Arduino

12:50 AM

Quick question: Do moderators pro-tempore still exist? If they do, there ought to be a thread in Meta to nominate them.

Yes, they do exist. I don't know about the timeline for them--I'm almost willing to bet that they will be elected very shortly before public beta

Polar

1:31 AM

@anorton 2 weeks after the private beta starts, I think (presuming the private beta only lasts a week)

anorton

thanks for letting me know! :) (I was curious about that)

Manishearth

3:40 AM

@Polar /cc @anorton It's more like 4 weeks after private beta. For Robotics it was ~6

anorton

Hm. Thanks! :)

Manishearth

A lot of the time scales given in blog posts about beta sites are outdated

anorton

@Manishearth Just wondering--what time is it where you are (roughly speaking)? I'm up late tonight (it's 11:40pm here), and was surprised to see someone else online...

Manishearth

@anorton 9AM

anorton

wow. I guess I shouldn't have been surprised. :)

Manishearth

3:49 AM

@anorton people do exist on other parts of the world, you know :P

anorton

I know, I know...

But I'm still not used to how small the internet made the world...

I still find it incredible that I can instantly contact someone in India right from my home on the east coast of the USA.

Manishearth

Ah

Me, not so much

I've grown up doing that a lot

anorton

eh... yeah. I'll probably take it for granted soon...

AshRj

4:11 AM

@AnindoGhosh @Manishearth Just a suggestion, keep discussions about tags and scope in the meta for now. It will allow for more opinions, more discussion, and a more democratic selection of policy.

Manishearth

@AshRj sure

However, discussions about specific questions sometimes make sense in chat

AshRj

@Manishearth Question discussions that affect the scope in any way should be kept on meta. Any other discussion about questions such as quality could be kept to chat.

Manishearth

@AshRj This is about interpreting scope

AshRj

We should try to make things more inclusive.

Not keep things restricted to the few in the chat rooms.

Manishearth

And the discussion about permamanementification was about establishing some more good q&as about that

AshRj

4:16 AM

@Manishearth Question about tags/tagging permamentification could have been on meta

How should we tag questions about {subject}?

Manishearth

@AshRj About creating the tag? Maybe.

AshRj

Blog - Stack Exchange: The 7 Essential Meta Questions of Every Beta

Robert Cartaino on July 09, 2010

Groups have an amazing ability to self organize — not by following rules or hierarchies of authority, but through basic human nature. Have you ever found yourself in the middle of a spontaneous brainstorming session with a group of colleagues? Sometimes you just know that you’re at the start of something big — something important — when everyone is abuzz with ideas, collaborating wildly with enthusiasm and energy.

That’s how it feels each time a new Stack Exchange site is launched. Not only in the questions and answers that are posted, but in the back room collaborations where the self-governance is starting to take shape — in meta. …

@Manishearth Whats wrong with getting more opinions ?

Manishearth

@AshRj nothing wrong :)

AshRj

Or deciding via votes ?

Manishearth

just sayin' that not every small thing needs to be discussed on meta

Creating a tag is something most folks can do unilaterally. And it happens all the time

AshRj

4:18 AM

@Manishearth permanentification is not small compared to the other tags :P

Manishearth

If it's an iffy tag, then you may want a discussion

AshRj

@Manishearth The more visible the process, the less the chance of arguments

Or unnecessary defense of positions depending on the scenario.

Manishearth

Meh. If we discussed every tag on meta we'd be flooded

If people don't like it, they can bring that up on meta

AshRj

@Manishearth Why not the other way round ?

Manishearth

...because that would lead to flooding

AshRj

4:20 AM

Moreover, not every tag, just ones that really stand out like ^^

Manishearth

How does it stand out? Aside from the name?

(renaming is something a mod can do in a jiffy)

AshRj

@Manishearth The name identifies the tag

We have just 18 questions on meta.

Manishearth

ah

that's good for 2 days

AshRj

Flooding is the last of the worries at this point.

