] <m3chanical> that's pretty neat
[20:16:39] <Lambda_Aurigae> we undid it before end of shift.
[20:16:46] <Lambda_Aurigae> and only used it on 2nd or 3rd shift.
[20:16:58] <Lambda_Aurigae> and never told any of the other crews about it.
[20:17:59] <Lambda_Aurigae> we could have gotten in a lot of trouble doing that.
[20:18:50] <Lambda_Aurigae> all the elements in the antenna had a dedicated digital signal processor,,,I'm guessing probably not as powerful as a 20MHz avr though.
[20:30:52] <m3chanical> the engineering involved in military electronics is astounding. so much cool shit
[20:31:13] <Lambda_Aurigae> yup.
[20:31:20] <Lambda_Aurigae> we got to play with bleeding edge gear back then.
[20:31:58] <Lambda_Aurigae> serial numbers 2 and 3 of the Dec RiscStation 5000/200
[20:32:23] <Lambda_Aurigae> serial number 1 was at sandia labs where software development for 2 and 3 was being done.
[20:32:47] <Lambda_Aurigae> in 1989...200MHz RISC processors with dual 1GB harddrives.
[20:33:06] <m3chanical> 1gb, in 1989!
[20:33:10] <Lambda_Aurigae> now I have twice that power in my pocket.
[20:33:23] <Lambda_Aurigae> yeah..the size of shoe boxes.
[20:35:24] <Casper> 200MHz risc...
[20:36:08] * Casper wonders if his cellphone is risc based...
[20:36:32] <Lambda_Aurigae> https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DECstation
[20:36:54] <Casper> cpu in my cellphone is a 6 core@1.8GHz, 3G ram...
[20:36:54] <Lambda_Aurigae> arm is a RISC core, yes.
[20:37:03] <m3chanical> ARM is risc
[20:37:08] <m3chanical> oh Lambda_Aurigae said that
[20:37:29] <Lambda_Aurigae> although, x86 these days are risc core too, with cisc wrappers.
[20:37:43] <Casper> so yeah, in today's specs, that one was slow, but I know it was a bomb back then
[20:38:31] <Lambda_Aurigae> the processor in that was an early version of the core used in the pic32...MIPS.
[20:39:02] <Lambda_Aurigae> the processor in the decstation 5000/200 that is.
[20:39:48] <Casper> now... let's make plaster of paris... anyone wanna get messy?...
[20:40:21] <Lambda_Aurigae> I'll be making messes tomorrow.
[20:40:25] <Lambda_Aurigae> sawdust messes.
[20:42:24] <Lambda_Aurigae> got 5 hours of overtime today setting up copiers for a big order we just got.
[20:44:27] <Lambda_Aurigae> made lots of mess with packing materials.
[21:03:05] <Casper> I'm making some tool magnet bars
[21:03:42] <Lambda_Aurigae> I tend to just buy those.
[21:03:50] <Casper> using wire cover things, grind some hd magnet, screw them to a wood bar, stuff that inside the wire thing, fill with plaster
[21:04:04] <Casper> the commercial ones... I find them way too weak
[21:04:04] <LeoNerd> I'm characterising LEDs...
[21:04:13] <Casper> .... nerd...
[21:04:20] <Lambda_Aurigae> I'm watching RoboRex here.
[21:04:26] <Lambda_Aurigae> b-grade scifi.
[21:04:27] <LeoNerd> Couldn't be bothered with (or rather couldn't afford) a $4k SMU, so I'm winging it with two $40 multimeters and a $200 PSU
[21:04:33] <Lambda_Aurigae> kids movie more than anything.
[21:04:36] <LeoNerd> It works just as well, if a little slower :)
