Back in my day, you could usually sip a few mA from a USB2 port without any trouble.

When I try that now, Windows pops up with a “device not recognized” error. I know you can draw up to 150mA before enumeration, but it looks like after some time, Windows will complain that you haven’t enumerated yet.

Is there an easy way to keep from getting this error without having to actually make the device smart?

I’m hoping for something dumb along the lines of USB-PD but facing the other direction. For the record, it has to work on a USB-A port, so USB-C hacks won’t work.

Just curious because I don’t see people talk about it a lot.

Like why do I feel like I’m supposed to be able to name the seven boroughs? I can’t tell you anything about L.A., Chicago, Boston, etc.

Edit: to clarify: I mean that everyone in America are expected to know NYC. Not just New Yorkers. Obviously everyone should know the layout of where they live.

I'm working on a mod kit for a popular item, but my target audience isn't likely to have a soldering iron. The majority of the project connects to an exposed ribbon connector, but I need to short two terminals to force a power supply on.

Any ideas on a method I could provide for people who can't solder? Maybe a strip of copper tape?

I dumped the ROM out of a piece of retro-tech and have been working through the code in Ghidra. Unfortunately, I can’t exactly decompile it because I don’t think it was originally written in a higher level language.

For example, the stack is rarely used and most functions either deal entirely in global variables, or binary values are passed back using the carry or other low-level bits. Trying to turn it into C would just make spaghetti code with a different sauce.

So my current plan is to just comment every subroutine as best I can, but that still leaves a few massive lookup tables that should be dropped into a spreadsheet of some sort to add context. Not to mention schematics.

My question is what’s the best way to present all of this? I’d like to open-source the result, so a simple PDF is not ideal. I guess I should make a GitHub project? Are there any good examples or templates I can draw on?

Looking to ROM dump just a handful of games, so I’m trying not to spend hundreds on a Sanni or Retrode. I saw this on AliExpress for $15.

I’ve personally had good luck with Alibaba and Aliexpress, but I recognize that this could just straight not work. There’s no documentation, but it claims the game data will show up like files on a USB flash drive.

Anybody know where this design came from?

Edit: turns out these are all bootleg and I’m a moron. Only two Zelda games were officially released for GBA.

Just kicked off a return.

I’m now at a point where I can detect 152 nodes in my city. 25 are listed as “online.”

Yet the only contact I’ve gotten is the occasional “hello world” and once or twice a response to my own “hello world.”

It’s possible that nobody has anything to say, but I also suspect the network isn’t robust enough to maintain contact and facilitate a real conversation between random strangers.

Has anybody else here managed to actual chat with someone they don’t know?

Rak wireless module with battery/solar.

My question is…now what? I’m in Seattle, I can pick up 121 nodes, but there no traffic.

Is everybody using private channels? Or is nobody talking? I don’t see many messages and got one reply to a general CQ I sent out, but no response to the follow up.

I guess I was kind of hoping for what I get over ham radio, occasional chats, evening nets, etc.

Am I running into a technical limitation? Or is that the gist of Meshtastic?

As a follow-up, can I easily see if my router is handling other people’s traffic? I’d like to know if I’m helping.