FLooding would mean more meta participation, more users, more democracy

Manishearth

True

Anindo Ghosh

5:26 AM

Manishearth

7:06 AM

@Polar /cc @anorton let's not make the protem meta question yet

Wait till public beta

Also, the nominations on that thread are unofficial

The SE comm team looks at the thread just to get an idea of the community

Anindo Ghosh

@Manishearth Every time I see "pro tem" I misread it as protein. Time to go for my daily swim, I guess.

Manishearth

Protein mod!

Anindo Ghosh

@Manishearth That's what I see each time.

@Manishearth Oh by the way, was my power source answer sufficiently pedantic?

Manishearth

@AnindoGhosh Yep :)

Addressed all concerns and miniconcerns that I could think of

Anindo Ghosh

@Manishearth Good.

I'm pretty amused at my 666 rep.

Manishearth

7:18 AM

I had 6,666 on Physics a while back

Anindo Ghosh

7:43 AM

@Manishearth You know, 6666 isn't the number of the beast, 666 is :-)

Manishearth

bleh :P

Anindo Ghosh

12:50 PM

@Manishearth @AshRj By the way, one can't damage a GPIO in input mode by shorting it with any GPIO output :-) I ended up writing another little magnum opus, but at least I got to share an awesome pinout diagram for the Arduino Uno that I love as a reference.

Manishearth

@AnindoGhosh hm? I thought that you can..

Anindo Ghosh

@Manishearth Nope. Read my answer - where's the voltage greater than Vcc going to come from? And all pins in input mode can obviously tolerate Vcc.

Manishearth

@AnindoGhosh ah

It's not that, it's the internal closed circuit being formed, iirc

ruggedcircuits.com/html/ancp01.html#Method02

@AnindoGhosh so it's current that does the damage, not voltage

Anindo Ghosh

@Manishearth No, there will be insignificant current flowing if the second pin is set to input: Inputs are high impedance, so we're talking nanoamperes here.

Manishearth

hm

Anindo Ghosh

1:03 PM

@Manishearth You've evidently not read my answer - setting two pins as OUTPUT can cause damage, not if one is input as the question states. :-)

Manishearth

@AnindoGhosh ah

the link says otherwise, though

I saw that part of your answer

Anindo Ghosh

@Manishearth Which link says otherwise?

Manishearth

ruggedcircuits.com/html/ancp01.html#Method02

probably wrong then

Anindo Ghosh

@Manishearth Re-read that link: Method 2: Both pins output. Method 3: Overvoltage to IO pins. Never does it say one input oen output. :-)

Manishearth

oh, oops

Anindo Ghosh

1:11 PM

@Manishearth That incidentally was why I was waiting for AshRj's response to my comment, before posting my answer - I knew he couldn't have damaged the 'duino that way, but I wanted to use the appropriate diagram for his board. That post was sitting in draft since morning, I finally decided to post, to prevent incorrect information propagating to future researchers.

Manishearth

ah

should I update my answer to say that destroying a pin that way is impossibru?

"Note that burning a pin by shorting an input pin to an output pin is not possible on most *duinos, see @AnindoGhosh's answer for more details "

Anindo Ghosh

@Manishearth If you like. I'm not fussy. I like cross-crediting answers though, as you've probably noticed from the couple of times I have mentioned your answers in mine.

Manishearth

yep

Anindo Ghosh

@Manishearth If you ARE editing, it might be worth expanding on your ruggeduino comment by referring to that link - I'd never seen it before, and it's really neat info.

By the way, from my answer you've also probably guessed I intensely dislike the VIN pin.

AshRj

@AnindoGhosh Actually, the board behaved very unexpectedly when it happened.

Initially the pin was unresponsive. No I/O at all.

Anindo Ghosh

1:20 PM

@AshRj I'm suspecting prior static electricity damage. That can show progressive behaviors.

AshRj

Then when we used it again after a few weeks, we got random spikes

And finally, about two months later, it started functioning apparently normally.

Anindo Ghosh

@AshRj Hmm, I can only think of that happening due to a PTC triggering. Otherwise, an arduino doesn't have self-healing design - much fancier devices can sometimes have that.

AshRj

@AnindoGhosh Thats what I thought as well.

Anindo Ghosh

@AshRj ESD, internal diode busted, some cap holding charge, seems the only plausible explanation.

