Rick's b.log - entry 2020/06/07

IPv6

I tried to reduce the width of the text for IPv6 addresses, but it seems that Firefox on Android is bugged - it will reduce the width using the scale argument, but when working out placement and table cell sizes, it does all of that before reducing the width. So I'm just going to leave it as is and you'll see a ridiculously long IP address.

I trust IPv4 will be retained for use on LANs. Somehow I find it easier to remember that my printer is 192.168.1.14 rather than 2a01:cb08:89 um uh... 382jsdjvj938fvlijf9084330985£$&$£$£} or something.

By the way, don't thank me for this - thank Rob. Please prod the Donate button (on the right, or at the bottom in mobile mode) to send Rob a little thank you. Remember, this is for him. Not me. He deals with all the technical stuff and manages the hosting. I just write the rubbish you're reading now. ☺

More tameage

I believe in the principle of "little and often", because "tidying the potager" is a daunting task, however when broken up into little bits and done piece by piece, it takes like ten times longer but the difference is that it gets done. Rather than me thinking "to hell with this" and writing something for my blog instead...

Yesterday's job was to tidy a bit of mess under the Epic Willow. Here's a before:

And here's the after:

There was some weird sort of ground-growing creeping pine plant that used to be all along there, but it has long since died. I think it was a victim of the hot summer/freezing winter circa 2003. It may have gone, but it has left many pieces of hard branches of wood behind. It also looks as there's a mess of wood bits cut up that was originally a pile now encumbered in weeds. I'm guessing mom might have done that a few years ago?
Still, it's another section that can eventually turn to grass to be looked after by Marte.

I wasn't done with that. I went up to the potager with manual hedge trimmers (think large scissors) and dealt with the remaining bramble.

I've not been able to take the mower to cut and mulch the brambles because, as you can see, there are all sorts of things there. Planters, plant pots, rocks... It'll need to be gone over manually inch by inch before I take either mower anywhere near that.
You can also see (the brown area) what I cut down last week. It was a mass of nettle and bramble almost as tall as I am. So seeing the back wall of the wood shed is an achievement... however like all the rest, the plan is to clear the area so Marte can give it a pass. Looking at the size, it might take four passes. Which ought to be about two or three minutes. You can see the plan...

Bread maker controls

Turns out, as soon as I set it to perform a kneading cycle, the belt shredded itself into a gummy mess. Seems to be something of a pattern with old bread makers...
I have ordered a replacement, but since my model of bread maker doesn't seem to exist on any spares/parts site in France, I've made a guess by measuring the belt size and ordering something similar.
Either it will work, or it won't. If it doesn't the breadmaker will be discarded. So... we'll see.

I'm not going to concern myself with the processor board. Two buttons, a handful of LEDs, and a microcontroller. Not much to examine there as much of the work is done as black-box firmware.
Instead, let's imagine the controller doesn't exist. Say, say we want to replace it with some switches to do the same things. What would be necessary? How does the controller actually control the hardware?

Here's an annotated version of the driver board:

Power supply

Temperature control

Heater

Motor

I would imagine that this is being done to regulate the speed of the motor. It would complicate motor control (as it needs timed, rather than just switched on and off), but on the other hand it does open the possibility of variable motor speeds.
I wonder how fast the motor can actually go?

Buzzer

Discussion

Looking from a safety viewpoint, I can't imagine active low is particularly good. I hope the outputs are weakly tied high and driven low, so at least if something on the controller board blows, it won't fall to zero and mean that stuff turns on.

It's also worth noting the uneasy mixing of high voltage and low voltage on the board. Take a look at the +~15V supply pin, and note that it is actually directly connected to AC1. This may explain what's going on with the buzzer (also connected to AC1). It may well be that the 0V is actually a false 0V, and the +~15V is a real 0V reference, with everything actually offset from that. It reminds me of the old "live chassis" televisions (where the receiver's ground was derived by rectifying live mains).

How did I determine what 0V was? Simple, it's the one connected to the V_SS pin on the microcontroller. Everything was measured relative to that. But, it seems, it is never that simple...

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John, 8th June 2020, 12:15

If taming was good enough for Shakespeare and his shrew, it may do for you. If you want something a bit stronger, try subjugation?

J.G.Harston, 9th June 2020, 01:25

Pah! My printer is 192.168.1.235 and the server is 192.168.1.254.

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