[Captain Nathaniel Brand]
The tests all came back positive and the sentient was, according to the Meldren researchers, extremely capable when it came to fighting other sentients. For now I could place less worry on the apparent sentient infestation back at home and focus on the next thing in my massive list of shit to deal with. Worrying about the results of the situation back there was not my current job, at least now I have a plan for protecting the people here if the home team didn’t come out on top.
The next most pressing matter was what my Pioneer managed to do in the short time he was here. In the first 24 hours that kid managed to strike up friendly relations with high-tech aliens, somehow wrest us control of the whole system barring their home planet, piss off an entire race of war-hungry goat people and in the same stride become a hero for a bunch of other alien races. He was supposed to be holed up in a galactic prison right now, but Governor Sind let me know that he had probably already given them the slip and was heading here right now.
It was a mess, but it was one that I could work with. I’d have to make Dominique our poster boy for public relations whether he liked it or not since he already managed to score positive attention from numerous governments. If we could solidify those admirers of his as allies and start making a network of united powers, we could create a safety net to rely on in the event that help is needed back at home. The biggest problem with this plan was that those races may not be too eager to team up with us just yet considering we are at the brink of a war with the people they all historically lost to. They probably weren’t looking for a round 2 and getting them to move might be a slog depending on how stingy the Grahtonians wanted to be.
My ship is currently in low orbit and mostly non-operational since all non-essential functions were shut down while the sentient was being evaluated. Thanks to the circumstances that affected the Pioneer and our inconceivably early arrival to the destination, none of the colonies have been prepared outside of one city. The hundreds of thousands of people in cryosleep on the ship are liabilities until they can be transferred to finished habitations with online defense systems. The city that was already built could technically fit everyone on the ship, but I wasn’t keen on putting all of my eggs in one basket when we could go under fire at any moment.
I didn’t have the leeway to go out there and provide aid for my Pioneer. I wasn’t too worried for him, that man had a mostly good head on his shoulders when it came to staying out of sight and evading the consequences of his actions. I needed to worry about myself in case some less-than-agreeable company decided to show up. As long as I can get the weapons systems up and running-
“Captain, a warp signature has been detected”
________________
[Pioneer Dominique Reynolds]
The space station we decided to refuel at was a bit on the smaller side and had its age shown on display. The ship we left on didn’t have enough charge for a full trip to the Meldren system, nor did it have much of anything else. While I could technically make it there conventionally without having to eat, not only would it take too long but I also definitely wouldn’t be happy about it. Plus, there was also Dokchara to worry about.
Even if I wasn’t the only human in this entire sector of the galaxy, my face was recently plastered on every network and media platform. Fortunately, the emergency evacuation suits worked by covering the user and forming up based on their body shape. The head parts for these suits were domes of completely tinted glass to accommodate a multitude of races, but it also worked nicely as a way to hide my identity. I could pass off as some tall bipedal race without much suspicion.
“This might be a long shot, but refueling isn’t free and I’m not jumping at the opportunity to gouge out my savings…”
“I have a currency card that the Meldren Governor gave me, but I’m a bit worried about spending Meldren money out here, might put a target on our back.”
“That’s fine, I can wire the money from that card to mine and nobody would suspect anything, at least for a while.”
After Dokchara finished talking with the station crew about refueling and supplies, we left the docking bay to look for somewhere to eat. The bay exit led straight to the station’s commercial district and it wasn’t too long before we found a place with not many people so we could avoid attention, the “Stray Lounge.”
Considering the name of the establishment, I walked in expecting to find something like those old Bars on earth, and while there was indeed a bar and bartender, there was also a waiter, so this place could pass off as a restaurant. We sat down and had menus handed to us along with some water. I was thankful that they hadn’t gone with digital menus since it’d be a hassle to navigate to it with my head computer on top of attracting weird looks.
Seeing them offer pure ethanol as an option would have caused me to choke on my water if I didn’t have a synthetic throat. I get that biologies are varied beyond extremes and that to some people, that may as well just be water but how could something like that even taste good? It wasn’t even flavored.
I decided to get a drink from the inoffensive list since I’d rather not stumble across the one drink that was capable of melting metal or anything. I let Dok order the food since he was the hungry one here and he knew better about what this stuff meant than me. It seemed like a slow day for the place, as there were only a couple people at the bar and a group of three at one of the other tables, so the food and drinks were prepared almost immediately.
“...Is it weird if I prefer the food back at the prison?”
“I’m with you on that one. After all, that prison was meant for high-society criminals, so the food was pretty good all things considered. Comparing that to this veggie mash is a bit of an unfair fight.”
“It’s so strange to me how prisoners were treated in there, why are those criminals given extra benefits just for being politicians and executives at one point?”
“It’s not talked about much, but I’m guessing it's not a coincidence that extra funding goes into that place for a reason, ya know? ‘A buddy in crime got caught, guess I’ll throw them a bone’ or something like that.”
“...Yeah that mess is way above my pay grade. At least the drinks here are nice, no alcohol in prison even for the guards is such a drag, ya know?”
“Can you even get drunk? Actually, can you even properly taste anything if all your sensors are implants now? How do you even know you're tasting it right?”
“Same goes for you pal. Tell me, what’s the actual difference between a natural bodily function and a man-made one meant to mimic the same outputs?”
“...What?”
“I mean, our “natural” parts are the result of evolution sticking with whatever worked the first time and running with it, regardless of the actual efficiency when compared with every possibility. Replacing something like that with a synthetic piece that was formed by the intelligent mind instead of nature’s course, is there a technical downside? Do you really believe that the natural, organic wiring that circulates your blood is as efficient as can be?”
“Dom, what the fuck are you talking about?!”
“...Hey look, I know those guys!”
I decided to put my attempt at inducing a mid-life crisis down for later when I saw a breaking news appear on the screen that was playing an infinite ad roll. The topic happened to be none other than the disappearance of a new race’s ambassador as well as a Moqango guard followed by a statement from the Grahtonian Government claiming to take the investigation into their own hands.
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Think I'm gonna start aiming to release chapters every 2 days instead of daily. I need to pace myself better and this way I can work on the quality of the chapter a bit more before posting. Hope I don't fall off because of this...
Feedback appreciated!

