Ruthsarian
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ruthsarian.bsky.social
Ruthsarian
@ruthsarian.bsky.social
85 followers 160 following 200 posts
I am an electronics hobbyist.
https://YouTube.com/ruthsarian
Posts Replies Media Videos
Reposted by Ruthsarian
jfoust.bsky.social
Blue Origin is starting the webcast for the NG-2 launch.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=e9Wp...
New Glenn Mission NG-2 Webcast
YouTube video by Blue Origin
www.youtube.com
November 9, 2025 at 7:01 PM
ruthsarian.bsky.social
At the end of my last YouTube video I mentioned that the day after Halloween you should go buy some discount decorations for modding. I did just that. I've turned this 1 dollar Halloween necklace into an accessory for droids from Galaxy's Edge.
November 3, 2025 at 12:41 AM
ruthsarian.bsky.social
Just put up a new video about adding motion activation to a light-up Halloween decoration. Just in time!
Bringing Motion Activation To Halloween Decorations
YouTube video by Ruthsarian
youtu.be
October 31, 2025 at 6:41 PM
Reposted by Ruthsarian
dreyesceron.bsky.social
the LA Dodgers organist is GOATED tonight. doing this while Will Klein gets his shoe scraped in the 18th inning
October 28, 2025 at 6:49 AM
ruthsarian.bsky.social
Finished modding this Halloween decoration of a skull inside an astronaut helmet Originally the light was only on or off. I added a motion sensor to it, which requires a boost converter give it 5V from the 3V battery pack. Came out nice. I did accidentally wire the switch backwards. Oh well.
Viewing from above the lighting unit that goes inside the decoration as it sits on cutting mat. There is a small, square PCB in the center with 4 warm white LEDs. To its left is a rectangular PCB that makes up the motion sensor and to its right is the boost converter. Red, yellow, and black wires connect everything together. The entire thing is about 3 inches in diameter. a close up of the on/off switch. it is currently in the on position, but the lighting unit is off as it was wired backwards. a view of the lit up decoration: a skull inside an astronaut helmet. The piece is white except for some accents on the helmet which are in a distressed/weathered silver. The entire decoration is about 9 inches tall and 7 inches in diameter.
October 27, 2025 at 2:07 AM
ruthsarian.bsky.social
Made a holiday accessory for R-Unit droids from Galaxy's Edge. Was inspired after picking up an R2-H15 holiday droid and found the personality chip that came with it had no accessory sounds. Why not? Lack of holiday accessories? So I made one.
a Christmas tree shaped PCB about 2 inches tall with three LEDs down the center and resistors around the LEDs. it is plugged into the accessory port of an R-unit droid from Galaxy's Edge.
October 26, 2025 at 7:12 AM
ruthsarian.bsky.social
Uploaded a video about taking a (simple) surplus PCB, figuring out what it's for, populating it with spare components and writing firmware for it.

youtu.be/JBHq7uUumTI
PCB Reverse Engineered And Populated With Junk I Had Laying Around
YouTube video by Ruthsarian
youtu.be
October 13, 2025 at 8:35 PM
ruthsarian.bsky.social
Uploaded some photos from my teardown of a Tron Identity Program figure from Disney World. I had thought face images were stored digitally on the identity chip. Nope! They're printed on a slide that's projected by an LED into the face.

www.flickr.com/photos/ruths...
Tron Identity Program Figure Teardown
These images come from an attempted teardown of a Tron Identity Program figure from Tron Lightcycle Run at The Magic Kingdom.
www.flickr.com
October 5, 2025 at 8:32 PM
ruthsarian.bsky.social
"Vagh ghay'cha' baQa'!" -Picard 4:24
October 3, 2025 at 1:42 PM
ruthsarian.bsky.social
I'm designing a PCB to hold through-hole addressable LEDs. There's a limit on how long a PCB can be so I stitched segments together to get a 31" blade. I'm using wire soldered to plated through-holes on the power and ground rails to connect the segments. So far they're working really well!
A joint between two PCBs containing addressable (neo-pixel) through-hole RGB LEDs. The through-hole LEDs are laid horizontal with the PCB. The leads are trimmed to about 2mm in length. They are surface mount soldered to pads on the PCB. The PCB has holes next to the pads for each LED so the LED body can rest inside the PCB. This is similar to how Disney Galaxy's Edge lightsaber blades are designed, except they do not use addressable LEDs. At the joint, the power and ground traces that run along either edge of the PCB are exposed from the end of the PCB back about 5mm. Where the exposed pad ends is a plated through-hole. A wire (a lead from a resistor or LED) is threaded through the holes on the joining PCBs and soldered in place to for a mechanical and electrical connection. A third line is needed for data between the LEDs. For this I'm using a small gauge wire soldered to exposed pads at the joint, similar to how power and ground are connected. However difficulty in soldering this wire has me considering tweaking the design. The blade was assembled with 4 PCB segments each having 16 LEDs. This image shows about half of the LED string with LEDs on and set to a cyan color. A segment joint can be seen in the middle of the image.
September 23, 2025 at 1:34 PM
ruthsarian.bsky.social
WTF is going on with me. There was a continuity error on my dream and I pointed it out IN MY DREAM.
September 14, 2025 at 11:19 AM
ruthsarian.bsky.social
A tale as old as time: went to the hardware store for $2 worth of screws and spent $50 on stuff I don't think I really need, but was very certain I did when I saw the display.
September 13, 2025 at 5:59 PM
Reposted by Ruthsarian
amiyamato.bsky.social
RIP Maru. 😢
The first and only internet cat I subscribed to, and still my favourite to this day.
May heaven be filled with boxes that are slightly too small.
📦
September 7, 2025 at 3:08 PM
ruthsarian.bsky.social
Working on a Mac SE I picked up for $20 a couple weeks ago. I took it apart and cleaned it up. I cleaned and lined the floppy drive It boots! Pretty cool! But...
The front of a Macintosh SE on a workbench displaying System 6. Inside the case you will see the signatures of everybody who was involved in the Macintosh project. This is inside the cleaned up Mac everything looks pretty good the only thing missing is a hard drive that I have not yet put in.
August 15, 2025 at 9:38 PM
ruthsarian.bsky.social
Attempt #347 at figuring out details about the proprietary audio code used in Galaxy's Edge holocrons. This time sniffing SPI comms to understand how the silence and mark tables work.
A series 1 Jedi Holocron PCB is in a vice with wires connecting it to a logic analyze. There are also several other wires coming off the board connected to buttons to simulate the various functions of a Holocron.
August 8, 2025 at 5:51 PM
Reposted by Ruthsarian
radamssmash.bsky.social
My goto is to ask LLMs how many states have R in their name. They always fail. GPT 5 included Indiana, Illinois, and Texas in its list. It then asked me if I wanted an alphabetical highlighted map. Sure, why not.
A shitty map created by ChatGPT5. it purports to be US States with an R in their name, but it's wrong and dumb and worthless just like LLMs.
August 8, 2025 at 12:40 AM
ruthsarian.bsky.social
always fun to buy brand name ICs because the noname stuff isn't working right in your breadboard setup.

