Kmart lied to me, so I hacked their lamp [video](youtube.com) |
Kmart lied to me, so I hacked their lamp [video](youtube.com) |
Isn't the use of USB-C promotion without at minimum basic USB compatability disallowed?
I have a few devices which have a USB-A to barrel plug, but they do not advertise anything and afaik that is perfectly fine. And they also only work with a normal USB charger, not the fancy ones.
Thanks! It made me read his other articles. I liked this one more: https://www.thestockpot.net/videos/3dprinteddownpipe. A 3D printed downpipe. Because that's what the solution he was able to do.
I don't entirely agree with the paint colour. Which is really nitpicking, or said in another way: I'm quite impressed!
As an aside, while I'm trying to read the page, and it is a fun page, I kept getting distracted by the 'load-on-scroll' images and text.
My eyes kept darting down to what loaded, rather than keeping with the text I'm trying to read
https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/67b67e84acd181...
What?
_reads on_
Turns out, he uses a specific ESP32 breakout board (AFAIK a Lolin one) that includes a charging circuit for a 1S battery. It's a really nice board, but to say that ESP32 includes a charging circuit is wrong, for anyone else curious.
Thomas Merton could still be alive, if only...
My guess is it's due to the requirement to comply with EU law about USB-C. But proper USB-C requires active circuitry but manufacturers don't add it to save a few cents.
As mentioned, the requisite resistors are less than one cent each in quantity.
[1] https://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/EN/TXT/?uri=CELEX%3A...
For everyone that's interested, the included USB cable is wired like this:
GND -------> GND
D+ -------> VCC
D- -------> VCC
VCC -------> VCC
So it is a non-standard cable! I measured by checking continuity between the USB A plug, and the USB C connector with a USB A adapter on it. None of my probes are small enough for a USB C connector's pins directly.
There was a bit in the video about this that ended up on the cutting room floor, my bad!Unless it was really to put "USB-C" on the box.
I guess I'm not a very good 'hacker'.
It depends. For me, the outcome is a function of spare time I have in the upcoming days. I have written complete tools in a weekend, or written much smaller tools over the years. On the other hand, there is a mount of projects waiting to be started, but I have no time whatsoever to touch them.
Just don't hit yourself what engages you or your priorities is different than the person who's on the video/website you're visiting.
That's the real value add with all of the work done. You could also purchase a 1 buck usb-c lithium charging IC chip and wire the outs in place of the broken "usb-c" port and have the original working the way it was "supposed" to.
[1] https://hackaday.com/2019/07/16/exploring-the-raspberry-pi-4...
Not that I'm making excuses here - there's some weird stuff going on inside that lamp. There's a PCB for the battery charger, but the USB-C socket isn't on it, it's on a wire pigtail that connects to the board with another connector. And I don't usually see so many removable connectors inside something made so cheaply. They clearly could have done it correctly in this case, but didn't.
So what, there's ready made breakout boards for a few cents that will give you plain old 5V@500mA, and trigger boards for about 1€ at <10 quantity that you can even configure what they should negotiate for.
These things are actually a godsend if you are a QRP ham radio operator and have a USB-C PPS capable power bank. No more heavy AGM batteries - just connect your radio to the trigger board, wire it up for 12V (if the power bank "only" supports PD) or 13.8V if it supports PPS, and off you go.
At least here in Europe this would actually need to be a USB port which can be charged with any charger and cable.
Interestingly, we had two such hops in this thread—the comment you were replying to had already done a version of the same move, going from a more specific/curious topic (hacking a lamp) to a larger/more-general one (USB-C rules).
I hope it's clear how threads tend to get less interesting as discussion moves in this direction! If there's one point I've been trying to get across for years here, and never quite feeling like it lands, it's that one.
Sometimes I describe these 'hops' as the thread getting pulled by the gravity of larger and larger masses (like topic planets!) and ultimately into the black hole of one of the major flamewars. I'd say "the current general state of rule of law in the US" is either one of these black holes or one hop away from one; a dangerous place to fly.
https://hn.algolia.com/?dateRange=all&page=0&prefix=true&que...