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Hey 👋 I’m Lemann: mark II

I like tech, bicycles, and nature.

Otherwise known as; @[email protected] and @[email protected]

Dancing Parrot wearing sunglasses

  • 2 Posts
  • 101 Comments
Joined 11 months ago
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Cake day: December 22nd, 2023

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  • To answer the direct question - no

    I do have some thoughts on moving away from the Pi though - warning, heavy personal bias ahead

    If you’re looking at moving away from the Pi I would just suggest a low power x86 box, like a Nuc or some Intel N100 low-power tiny PC.

    There is a caveat though - it looks like the OctoPi project only provides OS builds for the Pi, so if you change systems it looks like you’ll need to install OctoPrint manually, and port over your config somehow.

    On ebay you can get second-hand NUCs, 6th gen and up, for practically peanuts. The cheaper quad core celeron nucs (i.e. J3455) are roughly equivalent to the 3rd and 4th gen dual-core i5s (3777u, 3230m etc) performance wise, but have an updated QuickSync encoder and support accelerated 4K video encoding/playback, handy if you want to capture timelapses of your prints or just view them live. They also consume 1/3rd of the power at around 10 watts under the same workload.

    ARM support for other vendors can be pretty flaky, sometimes even non existent. While you could pick an Orange Pi, and go with a modern community-supported distro like Armbian, it isn’t a turnkey experience like the Pi. There is much less documentation, and still some very early boards floating around with hardware defects and overheating issues (posing a fire risk in the worst case, the OPi Zero being the most egregious - literally melting the optional enclosure and killing the NIC). Some research before buying will let you know most of what you need to know - check around the forums for any common issues and dealbreakers, as well as the manufacturer’s site to get an idea of available support.

    If you want to get an idea of the alternatives you could check out Jeff Geerling’s youtube channel, he covers the Pi and occasionally videos on other alternatives, as well as issues he’s had with them and support. I’ll try and link some below…

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

    Check the comments on that one for a quick synopsis, as the video is quite long…

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jjzvh-bfV-E

    This video pretty much just echoes my current perspective


  • To combine a bunch of explanations I’ve seen in the comments here:

    A bourgeois philanthropist game show producer who dabbles in poverty porn.

    That said, I do occasionally burn time watching some of his videos, however some of the content (especially the more recent game show ones which feel a bit like toying with people) rub me the wrong way.

    I have no idea if his philanthropy efforts are genuine or not - he’s barely visible in those videos (he has another individual hosting those videos) although I do appreciate the efforts they appear to go to when assisting communities desperately in need, and careful implementation of solutions that are sustainable, and can actually be maintained and fixed with local knowledge.

    I’ve seen way too many “gimmicky” charity contributions by other organizations that become worthless as soon as they break because nobody fixes them, as well as other solutions that seemingly make sense from a western cultural lens but aren’t really understood by the local people… worst one being a “merry-go-round” water pump mechanism where senior locals are forced to “play” just to pump water for survival. It was originally intended as a kids toy, but they of course don’t have any attachment to such a foreign device, thus don’t use it.

    Ehhh apologies for the mini rant there 😅





  • The Grayjay app includes an entire development environment for plugins.

    No idea why the keyboard app is “large”. Could it be for support on obsolete Android devices where they’ve needed to re-implement missing APIs and features entirely themselves (like Firefox/Fennec and the Share menu)?

    They could also be using completely different local AI tooling, or a custom trained model that has a higher space footprint compared to other similar apps. As always the true answer lies in the available code…

    Edit: Grayjay’s = The Grayjay


  • Retraction settings are probably your best bet then. Since the SV06 doesn’t use a bowden extruder, there’s much less things that could be the issue in your scenario thankfully

    To be specific about my “workaround”, it compensates for a non-flat build plate (ramped lift) and a cheap nozzle that filament often sticks to (wipe on retract). It took me two days of test prints and research to narrow those down though…

    To get to the bottom of your issue quickly, you could try tuning your retraction using a retraction test, then possibly try recording the nozzle printing the same test at 60/120fps, to play it back in slow motion. This way you can see at what part of the nozzle movement the stringing starts, and change any relevant settings accordingly



  • ASMedia is the only controller IC manufacturer that can be trusted for these IME. They also have the best Linux support compared to the other options and support pass-through commands. These are commonly found in USB DAS enclosures, and a very small fraction of single disk SATA enclosures

    Innostor controllers max out at SATA 2 and lock up when you issue pass-through commands (e.g. to read SMART data). These also return an incorrect serial number. These are commonly found in ultra cheap desktop hard drive docks, and 40pin IDE/44pin IDE/SATA to USB converters

    JMicron controllers (not affiliated with the reputable Micron) should be avoided unless you know what you are doing… UASP is flaky, and there are hacky kernel boot time parameters required to get these working on Raspberry Pi boards. Unfortunately these are the most popular ones on the market due to very low cost



  • Chromium… I’m so getting downvoted with this one.

    Why? Anyone is free to use whatever browser floats their boat 🤷‍♂️

    Firefox itself is quite sluggish and slow to open on that piece of hardware

    Do you get the same issues on an older version of Firefox for that device? If yes, proceed with caution - your device’s internal EMMC might be nearing EOL considering how old Android 6 is

    But the problem is they all do not support modern arm64 apps that most Android phones use nowadays. Instead they need this other type called armeabi-v7a

    They probably just stopped building for Android 6 devices. The SDK and various third party libraries continue to add new features all the time, and unlike Firefox, the majority of devs do not have the time or resources to manually code-in the missing bits to retain compatibility with old versions of Android. As a side effect, these custom implementations may have bugs or issues that go unnoticed due to the shrinking install base.

    One of the more noticeable bits that changed is the Share API, which is why Firefox’s one looks so different vs every other app. There are other things like enhanced battery optimization and the storage API, which have changed a lot since Android 6.

    IMO your best option is an older version of FF, or install Lineage (etc) on that device and use another browser

    Edit: change “age of device” to “shrinking install base”


  • Deleting documents from insider branch users a few years back, forced installation of HP SMART printer utility, constantly switching users’ default browser back to Edge, even bypassing my employer’s GPO to do so at one point in a Teams update

    Not to mention their habit of making practically everything opt-in by default. And what is up with the new Aptos “cloud” font that only works if you have an active Office 365 subscription?

    I don’t know tbh, Windows just doesn’t cut it for me anymore personally, mainly because of Microsoft. Stuck with it on my desktop though because of sim hardware.

    I still have XP on an airgapped old PC for nostalgia ☺️


  • No - however you could look for macro boards that have VIA firmware, as most of those can be configured using Chrome browser (WebHID), unless your org has an enterprise policy that interferes with that? The config software runs in Chrome as a website - so worth checking if the VIA keyboard web app is accessible on your work machine before purchasing a macro pad.

    VIA firmware stores the config in the keyboard’s internal eeprom AFAIK, so you should be able to setup your macros from another computer or android phone and still use them when connected to your work machine - unlike other software like Logitech Options where the config is deleted from the peripheral after a connection interruption…

    Does your employer have a policy allowing you to request software to be installed on your machine, especially if it’s needed for work? I had Logitech Options installed on my first day with no hassle from IT. Your situation sounds a lot like an unfortunate case of possibly power tripping IT admins doing more harm than good