Manishearth

@AshRj could be dust or moisture

Anindo Ghosh

1:23 PM

@Manishearth Could be Delhi summer: I've had a problem with a Littelfuse PTC on a design once. The PTC would trigger when ambient crossed 40 degrees C.

AshRj

@Manishearth February

Manishearth

ah

Anindo Ghosh

@Manishearth Oooh I forgot dust / moisture, yes, good point. That would take time to go away if trapped under an SMD part.

Manishearth

@AshRj not humidity, water droplets

Anindo Ghosh

The more I read about the Ruggeduino, the more impressed I am with their candidness about their design approach.

AshRj

1:27 PM

Question: Is there any arduino that can handle heavy OCR + Text to speech ?

Manishearth

@AshRj not enough RAM i'd say

Anindo Ghosh

@AshRj Yes. The new ARM one.

Manishearth

Or not

:P

I would just use a Pi for that, though.

Anindo Ghosh

@Manishearth TTS has been done on older Arduinos with an external TTS shield. Let me find that answer of mine.

AshRj

96 KBytes Of SRAM. That wouldn't be enough for handling images and OCR

Manishearth

1:29 PM

@AnindoGhosh Ah, external shield. Makes sense

Still, I personally would just use a Pi :)

Anindo Ghosh

@Manishearth there's even a speech-to-text shield: tigal.com/product/2333

AshRj

@AnindoGhosh Saw that. I tried looking for it here in Delhi.

Nobody had it.

Manishearth

@AnindoGhosh wow

Anindo Ghosh

@AshRj Nope, niche ultra-low-volume products rarely make it to India. If the importer cannot sell off at least a quarter container-load in 2 months, it is not viable to import. Similarly with local manufacturers. If they cannot produce at least 3000 units for immediate sale (2000/3000 = typical quantity in an SMD reel), they can't afford to buy the parts for it at a good price.

Manishearth

Added two more bulleted lists (yay) to my post, and restructured it :)

@AnindoGhosh btw, regarding the extra pin on the bottom of the Uno:

It's not connected to anything. Why would they do that?

Anindo Ghosh

1:42 PM

@Manishearth Yes, what about it?

Manishearth

Is it for extending something?

Or just because female bergs can be found as an 8-set and not a 7-set

Anindo Ghosh

@Manishearth Ahh. No, there's a difference between versions and between the officially posted schematics and the final product. The shield design was finalized, that pin was for some specific planned future expansion... which never became required because they did the Mega.

Manishearth

@AnindoGhosh What was the expansion?

Any links?

(I'd like to expand that bit of my answer, if you're not going to answer yourself)

Anindo Ghosh

@Manishearth You'll have to google, and there was something on the github as well I recall. No idea what the expansion was supposed to be, I don't recall reading that detail anywhere.

@Manishearth No, I did not answer because your answer was correct and sufficient. I don't like double-answering unless I am adding some specific long term value. I'm a lazy Bengali sod.

Manishearth

lol :P

Same here, I try to think if there's anything extra

@AnindoGhosh Exactly, I thought that if you had extra info and wanted to write an answer, it wouldn't work if I stole it from you :P

Anindo Ghosh

1:48 PM

@Manishearth Nahh, I'd rather provide backroom inputs to an existing good answer, than write one myself.

Manishearth

ah

lazy

Anindo Ghosh

@Manishearth It's called "efficient". Except if it is somebody else.

Then it is just lazy.

Manishearth

:P

AshRj

This might be a bit of an issue, we have only 148 people on the site

And that number, I think, has been constant since launch

Anindo Ghosh

2:03 PM

@AshRj That's not good. Can we do a mailer or something to all who committed?

AshRj

Also, just ~90 people have actually participated (which includes people who may have cast only a single vote)

@AnindoGhosh I dont think so :/

Manishearth

@AshRj This is normal

You only need ~100 users with 50 active to go past private beta. The higher threshholds are to buffer against this

@AshRj We need more questions, though

AshRj

define active

@Manishearth Yes, around 90 total

Manishearth

voting and have provided 1-2 posts

AshRj

@Manishearth Thats barely ~30 at this point

Manishearth

2:08 PM

Nope

Too early to tell

(I'm comparing with Chemistry's stats, which I have easy access to. We're doing better. We may have 2 weeks of private beta, but that's not bad)

AshRj

I was comparing to RE. We have much more posts at this point than RE. RE had around ~60-65 at the end of first week. So, number of posts is not an issue at this point.

