+1, if only for the documentation. If you haven’t, skim through it: https://pip.raspberrypi.com/documents/RP-008373-DS-2-rp2350-... it’s truly unlike any reference manual I’ve ever read. I will happily pay a few extra cents at modest volumes for a chance to get the detailed technical details and opinions from the design team.
Adafruit is pretty clearly the front-runner these days in the educational/hobbyist market, Arduino (and even SparkFun) have fallen by the wayside. My only gripe is the focus on micropython these days, it can introduce a barrier later in the learning process when you eventually need to leave the nicely organized sandbox. They still support the “Arduino” C++ libraries, but uPy is the default.
Adafruit actually focus on CircuitPython which is a fork of Micro Python but takes some of the complexity of Micro Python away. I don't personally like coding in C++ as I started my career with Perl then PHP and Javascript. Writing Python in my own choice of text editor instead of the Arduino IDE is much more my style.
A couple of weeks ago, I bought a 'sensor kit' from Amazon for my son to use with his Raspberry Pi. It includes some input devices (e.g. button, moisture sensor) and output devices (e.g. LED) that can be plugged onto breadboard.
In my experience LLMs can code C++ for the Arduino framework pretty well these days. The mistakes they make, like wrong pin numbers, are pretty language agnostic.
I’m not sure why the age of majority in the region of the server would be relevant. The user is not traveling to that region, the laws protecting them should be the laws in their own region.
I don't know if "should" is intended as a moral statement or a regulatory statement, but it's not at all unusual for server operators to need to comply with laws in the country in which they are operating…
Kudos for making this exist, it was an inevitable place for the conversation to lead, and I’m actually glad it was “hacked” together as a project rather than forced into a consumer product.
The camera specs don’t really matter here, this is about having the conversation. If this catches on, it will be a feature of every smartphone SoC.
On one hand, it’s a cool application of cryptography as a power tool to balance AI, but on the other, it’s a real hit to free and open systems. There’s a risk that concern over AI spirals into a justification for mandatory attestation that undermines digital freedom. See: online banking apps that refuse to operate on free devices.
The fact that this is the most appealing option is an indication that our electrical system, both equipment and code, are failing to address people’s needs. If you get a quote for a hybrid (on and off grid) system, they’re absolutely unaffordable.
High voltage, low RDSON FETs are (slightly) more expensive, and these products are cheap. A better design would use a higher-voltage rated input switch with poor (slow) switching performance, like an IGBT. Don’t design critical infrastructure around EcoFlow hardware.
Fujitsu, which sells MOSFETs for this application, writes: "Firstly devices should be rated at 600V or 650V, as this will generally provide more than adequate protection against the threat of high voltage transients."[1] That's a nice big safety margin. It should hold until the voltage monitoring shuts the whole thing off.
Not seeing UL certification on this thing.
If we're going to have US protectionism against China, a good first step would be to require UL-type testing, carried out in the US, on all imported electrical devices that run on more than 12VDC or contain a battery chemistry capable of thermal runaway. Electrical safety is a solved problem if you can keep people from cheating.
The voltage ratings of the MOSFETs used for 220/230/240 V applications have been increased over the years.
Decades ago, when bipolar transistors were used, they were rated for 350 V, which is barely enough for 220 V + 10%.
When everybody started to design universal converters usable for 220/230/240 V, the ratings were increased to 400 V. The first power MOSFETs were also rated thus.
Then there were too many converters destroyed by random voltage spikes, so the standard ratings were increased to 500 V. That proved to still be not enough in many places over the world, so the ratings were increased to 600 V or 650 V, already many years ago, in order to make extremely unlikely the destruction of the transistors by voltage spikes much greater than the nominal mains voltage.
600 V or 650 V is used for converter topologies where the transistors see only the peak input voltage. For converter topologies that use fewer transistors, but those see peak-to-peak voltages, the rating of the transistors must be 1200 V.
For 650 V, gallium nitride FETs are the best available devices, while for 1200 V or higher voltages silicon carbide transistors are the best. Silicon transistors are the best only for ratings much lower than 100 V, but they may be preferred also at high voltages for being much cheaper.
My understanding is that mosfets themselves are usually not UL certified/listed. I recently did a UL certification of a power supply and the IGBTs we used were themselves also not UL certified. The UL certification was more about the overall system design.
Whenas in silks my Julia goes,
Then, then (methinks) how sweetly flows
That liquefaction of her clothes.
Next, when I cast mine eyes, and see
That brave vibration each way free,
O how that glittering taketh me!
Part of the issue is with the purpose as you describe it. Sure, at top 10 schools, a trial by fire would result in much needed “growing up” as the gifted but undisciplined (speaking for myself and many users of this site) students find their way to more durable motivations. But at the vast majority of schools, a trial by fire would end with a lot of students burned.
Perhaps that begs the question, if those kids can’t handle self-directed education, why are we putting them there in the first place, but that’s definitely a grey area, and there are hundreds of thousands of students who are smart enough to do well in higher education and skilled work, but weren’t disciplined enough to handle what you’re describing as freshmen.
Many employers pay a premium for predictably elite cadres of students. The schools want to try to pass off mediocre graduates as having some of the elite special sauce even though only a small number of students have what it takes. We know exactly what to do to produce elite cadres by aggressive sorting. But the incentives created by the federal government encourage the institutions to extrude mediocre students like a chicken nugget machine produces processed meat product. Every hot student-nugget is worth a tens of thousands of dollars a year in freshly printed loan money directed towards administrators and rent on dorms and apartments irrespective of quality; so the incentive is to stuff the students with filler.
