The Official Happiness Thread

[bumlove]

Congrats, your DARE entry I'm guessing. when can it go public?

[XZodia]

http://www.facebook.com/swallowtailgames

We will be releasing some time next year hopefully.

[neodos]

Really cool man! you guys are doing great!
I am looking forward to this + like on facebook

[DoorM4n]

I've been nominated for a BAFTA!
(for those that don't know its like a British Oscar)

WHAT? Explain!!

[troymac1ure]

Fly out tomorrow for a 3-day training course. That means 2 nights in a hotel with just me and my laptop. Might be able to finally get the next Entity version out I hope.

[XZodia]

I've been nominated for a BAFTA!
(for those that don't know its like a British Oscar)

WHAT? Explain!!

I took part in a game creation competition where the top 3 teams get nominated for the "Ones To Watch" award.

[DoorM4n]

That has got to be the greatest personal achievement I have yet to hear. When is the awards on?

[XZodia]

Next year sometime, think its around Easter...

[Grimdoomer]

Just picked up my car today, 04 volkswagen jetta Now I just gotta get driving a manual car down, pay off this fucking insurance bill and I will be all set.

[OwnZ joO]

Just got my trackball mouse configured to "middle click" when I click left and right at the same time. A week without middle click was getting rough. Also tomorrow is the first anniversary of my 21st birthday.

[troymac1ure]

Just picked up my car today, 04 volkswagen jetta Now I just gotta get driving a manual car down, pay off this fucking insurance bill and I will be all set.

Nice. If you want to know anything about it, just ask.

Let me guess, 2.0L gas engine, platinum gray? Or did you go for a diesel?

[Grimdoomer]

Just picked up my car today, 04 volkswagen jetta Now I just gotta get driving a manual car down, pay off this fucking insurance bill and I will be all set.

Nice. If you want to know anything about it, just ask.

Let me guess, 2.0L gas engine, platinum gray? Or did you go for a diesel?

Nope its gas, would have been nice if it had a VR6 in it but it's in prestine condition so I'm not complaining.

[XZodia]

Been invited to look around Codemasters =)

[DemonicSandwich]

I bested my fastest two-mile time by 8 seconds yesterday, scoring a 14:20.
Good way to end a run week. (I don't run on Saturdays or Sundays)

[NotZachary82]

I used to be able to run all the time before I moved. Now that I live more in the downtown area, it makes it pretty difficult. I could drive to a park, which I do sometimes, but it's just a hassle. My cardio really sucks.

[DemonicSandwich]

Looks like I found another project to work on. Unbricking a 360 battery pack.


When I left for basic, I packed up my 360 and accessories but I left a battery pack in one of the controllers by mistake.
When I got back home 11 weeks later, I discovered that both batteries were flat.
The one left in the controller (red) was drained to 0 volts while the black one measured 0.8 volts.

I tried popping them both in the quick charger, forgetting they have an EEPROM in the packs, and thus brick-able.

The quick charger would try charging the the black pack (left out of controller) but stop after 5 seconds.
After that the black pack would quit in less than a second, meaning the first time it was put in the charger, the charger bricked it.
The charger wouldn't even "see" the red one it was so flat. (the one left in the controller)


I just force charged the red pack for an hour and the charger gladly charged it. Did the same for the black pack and it rejected it.
At least one of them was resurrected.

Edit: Wow. After some searching around apparently the EEPROM stores an unnecessary amount of data on the pack.

[Grimdoomer]

Yea, they use some batteries that "die" after so many charges, and the eeprom keeps track of the number of times the batteries have been charged. When it hits a certian number the pack is basically dead unless you can dump that eeprom change the number and write the data back. I don't know much about batteries or power cells but from what I've been told the max number of charges the eeprom will take is significantly less than what the batteries can actually take. Go figure. But if your pack hit that number, unless you can finagle with that eeprom you might as well go pick up another one. It should only be about 4 pins iirc? You could just make a jig and read/write through the serial port on a pc.

[Ogrish]

Now thats reverse engineering, fucking microsoft, they just want to make sure we keep buying there shit.
I wouldnt be suprized if theres a couner that tells the xbox to RROD after so many hours of play.

[Grimdoomer]

Now thats reverse engineering, fucking microsoft, they just want to make sure we keep buying there shit.
I wouldnt be suprized if theres a couner that tells the xbox to RROD after so many hours of play.

There isn't, thats lead free solder at work!

[DemonicSandwich]

There are two main reasons the bricking circuitry exists. One can (and often is) used to brick a battery early so you'll have to buy another one, earning them extra undeserved profits.
The other reason is for safety. If a battery goes outside it's limits, it permanently becomes slightly less stable. Also cheaper to brick a battery than pay a lawsuit settlement to someone who lost their house in a fire to a faulty battery.

In my case it is unlikely to have reached it's max cycle life. It's much more likely the fact that the pack voltage was very low.
The cutoff voltage for a NiMH cell is about 0.8-0.9v per cell but my black pack measured 0.8v (0.4v/cell) total so the charger likely bricked it for safety reasons.
The red pack had a total voltage so low (a few milivolts max) that the charger didn't see it, and thankfully, didn't brick it either. Though it did take about an hour for it to fully charge since it was completely flat.

None of the computers in my house have serial ports. I started to assemble/program an EEPROM reader from a microcontroller and an LCD module when I discovered the programmer can also read EEPROMs too. Unfortunately, it either does not correctly support this chip or the EEPROM is corrupted.

[DemonicSandwich]

Aw fuck ya. Fixed my programmer hardware and got it to read the EEPROM. Don't have to make a reader now!

Turns out the configuration on it was fucked up. Didn't think it that would be an issue but it was cause it was causing it to erase microcontroller memory on startup and shit out corrupt I2C protocol to EEPROMs.

I also got a dump from the red pack as well. At this point I could just overwrite the black packs memory with that of the red pack but I'd like to look into this further.

EDIT: Ya just flashed the black pack with the red pack's memory and it can charge but it false peaks early and stops charging. (without bricking it)
Turns out the pack is a hell of a lot older than I thought. The pack was made in 2005 so I guess it's not really worth saving. Oh well.
Maybe I'll replace the cells with some Energizer AA's....
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On an unrelated note, I also reached a new two mile time. Now the fastest I've done is 14:14. On a Monday morning at that.

[Click16]

I can has earthquake?

[bumlove]

Now thats reverse engineering, fucking microsoft, they just want to make sure we keep buying there shit.

Its a safety feature, well over cautious I grant you but it's M$'s legal doing their best not to be sue'd

[DemonicSandwich]

Yesterday morning I did a 14:08 two-mile, besting my fastest time again.
Let's see if I can best that time again today.

Edit: Aw, so fucking close. 14:09.

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Also, I love Amazon. So affordable and usually the lowest (or often no) shipping.

[DoorM4n]

I can has earthquake?

How badly did you feel it, man?

Yesterday morning I did a 14:08 two-mile, besting my fastest time again.
Let's see if I can best that time again today.

Edit: Aw, so fucking close. 14:09.

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Also, I love Amazon. So affordable and usually the lowest (or often no) shipping.

That's awesome! Congrats on the speed! Shoot for in the 13 minute range! You can do it!
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First day of the college semester, and I walked into the wrong auditorium!

Also, check this out. Levi's Nationwide Bike Shop tour stopped by Austin, Texas, and I'm one of the photographed bikers! Checks me out, fellas!

http://www.facebook.com/urbanoutfitters ... 1198040099

Click on Austin, Texas and look at the second photo in the very top middle! Yours truly :p I'm the one with the beard and the red road bike.