But we have have a very small number of active users. Which is a problem.

We will have to do something about that in the next 3-4 days.

Manishearth

@AshRj No, the problem is actually quite different

Think about it

In the next 2 days, we'll have more active users

AshRj

14 mins ago, by AshRj

And that number, I think, has been constant since launch

Why do you think so ?

Manishearth

@AshRj Weekend

Anindo Ghosh

@Manishearth Brilliant point.

Manishearth

2:18 PM

I see this all the time, Phys and Chem stats drop on the weekend

We started quite close to the weekend

Or something

AshRj

@Manishearth Wednesday

Manishearth

Either way, there were tons of users active yesterday and day before

Now there aren't

AshRj

The weekend hasn't actually started yet anywhere in the world.

Manishearth

weekend

@AshRj hm

Trudat

However, stats have already dropped on Physics

^^can't tell you details, but that's more or less the part of the graph for this week, ending today

I've always attributed it to the weekend, but it could be something else, of course :)

Btw, 2-part series became 3-part series!

7

Q: How do I create a permanent application from something prototyped with Arduino?

Part one of a three part series on transitioning from Arduino to a plain AVR microcontroller and minimum supporting components (part two, part three) I've built up a project on my Arduino Uno to control various aspects of my beer brewing system. At this point it seems to be doing what I want...

AshRj

4:28 PM

0

A: How should questions about making a project final/permanent be tagged?

Creating tags with non-existent English words may not be the best way to go. Such tags will be hard to find, any new user will not be able to find it, and regular retags will have to be done. I think deployment would be the best way to represent this. We could create multiple tags that deal wi...

Manishearth

5:58 PM

@Ash @AnindoGhosh btw, the old Hinduism proposal got closed due to age, if you can, try to help this new one grow :)

Anindo Ghosh

@Manishearth I'm not Hindu, my passport says "Atheist".

Manishearth

@AnindoGhosh ah

there once was an Atheism proposal, but it was closed as a dupe of Philosophy

I admire atheistic/agnostic views, but I still (sort of) believe in hinduism

it's weird with me :P

Anindo Ghosh

@Manishearth I'm a passive atheist rather than a militant one. To each their own beliefs. I believe in electrons and Red Bull, that too intermittently.

Manishearth

@AnindoGhosh ah

I'm not trying to argue here

I've frequently taken the atheist stance in some debates

I fully agree with those views

:)

I don't believe in Red Bull though :P Never liked it.

Anindo Ghosh

I'm too lazy to take stances. :-D I thought you knew that about me already.

Manishearth

6:10 PM

yep

Being in college, there are tons of philosophical/religious debates amongst friends. I try to stay out of many philosophical ones -- not worth the effort, but some debates are quite enjoyful and enriching

Anindo Ghosh

@Manishearth You're Chem Engg, yes? Any familiarity with pyrolysis processes for nanoparticle extraction from nebulized fluid media? I need some help.

Manishearth

@AnindoGhosh Wtf no no no not chem eng.

Engineering physics

Anindo Ghosh

@Manishearth Even better. Basically it's a physics problem, not a chemical one.

Manishearth

first year engineering physics. Nanotech in 3rd and 4th year :P

So... I'm not familiar with that

but fire away, I may be able to ask someone

Anindo Ghosh

That's the current status, the scraping isn't working, I need a pyrolysis process that will allow me to relatively painlessly extract the deposited nanoparticles. I'm thinking an ultrasonic transducer at perhaps 20 to 40 KHz on the shaft of the roller.

Manishearth

6:16 PM

Aight. I can't tell you anything about the answer, but I can try to ask

Anindo Ghosh

@Manishearth Which is fine, as I need to AFK anyway to do social movie watching.

Manishearth

Oh, it will take longer than that for me to get an answer :P

Anindo Ghosh

@Manishearth No rush :-)

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