Hello, I'm new to this but here's a shot, I recently acquired my parents old DirecTV Satellite and Receiver, and I was wondering if there was a way to revive the signals for my home to watch the premium channels for free, I know it's probably not legal, but I was wondering if it was possible because I love having TV and I don't do streaming platforms well, so I was wondering if it would work to get the receiver to work with the service, any help would be appreciated, to be honest, I don't even know if I'm in the right sub reddit for this so if I am, please redirect me to the right one, thank you for reading and have a good day. 👍

I have been working on my first real solder project with practical use. I have two 5w speakers, an amplifier board, and a 3.5mm female jack input. The whole thing is fed by 5v.

A bit like the picture, but with a female jack instead.

Most connections are good. But one.

Instead of a battery, I wanted to use an old USB cable I have laying around which was teared apart anyway. Perfect for this.

The challenge: the cable is flexible, and the wires thin stranded. I soldered a solid wire to the board's end for + and -, and now I am trying to solder the stranded thin wires to the solid connector to the board.

That connection has failed miserably all my attempts. At least 5 different now. I think I should move to a different approach, possibly also because the usb cable which I plug in and out of a power strip with usb port, obviously suffers some physical strain.

Any suggestion?

Hello guys,

I didn't know who would be the right fit, but I got 2 unopened glucose meters for diabetic people, they was thrown away from a doctor office, because the test stripes are expired (not sure if it's really not working or just a legal point of guarantee of function)

Because the diabetics on Germany I guess get this free or very cheap from the insurance.

I thought it would be a waste of electronics and sensor, display etc. to throw it away (I'm a electronic technician myself), unfortunately, I don't have time or use for this and wanted ask, if someone from you where interested in something like this or whether you have an idea, where I can sell it?

Tell me what would you / how you would hack if you have this device? This is Brother PN-8500MDS, an electronic note taking device -not a conventional laptop-.

Ok before I make this another what’s the best out there I’ll lay a disclaimer. I currently have a FNIRSI DPOS350P and I’m not real fond of it to tell the truth. I find it to be very clunky and overall doesn’t reach the full 350MHz potential it touts, it’s more like 200 and even that’s iffy.

With that said I’m looking for real feedback on a 150MHz scope, I’m going to be recapping and aligning some older HF transceivers this fall and winter and I want a reliable scope that won’t break the bank at the same time. It has to have a minimum 150MHz and really not much else. I have everything else I need I just need a reliable scope to complete the buildout and start my projects. If it’s above 150 and still reasonable in cost great but if not that’s ok too.

I’m replacing the pitch wheel of a Yamaha SHS-10. Listed as VR 2 on the schematic. I just got a replacement pot in today - same value, size, and shaft type. Then I notice the shaft of the original is on the metal side and the brown plastic part is the back side. So it’s “backwards” in a sense.

Not only that but it’s housed in this metal base that is also soldered to the board but they don’t have traces that lead anywhere on the board. You can see the metal body of the pot is hugging the metal base.

So my question is, what terms am I looking for in my search to find this specific style potentiometer? I’ve never seen this before.

Hi all. I recently replaced all the halogen light bulbs in my car with LED's to make the car feel more modern. While I like the new colour, its wayyy too bright. Genuinely installed the sun in my car. My question is, how can I reduce the brightness of them all at home with minor modifications. I'm not experienced with electronics when it comes to wiring or soldering. The only ideas I had were,
1: Remove the top LED on this bulb as you can see there are 2 in the picture, plus a third underneath. That would reduce it to 2/3 of the brightness and most likely more as this is the only LED actually facing down into the car (the other 2 face horizontally). My question with this is, can I just rip off an LED and will it still function completely fine? If so I think this will work.

2: My other idea was to make the plastic covers for the lights less transparent. However I cant figure out how to do that. I could lay some sort of film on them that reduces the transparency, or maybe sand them and that could make the surface more rough and therefore less clear/transparent.

Those are my ideas, if anyone has some other solutions let me know please.

Building a single DMX-controlled jumping jet in the backyard to practice show control. Got a few specific hardware questions:

Cutter: Solenoids are out of budget here. I want to adapt the Mark III to use a 20-30kg waterproof digital RC Servo instead. Going to hide the whole bulky assembly under pond rocks so only the tip shows. Will a servo survive the fast, repetitive cutting without stripping its gears? (If i go with " https://www.printables.com/model/265105-mark-iii-laminar-flow-nozzle " it should be modified. I'm not good at modeling)

Wireless: Want to use an ESP32 as a wireless Art-Net node to avoid running cables in the yard. Reliable enough for something like this? What kind of algorithm can I use to customize the show from song to song? The song is uploaded via Wi-Fi, analyzed, parameters are obtained based on its characteristics, and the show is prepared. What kind of algorithm or software offers the smoothest workflow for syncing 4 jets to music?

