Another Dollar Store Upgrade

RE: Another Dollar Store Upgrade

me_Cris — Sat, 02 Dec 2023 21:40:54 GMT

👏👏

RE: Another Dollar Store Upgrade

beacon_dave — Wed, 29 Nov 2023 19:46:21 GMT

[quote userid="395267" url="~/members-area/f/forum/54027/another-dollar-store-upgrade/217060"]I don't think soldering 4 wires is going to make into the prize pool[/quote]

Perhaps might get a few bonus points if you were to use 'tinsel wire' 🎄

RE: Another Dollar Store Upgrade

robogary — Wed, 29 Nov 2023 18:22:47 GMT

You dont have to win, only participate :-) Actually the Holiday Competition is special as the winners "gift" a shopping cart to the balance of submissions that didnt win.

RE: Another Dollar Store Upgrade

ntewinkel — Wed, 29 Nov 2023 18:20:38 GMT

Sometimes the simplest ideas are the best! At the very least I think: the more, the merrier.

RE: Another Dollar Store Upgrade

cstanton — Wed, 29 Nov 2023 13:51:55 GMT

You know what they say, when there's only one person, there's only one vote or something like that 🙂

RE: Another Dollar Store Upgrade

scottiebabe — Wed, 29 Nov 2023 13:40:22 GMT

We shall see, I don't think soldering 4 wires is going to make into the prize pool 🙂

RE: Another Dollar Store Upgrade

scottiebabe — Wed, 29 Nov 2023 13:39:05 GMT

Scopeshots

Its not anywhere near textbook perfect... Obvious crosstalk between DIN and DOUT. Having 4 loose leads versus a twisted group would have different results.

RE: Another Dollar Store Upgrade

misaz — Wed, 29 Nov 2023 12:38:52 GMT

When I was beginer I used ATmega16 on breadboard without any decoupling caps and never faced any issue. Are not they useless at all? hmm... 🙂

RE: Another Dollar Store Upgrade

cstanton — Wed, 29 Nov 2023 12:30:30 GMT

Are you entering the Holiday Special 2023 Competition ? :)

RE: Another Dollar Store Upgrade

kmikemoo — Tue, 28 Nov 2023 21:38:52 GMT

We now refer to our local Dollar Tree as "The Dollar General Buck Twenty-Five Tree".

RE: Another Dollar Store Upgrade

scottiebabe — Tue, 28 Nov 2023 20:01:30 GMT

Random Aside, I have a strip of WS2813 LEDs. Some of the photos online allude to that these might include a decoup cap and series resistor in package

Mine do not have additional passives in package

RE: Another Dollar Store Upgrade

beacon_dave — Tue, 28 Nov 2023 18:00:05 GMT

[quote userid="395267" url="~/members-area/f/forum/54027/another-dollar-store-upgrade/217022"]the other is a toliet brush/pipe cleaner cut in the shape of a tree with frosted tip[/quote]

I spotted a slightly larger version of one of these designs in the supermarket over here

https://direct.asda.com/george/christmas/christmas-room-decorations/christmas-charcoal-tree-decoration/051358406,default,pd.html

Looks about the right size for my USB LED light strings, or for cleaning out 4" to 6" diameter pipe 🙂

RE: Another Dollar Store Upgrade

wolfgangfriedrich — Tue, 28 Nov 2023 17:27:54 GMT

Seeing this picture, my 1st thought was: "They are selling DDs at the Dollarama now??? I'll take 2". 😲

RE: Another Dollar Store Upgrade

robogary — Tue, 28 Nov 2023 17:24:45 GMT

Thats what happened to Murphy's 5 and dime stores. Shrinkflation just to Murphy's and the rest is history. :-)

RE: Another Dollar Store Upgrade

scottiebabe — Tue, 28 Nov 2023 17:23:44 GMT

Thanks for the kind words.

Yes we had on the lowest price from $1.00 to $1.25 a few years ago. The maximum price point keeps increasing too, I think its up to $5.00 dollars now.

But it general I'm impressed with what you can buy for 2 or 3 dollars.

We have a youtuber who does weekly dollar store walk throughs, if you ever run out of cool projects to work on

https://www.youtube.com/@VanessaVendetti

RE: Another Dollar Store Upgrade

scottiebabe — Tue, 28 Nov 2023 17:16:57 GMT

Thanks for the kind words, the end result is quite illuminating....

RE: Another Dollar Store Upgrade

scottiebabe — Tue, 28 Nov 2023 17:15:34 GMT

Thanks for sharing your experience. My instinct is that for a small run with twisted leads it will probably be okay.. This IC runs the LEDs with constant current sources and the protocol should tolerate a brief glitch. I wouldn't recommend a long string with no caps but I am guessing a 30 cm hookup cable isn't going to be the end of the world.

RE: Another Dollar Store Upgrade

md_steve — Tue, 28 Nov 2023 17:13:16 GMT

There was a 25% / day inflation rate at our Dollar Store last year. I forget the exact date, but everything went from $1.00 to $1.25 overnight. Wouldn't you think they would have to change their name now?

RE: Another Dollar Store Upgrade

scottiebabe — Tue, 28 Nov 2023 17:12:42 GMT

Thanks for the kind words, I think it will look even better with a flickr animation 🙂 🎄

No, the one tree is a paint clay figurine and the other is a toliet brush/pipe cleaner cut in the shape of a tree with frosted tip. Though it still looks great.

RE: Another Dollar Store Upgrade

scottiebabe — Tue, 28 Nov 2023 17:09:54 GMT

Thanks and yes! I am using the DD partly because its already setup also because I am interested to see if I can spot any funny business with the omission of a decoup cap.

The waveforms is maybe a little bare bones on the digital side, but in general I think its a great product.

RE: Another Dollar Store Upgrade

robogary — Tue, 28 Nov 2023 16:39:36 GMT

I've always wondered if a Dollar Store item's price in Canada is 1 CAN$ and the same item in the US is $1 USD. mmmmmm

I have to stay out of the Dollar Store. They sell Red Hots candy and I'm a Red Hots addict. Darn things cost $1.25 tho.

Nice job Christmas decorating Scottiebabe.

RE: Another Dollar Store Upgrade

kmikemoo — Tue, 28 Nov 2023 16:37:16 GMT

Nice work! Look fantastic.

RE: Another Dollar Store Upgrade

fmilburn — Tue, 28 Nov 2023 16:23:12 GMT

I have omitted the decoupling cap lots of times on WS2812 and have never had problems, usually but not always powered with batteries. At least not yet. I’m interested to see what the scope shows.

RE: Another Dollar Store Upgrade

dougw — Tue, 28 Nov 2023 16:22:26 GMT

Neat job. 200% better.

The tree looks like it has wires too - does it light up or is it just the strain relief?

RE: Another Dollar Store Upgrade

baldengineer — Tue, 28 Nov 2023 16:03:16 GMT

It looks great!

At first, I thought you were just using the DD for scale.

But you're programming the ws2812 through it, aren't you?!