Hello community need help with this currently working on soldering hwfly v4.1 lite on switch lite but the v3.3 ribbon blows sthetix told me to cut it off and wire it for the v3.3. My question is would I still need to also run a wire to ground from the chip to the switch? (Because the ribbon also has a ground pin) And how would I find the ground pin layout on the chip itself? What could the voltage be or does it even matter? I've seen the diagrams of the ground and 3.3v on the switch motherboard Just don't know how to check them with the meter any advice would help tremendously! Thank you all in advance!

Had to wire some lights around a Ballast since they're led. Can you confirm I did this right? I feel like it's wrong. I think in hindsight white on one side goes to red and blue to white on the other, and that's it? Apologies for the garbage diagram

My bathroom fan stoppped working and when troubleshooting we found the timetransformer behind it, and as there was 240V coming in and 0V coming out, we decided to replace it. After replacing, we tried it again and there was 240V going in and 0V going out. Also, when the light was off the 3rd switch wire still had a voltage. Is there any reason for this? Wiring matches this diagram: https://imgur.com/a/kFvCa8v

So, I have a very old Ibanez Soundgear P/J which I saved from the street. I'm in the process of replacing the pots, and noticed something kind odd: the J pickup only has one wire (black). Now, every wiring diagram I've been able to dig up both for this bass as well as J pickups in general have the pickup with two wires (hot and ground).
Not sure how to proceed here; I don't want to accidentally blow up the pickup by connecting the whole thing to hot, but I can't divine what to do here. It's also possible that I screwed up removing the pickup and broke a wire, but there's still only one coming out of the pickup.
Where do I go from here?

I'm looking for a home built in certain years where I can easily upgrade it to make it smart technology friendly as well as eco efficient. I'm not sure if it can be done on any home or if its better to do it on a semi-new home as I feel like the years mentioned are most likely up to code with insulation, plumbing, electrical wiring, and home efficiency. Basically homes that are easy to fix for a technician because its underlying layouts are more accessible and diagramed better compared to older homes. Homes built after 2020 seem to be even compatible, but more expensive (like a $100K-$200K difference) and use much more cheaper materials and require time to actually settle in. Though homes built in the 90s here are like $100K cheaper, but outdated.... but thats $100K worth of upgrades that can be done to keep it modern or it could be $100K worth of headaches because things here and there will need to be fixed as the house project goes along. I used to live in a home built in the early 1900s and some of the services were very expensive to fix primarily plumbing and electrical wirings with the internet due to an outdated layout and required extra time and money to modernize it.
So would looking for homes built after 2000 but before 2020 be a better choice in this situation? Or can it be done with any home?

