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James Brown @ancient.bsky.social · 3d

If you're in Melbourne, you can currently see Doom-on-a-Lego-brick up close at ACMI.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=o76U...

www.acmi.net.au/whats-on/gam...

Tilt Doom

YouTube video by Ancient

www.youtube.com

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Reposted by James Brown

Alasdair Beckett-King @misterabk.bsky.social · 8d

Watching Suspiria on the BFI Player it asks, "Are you over 18?" No, I'm a ten-year-old with a subscription to the BFI Player.

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James Brown @ancient.bsky.social · 11d

I was so invested in this video I wondered whether it was engagement farming.
Part way through he reattaches a potentiometer on the wrong side of the board, and you just have to watch helpless and crying like the square hole meme girl while he finishes up the work.
www.youtube.com/watch?v=bbbH...

Are Expensive Breville Espresso Machines Repairable?

YouTube video by TronicsFix

www.youtube.com

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James Brown @ancient.bsky.social · 19d

I used these closed loop drivers, communicating over uart. I wouldn't wholeheartedly recommend them - you can supposedly tune the PID parameters, but that didn't seem to work and the firmware is closed and (I think) abandoned. But they're cheap. www.aliexpress.com/item/1005004...

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James Brown @ancient.bsky.social · 22d

I lost all my pre-2013 photos in a hard drive failure some years ago (irreplaceable baby pics etc), and chalked it up as a lesson to always make backups. But it turns out the *actual* lesson is to always remember that you did make a backup you idiot, it's in the garage under a pile of crap.

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James Brown @ancient.bsky.social · 22d

www.theverge.com/gadgets/7792...

What would improve the tiniest Game Boy? Color!

AncientJames, who made computer Lego bricks into actual computers and helped us all run Doom on our Thumbys, has found a great 0.42-inch color screen that perfectly swaps in for the monochromatic orig...

www.theverge.com

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Reposted by James Brown

Harry Stranger @spacefromspace.com · 24d

Just spent some time digging through old Maxar/DigitalGlobe blogs to find a reference image and found this incredible capture of Mt Fuji. Incredible.

The satellite was only three degrees above the horizon when it captured this image.

blog.maxar.com/earth-intell...

A Maxar satellite image of Mt Fuji. The satellite was only 3 degrees above the horizon at the time, so the capture angle is almost directly side on instead of top down.

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James Brown @ancient.bsky.social · 26d

It would probably fit if I removed the backlight. I wonder if I could make something shorter but deeper.

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James Brown @ancient.bsky.social · 26d

It's *so* close to fitting in a Lego slope brick, but however I arrange it, it prevents it stacking on other bricks. Which is a hard limit.
On the other hand, Lego computer bricks these days are flat tiles (they moved with the times), and it does fit that form factor.

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James Brown @ancient.bsky.social · 27d

The worst thing about that typo is that it reveals I don't have a fancy tool for crossposting to bluesky and mastodon, but simply retype the whole post like a chump.

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James Brown @ancient.bsky.social · 27d

I keep coming back to these ludicrous HD screens, but they cost actual money.
www.aliexpress.com/item/1005009...

0.39Inch ECX334C OLED Thermal Imaging Night Vision AR/VR High Brightness Amoled Small Micro Display Camera Electronic Viewfinder - AliExpress 502

Smarter Shopping, Better Living! Aliexpress.com

www.aliexpress.com

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James Brown @ancient.bsky.social · 27d

I really is a lovely screen.

A tiny circuit board filled with an RP2040 microcontroller, connected to a tiny LCD showing a colour image at a quite reasonable resolution. The image is Doom.

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James Brown @ancient.bsky.social · 27d

The original Thumby uses the same screen, so...
youtu.be/yXtb-MzoS_s

Thumby Modding

YouTube video by Ancient

youtu.be

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James Brown @ancient.bsky.social · 27d

Browsing AliExpress, I found a 0.42" colour TFT, 96x54 that comes in the same form factor and pinout as my favourite 72x40 mono oled (as used in the lego brick, wearable ring, keyboard o'screens etc). Clearly designed as a drop in replacement.
www.aliexpress.com/item/1005007...

www.aliexpress.com

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James Brown @ancient.bsky.social · Sep 4

That's not a Tesla robot. This is a Tesla robot: www.wetaworkshop.com/projects/nik...

Nikola Tesla Animatronic, Europa-Park | Wētā Workshop

Our team delivered an animatronic version of the visionary inventor Nikola Tesla for the Croatian-themed area at Europa-Park in Germany.

www.wetaworkshop.com

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James Brown @ancient.bsky.social · Sep 4

I hate the sticky out bit well beyond the point of proportionality.

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James Brown @ancient.bsky.social · Aug 31

Flesh Brick!

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James Brown @ancient.bsky.social · Aug 29

I snuck a blink-and-you'll-miss-it Weyland-Yutani logo into this, but I see that YouTube compression has transformed it into you'll-miss-it.

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James Brown @ancient.bsky.social · Aug 28

Comments on this reminding me of that experiment that found that a (turkey's) head on a stick was all that was required to trigger a courtship display from a male turkey.

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James Brown @ancient.bsky.social · Aug 27

Yes, the talking emoji thing was a way to test the animation code while remotely logged into the head.

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James Brown @ancient.bsky.social · Aug 24

Now comes with build video youtu.be/bxvmATwi9Q8

Selectramatronics

YouTube video by Ancient

youtu.be

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James Brown @ancient.bsky.social · Aug 16

Internet is out because a Wētā chewed through our fibre.

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James Brown @ancient.bsky.social · Aug 15

James Brown @ancient.bsky.social · Aug 14

Kind of both. I use a library to generate automatic lip sequences, but the results are a bit variable and I've been spending a lot of time manually fixing it up.

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James Brown @ancient.bsky.social · Aug 14

I don’t understand why people keep saying it’s “creepy“.

A picture of an animatronic head with its face removed. It’s wearing a hat, and its ears and the back of its head are fine, but the face is now just a big ball of mouths.

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