Pump: My yard is sloped. Am I better off using one big 0.5 HP well pump for all 4 jets (and dealing with the nightmare of balancing pressure across the slope using valves and a bypass chamber)? OR should I use individual small DC pumps per jet? Also, for a 2.5m glass arc, is a 600 L/h pump enough, or do I definitely need 1000+ L/h per nozzle?

Reservoir : System will recycle its own water, but I haven't designed the catch basin yet. Since it will lose water to splashing and evaporation, how do you prevent the pumps from running dry? Do you just use a standard mechanical float valve (toilet style) connected to a hose, or do you wire up electronic water level sensors to kill the pump if it gets too low?

Show Control: Running an ESP32 as an Art-Net node to control the servos. For syncing 4 jets to a music track, what’s the standard workflow? A cue software like MagicQ/QLab/Realtime Landscaping Architectre, or a timeline software like xLights? Also, how do you dynamically fade water height—varying pump voltage via DMX, or keeping the pump at 100% and using motorized valves?

LED : I want to mount a WS2812B RGB LED ring directly beneath the nozzle to light the water stream from the inside out. what’s the standard practice for waterproofing these.

Water height: How do you dynamically control spray height to music? when trying to sync the water tightly to a music track, is a cue-based software like MagicQ/QLab/Realtime landscaping architect the standard, or do people use timeline-based software like xLights for complex music synchronization? Also, how is the water height typically controlled dynamically during a show by whattt??

Bypass Chamber: I was advised to use a "bypass filter" between the pump and the nozzle to absorb pressure spikes (especially when the cutter fires) and keep the stream perfectly glass-like. But how exactly is this physically plumbed?

Tangential Inlet & Laminar Baffles: I read that to get a perfect glass-like flow, the water needs to enter the bottom of the tube tangentially to create a vortex and slow down before hitting the flow straighteners. Does the Mark III model handle this base entry well, or will I need to design a custom tangential inlet?

Need help a buddy used it to start a four-wheeler and now it isn't working it makes humming sound but no power and fans stopped working too honestly don't know what it could be let me know

I have a basic understanding of circuitry, but its been a while since ive actually tried to make anything, and so my knowledge is failing.

I am trying to make a flashing circuit to power 12v dc lights for a costume prop. Ive found slight variations of this circuit online, ive looked into it and apparently the 555 timer can handle 12v dc, but ive also heard that im likely to fry the chip.

In short:

What changes need to be made to safely run 12v dc in a circuit meant for 9v dc.

Thanks in advance! Ill try to post an update when I get the board done!

On the DIYAUDIO forum, there is long thread on the Quasimodo (and related Cheapomodo) project. Basically, these allow one to tweak snubber components (resistor and capacitor) across a xformer secondary.

This video gives a good, quick summary of the Cheapomodo project:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gqF2DPcjiV4

I do see the ringing, and how tweaking the snubber R in that setup can eliminate it.

But, note that in the Quasimodo/Cheapomodo rigs, the xformer has been isolated (pulled out) from the original power supply.

So, it is unclear how big an issue that ringing would be with all the PSU filtration and regulation downstream of it.

Hello! I am trying to plan out an electronic kalimba project (like a much lower budget Bastl). Obviously, this can be done by adding a piezo/contact microphone to a regular kalimba. However, from the pictures and description of the Bastl, it seems that the tines are part of the PCB and thus made from FR4 - would they resonate enough to be picked up by a contact mic? Additionally, it has pitch shift/bend features, which makes me think the sound is fully generated and not just amplified. What sort of sensor would be able to pick up and differentiate the vibrations from each tine?

I don't want to break a rule by posting the link, but you can look up bastl kalimba to see what I'm talking about

For a costume i want to build a wizards staff that shoots bubbles. The bubble gun i have disassmebled for that takes 4x 1.5V AA batteries in sequence, therfore the motor should run on 6V, right? The motor is in a housing i kinda dont want to open so i have to guess. My gestion is if i can simply substitute it with a 5V power bank, as i dont want zo deal with loose batteries in the project, i would habe to print a housing for them and thought it would be much easier to just solder a USB-C connector to the motor and attaching a powerbank that can be easily swapped and charged. Alternatively i thought about using a 18650 rechargeable battery, though that might be to low with 4.2V, right?
The reason that i am dusassembeling the bubble gun in the first place is to arrange its components in a straight line to put them into the staff, the toy itself is very bulky and has a lot of unused space inside.

Please any electronic advice is appreciated.

im trying to make a cyberdeck i used to be godly at pc shi and cud build 1 which i did and now am rusty afta a few years and i have s pare hdd here and a ssd but im looking for a solid small motherboard or a cpu for ts