Hi, electrical noob here. My goal is to create a self-regulating heating device that can heat a 24"x24"x36" chamber so that it maintains a temperature of up to 100 C. I have a few questions that will be in bold. Could you guys help me choose parts so that I don't burn my house down? I'll list what I have so far. You guys let me know what needs to be changed and for what reason.
This is the basic setup I'll be following, though, I'll be changing the specific parts to suit my needs.
https://preview.redd.it/xell68h4ve4b1.png?width=542&format=png&auto=webp&s=789b4066cf727669e30b69c1d67d02bea13d253e
The design I have in mind centers around this PTC ceramic air heating element.
https://preview.redd.it/2t2100l7ve4b1.jpg?width=956&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=c0c068554554b7dd1438a7daa3039109e88f6940
It's advertised as 1000 Watts @ 110 VAC, which will hopefully be strong enough to meet my requirements. I chose not to go with the 1500 Watt version because it would pull something around 13.6 Amps, which I'm not comfortable with. I can't seem to find any other heating elements like this that come pre-wired and with aluminum radiator fins. Does anyone have experience with this particular device? How reliable, safe, and effective is it? Also, what is that weird plug with the two wire connections at the top?
Being from a less-than-reputable Amazon company, I'm hesitant about it's quality, but I can't find anything else like it. Are there any other similar components with equal or greater performance, with UL certification, and from a reputable company? I'd appreciate recommendations.
The second component of my design is this Selec TC513AX temperature controller.

