@ThePhoton Special differential pair question for you. "I shall assume there's one and a half reason for something and then use those only to show how its pointless". Enjoy.

Hello

No one active? Will try later.

hey there @TomZych

@Asmyldof Almost just let it go.

@ThePhoton almost answered it myself to flatly point out that antennae are equally efficient at transmitting and receiving, so a differential signal is going to generate less crosstalk

@ThePhoton @Shalvenay I was typing a comment and when I got to the fourth argument I diceded to go sleep.

One of my greatest pleasures in PCB design is envisioning current paths and planning EMI

ehhh

Morning. I'm sorry to ask a basic question but... I have a power supply which provides 9v DC. The device I use requires 5v DC. Can you let me know if my understanding is correct: It doesn't matter that the PSU can supply 9 volts because the unit will only draw what is required (5v).

that understanding is wrong

D'oh!!!!!

it would be for the amps, not the volts

ah. Right. I thought I was getting myself in a muddle some where. Thank you @PlasmaHH

otherwise you would need no psu and could directly plug things into mains...

yes, that's a good point!

I don't suppose there are cables which can reduce the voltage are there? I'm stuck with a 9V power supply and the unit is 5v - I'm trying to think of easy options :)

@MyDaftQuestions The "easy" option is a regulator. Or, get a simple 5V wall wart (if it can provide enough current.)

Perfect... That's a great answer. Yes, I think the wall mart is going to be the best option, I was trying to use as few "plugs" as possible :)

I wonder if you need any special material for a dead cat or if you can make one yourself out of any furry material

Often available for free. Can be found along major highways passing through small villages.

@JRE though it must be processed, in raw condition the audio quality lacks some depth

ehm

?

@Asmyldof I see you never evaluated that one...

@Asmyldof Deadcat

Ah.

Thx

Quick sanity check: if I take a bog-standard low-side mosfet driver (say, the MCP1416) and connect it to the gate of a high-side P-Channel mosfet, that'll work fine, right?

I tried putting it together on a breadboard, but I'm running at 500khz and the inductive spikes made the P-CH become ded

And LTSpice doesn

't have a model for a gate driver, apparently.

@Giskard42 yes, as long as the source isn't moving around, and the Vgs rating of the MOSFET is OK with 0V

@W5VO @Giskard42 and the peak gate current, etc.

@W5VO I don't quite understand what you mean by the source moving around?

Oh, you mean the source moving away from the driver's vcc?

howd folks

Howdy!

@Giskard42 how is your day going

Good, yours?

pretty good, just ate waht i guess normal people would consider breakfast at 3pm and want to tinker with my 3d printer for the first time

Breakfast and innovation is a good start to any day

What 3d printer do you have? Reprap?

@Giskard42 This ones Monoprice

I saw they were $200, checked around to make sure it's actually good, then just was like the time has come

@user507974 The 300$ one?

whoops too late

with my text

This one youtube.com/watch?v=qtEVI4OPQWI

Very neat, looks like an i3 with an aluminum frame

That's great

@user507974 We bought a geetech prusa i3 and it was screwed down to a thick piece of plywood

we took it off and realized there was a reason for the wood

@user507974 Ooh, that controller looks sick

@Giskard42 what?

ply?

Yeah, the frame was made of a piece of plastic and it warped if you picked it up

@Giskard42 yea, id be using it running a full print instead of just the calibration stuff if I had realized that it didnt come with a spool of material

Oops

Nothing worse then getting a new piece of tech and not being able to run it

but luckily i got 2 kg coming in today hopefully

Nice

2 1 kg spools black PLA for $33 sound like a good deal?

Do you have a vacuum sealing system?

@user507974 That's an amazing deal.

Else your filament will have a shelf life

@Giskard42 After I bought the printer I was bummed becasue the next day monoprice sent a 20% off promotion theyre running so I used that for the printer stuff. I was a bit less bummed when I checked and realized it wouldnt ahve worked on teh printer anyways

used that for printer filament*

Does yours use 1.75mm filament?

@Giskard42 Yea

nice

Also I'd be interested in some cheap diy vacuum solutions since I was thinking about trying to do some silicone mold stuff

and ive heard its good to pull air bubbles out of that stuff

Yeah

Already basically ruined ~$100 of filament that way

do you do vacuum stuff?

ah, i see

do you have to store it for its whole life in vacuum or just treat before use

Hackerspace resident printer guru says store it constantly under vacuum

I wonder if just tossing some sillica jel would work, though.

That sounds kinda hard and expensive, I feel like a dessicator or sillica gel would be fine

Yeah

Admittedly he is a bit crazy about his printing

He takes it very seriously

Actually I probably read his review before buying mine

oh wait

thats hackaday

Cooling down the extruder on his printer before removing filament is a death sentence

If you use tape other than 3M authentic "blue" on his heated build platform he will personally see to it that you are tortured

heh

@user507974 What's the first print you want to make on yours?

Its probably gonna be something really silly

Like a black cap for my speakers volume button, it glows with a strong blue light when i go to bed

Oh, neat!

but i like to play music as i sleep, so this way i dont have to put something in front of it

i figure thatd be cool to since it gives me an excuse to open solidworks again after i dont know how long

How much is solidworks these days?

Excellent question, Ill have to ask a legal owner of that for some details

P:

Wait that's not right

:P

There

I mean I could probably get a student license if i bugged my college for it, since im taking engineering courses but am not exactly an engineering student

(physics major)

Wow, nice!

What's your opinion, should I go for EE or physics?

I do like it but I've been itching to make stuff for a while so I'm kinda getting back to things I've been missing as I wrap up my degree

Depends on school of course, and what you want to do exactly

I guess that is a pretty broad question

And also depends on my having any idea of what I want to do

I'd say my first pick would have been Engineering Physics but Im going to a school that was really good anyways

My friend went for EE/Phy but it seems like he never was able to use the Physics portion of it

Which uni are you going to, if you don't mind my asking?

UCSB

Wow nice

And yea, I'd say depending on what you do you may never explicitly use a lot of your non-lab physics again. I really like material science, and a bunch of other stuff that uses statistical mechanics so I've learned a lot of formalizing of unintuitive ideas in the hopes of making it intuitive I guess

In exchange learning to make things is a process I have to go through sorta on my own

time

From the way things sound, you are about high school aged right?

~18

United States?

Canada!

Oy neighbor

Eh?

:)

How fares life in the kingdom of Canadia?

I think you are already turning in college apps shortly, right?

It's a bit yet, starts in spring I think

Woudn't want students getting frostbite on the way to the mailbox

Life's pretty good, it's nice having a nuclear-armed brother so we can stay disinterested in global politics

And focus on our main priorities, maple syrup collection

And maple taffy consumption

ha

Well, good luck with your printer!

(And your major)

sure, cya around

good luck picking yours =)

if you want feel free to ping me if you have questions

Thanks! Will do, just trying to ignore the problem as much as possible for now :)

TTYL!

Anyone who has worked as an EET and programmer, please consider visiting this room:

chat.stackexchange.com/rooms/47433/eet-vs-programming-careers