only to discover it was just a wiring issue MINUTES after receiving the email confirming the order has been shipped.

safe travels my ICs. the parts bin will be ready when you arrive.
August 8, 2025 at 5:07 AM
Reposted by Ruthsarian
righto.com
In 1983, Philips produced the first FM radio receiver on a chip, leading to products such as the FM radio wristwatch. Let's look at the tiny silicon die inside this chip and see how it works. 1/N
A photo of a digital watch with a tuning knob on the front and earbud headphones plugged into the side. Next to it is the wristwatch with the back removed, revealing the batteries inside, along with tiny surface-mount components and a small black integrated circuit.
August 2, 2025 at 3:49 PM
ruthsarian.bsky.social
finally got my hands on an updated Galaxy's Edge droid control board. These were introduced in early 2024 and carry a new Bluetooth SoC. Unfortunately, the tilt switch mod to wake the droid after it goes to sleep, will not work on this chip. time to experiment!
a PCB about 2x2 inches square held between an index finger and thumb. there is a daughter board soldered to it that contains the Bluetooth SoC (system on chip) and antenna. the markings on the chip, 'N52810', identify it as an nRF52810 from Nordic Semiconductor.
July 17, 2025 at 7:08 PM
ruthsarian.bsky.social
I didn't need another broken, old computer. But the asking price ($20!) was just too good to pass up. So I guess I have a Mac SE now. I'll crack it open maybe this weekend. Won't plug it in until I check for RIFA caps in the power supply.
July 17, 2025 at 1:59 AM
Reposted by Ruthsarian
dutchspace.bsky.social
Meanwhile in Japan, Honda has joined the reusable first stage Launch and Landing fun :)

source: global.honda/en/topics/20...
June 17, 2025 at 2:06 PM
ruthsarian.bsky.social
this is a variant of the savi's workshop chassis I have never seen before. normally there are 2 wires (power and ground) plus a ribbon cable that connects the top and bottom halves of a chassis's electronics. this one has a third wire, for blade data. (alt text for more info)
the back of a PCB with a 3-pin connector. three wires are connected to the PCB: red, yellow, and black. red carries battery +, black is battery -, and yellow is for the data line which is used to communicate with the lightsaber blade. this is the main logic PCB of a Savi's Workshop chassis. the yellow wire is soldered to a pad intended for a diode. on other chassis I've seen the diode is there, not the wire. this is because the data line comes through the ribbon cable and into the diode. no so here. and this is a 'factory' mod. this is the PCB from the top side of the chassis. there is a white wire connected to a point labeled 'IP'. this is the blade data. normally the data line continues over to the ribbon cable connector. but this variant has a diode between the IP point and another labeled 'B5'. soldered to B5 is a yellow wire that will run down to the bottom of the chassis. this is the blade data line being rerouted to a separate wire instead of the ribbon cable.
June 7, 2025 at 10:33 PM
ruthsarian.bsky.social
I bought a thing that fluoresces in ultraviolet light. I received a pen with it. The pen has a UV LED in it. That's pretty nice of the seller, giving me a UV light to use with my newly aquired fluorescent item. But the writing part of the pen doesn't work! It has ink in it, but it's a CLEAR ink?!
a smooth, plain looking pen with a button near the top and the tip of an LED poking out the top. the ink tube removed from a pen. the tube is clear plastic. the ink in the tube is clear in color.
June 5, 2025 at 1:48 PM
Reposted by Ruthsarian
polygon.com
Gamer historians are doing the lord’s work for Myst fans
Gamer historians are doing the lord’s work for Myst fans
Atrus loves Hard Rock Cafe
www.polygon.com
May 28, 2025 at 2:10 PM
ruthsarian.bsky.social
This is the projector inside a Tron Identity Program figure. The disc on the back covers a slot that CMs insert a slide of your 3 faces into the projector. The disc is held in place by a spring loaded mechanism.
May 24, 2025 at 10:13 PM