It can run on 12VDC, or, more pertinently, 90VAC ~ 270VAC. This should allow me to connect the PTC heating element and this controller to the same power source without any issues. If the heating element runs at 1000 Watts and 110 Volts, then it should draw around 9.1 Amps. The TC513AX has a contact current rating of 10 Amps, which should hopefully be enough headroom. From my understanding, the contact current rating refers to the amount of current that the relays in the controller can handle before failing. Is this correct? Although there is a solid state relay, it can only run on 12VDC. The electromechanical relays are the ones I would use since they are ЯU rated to handle 110VAC.
For safety reasons, the heating element would have to be wired to the normally open (NO) terminal on the controller's relay instead of the normally closed (NC) terminal. Otherwise a relay failure could cause the heating element to generate heat beyond what I set. Would I have to program the controller to use the NO terminal? Or does the relay actuate both the NO and NC terminals simultaneously?
There are a bunch of inexpensive temperature controllers on Amazon, like the STC-1000, but their quality seems to be rather dubious. I hesitate to trust the cheaper temperature controllers with 110V AC. Finding a ЯU or UL certified controller definitely helps alleviate concerns about quality. Are my concerns about these uncertified Chinese temperature controllers warranted?
To power everything, I decided to go with a simple AC power cord from GlobTek.
https://preview.redd.it/eeffy9ncve4b1.jpg?width=640&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=38519edae3b39f9d3465975a07757a78c1347eea
Since both the heating element and the controller run on 110VAC, I shouldn't need a transformer to step down the voltage. From my understanding, the US technically runs on 120VAC, but due to the ±10% allowable voltage difference, there isn't much difference between 110VAC and 120VAC. Therefore, directly plugging the controller and heating element into a 120VAC wall outlet via this cable should be safe. Is this correct?
To keep things safe and consistent, I think it'd be best to use the same gauge of wire as this GlobTek cord when wiring the components together. Since, the cord is 18 AWG, I think I should use this wire from Remington. It's rated to handle up to 300V, which is more than enough for this project. However, I'm uncertain as to how much current this wire can handle. Does anyone know if this wire is sufficient for carrying the 9.1+ Amps that this system will likely consume?
I was originally planning to go with their 150V wire, but oddly enough the 300V wire is less expensive. The 300V wire's 105 C temperature rating also exceeds the 150V wire's 80 C rating.
To split the current to the fan and heating element as shown in the diagram, I decided to use these WAGO 221-685 connectors.
https://preview.redd.it/dgzpt29ive4b1.jpg?width=2000&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=48d5faffc9e62fce1f91bc44c52081a2ccf7b9f7
According to their official website and the markings on the product, their 5 conductor operating lever splicing connectors are rated to handle up to 105 C, 440V, and 30 Amps, which meets my requirements. These products are also UL certified, so I think I should be able to trust their quality.
Originally, I wanted to buy one of the assorted kits that are so common on Amazon, but the TDS shows that these connectors only have a maximum operating temperature of 85 C. Unfortunately, unlike the normal connectors, the 221-685 connectors aren't commonly available in assorted kits at online retailers. So far, I've only found a handful of business-to-business shops that sell them given a quote. Digikey doesn't appear to have them in stock either. Does anyone know of an online retailer that sells 221-685 connectors to private individuals?
To circulate the hot air throughout the chamber, I chose to use this ebmpapst 8506N fan.
https://preview.redd.it/81gurc9mve4b1.jpg?width=640&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=056b4e9e0e86c49c7ebba6432e92eced877e7745
Like the other components, it's UL certified and runs on ~120VAC. I am concerned about the 22 AWG wires on this fan, but if it's been certified to be adequate, then I suppose its resistance must not be enough to warrant safety concerns. I should be able to splice it with an 18 AWG wire.
The next component is the temperature sensor. I chose to use a B+B Thermo Technik GmbH K type thermocouple.
https://preview.redd.it/4olkktkpve4b1.jpg?width=640&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=359be7c846146ec451a08bf5fc3ea1e30df2ade5
According to its TDS, the Selec TC513AX supports both Pt100 RTDs and K type thermocouples. I had trouble choosing between this $20 grounded thermocouple and an $11 Adafruit Pt100 RTD. Accuracy and response time were the two greatest factors to consider. In the end I chose to go with the grounded thermocouple because if the temperature in the chamber changes, I want the controller to be able to respond as fast as possible. Grounded thermocouples appear to be twice as sensitive as Pt100 RTDs.
Honestly, I'm not too sure how much of an effect this will have. Did I make the right choice? Which one would you prefer in your heated chamber? Why?
The last part of this project is an enclosure. Since this is pretty much a custom solution, I'll have to design one myself. I'm fine with this because I like to think I'm pretty decent with CAD. My first enclosure version will be printed in PETG, and then I'll use the PETG version to print a Polycarbonate enclosure. The Polycarbonate enclosure version will be what I use for maintaining 100 C temperatures. If I find it insufficient, I'll upgrade the enclosure to a nylon version.
I can't find any adequate solutions for what I want to do. The closest I can find is this PTC fan heater from DBK USA, but it isn't rated to handle 100 C. Does anyone know if there are any inexpensive off-the-shelf solutions that will make my custom solution unnecessary?
This pretty much concludes everything I have to ask for now. Please poke some holes in my plans so that I how to improve safety, effectiveness, and efficiency.

Hi all! I bought a broken tv in the hopes of fixing it up. It kept shorting out within about 5 seconds of powering on and I traced the short to a little part on the tcon that sends the picture to the panel. Fortunately the power and mainboard are fine, but the tcon is hard wired to the panel. There's 2 questions I'd like to explore: Given that wiring diagrams are nearly impossible to find online, is it possible to identify the part by sight? If not, I've heard that I might be able to remove the part and test the resistance once it's free from the board... Will measuring the resistance of a shorted part give a reliable reading?
And maybe someone can give some clarity on an anomaly: After testing for the short using a multimeter, the TV continues to short, but it now takes anywhere between 5 minutes and a couple of hours. Could grounding the part cause this, or perhaps I scraped off some solder?
Image of the bastard.
Cheers!

Hello i just bought som pioneer A series ts-a1607c for my 2015 Altima front door speakers but now the speakers in the back sound louder then the front and i can't figure out why? Everything else sound wise is stock besides the 2 front speakers and i have already checked that the wires are in the right place. Could anyone help me figure out what's going on? Thank you