Particle Connectivity Agent Library

Particle's default connectivity agent is great for rapid benchtop protos, though becomes problematic for scenarios which require long-term connectivity and non-blocking operation.

Spotty WiFi will cause the agent to eventually go offline indefinitely; requiring a power cycle
Internal clock is not automatically synchronized and drifts considerably over the course of a few days
Upon boot, the Setup() will not be invoked until WiFi connectivity is established - preventing initialization of IO
Cloud connection related functions will block execution of the application

Due to these issues, I built my own class to manage connectivity with the Particle Cloud. Basic usage is simple: set the system mode to manual, instantiate the class, and call Process() during loops.

Check it out on GitHub - https://github.com/TKBrown/Particle-Connectivity-Agent

Install via Particle CLI `particle library install Particle-Connectivity-Agent`

Samsung Odyssey G9 49" - Firmware Upgrade and Other Notes

I picked up the Samsung Odyssey G9 49" some months ago during the (nearly too good to be true) GameStop PowerUp promo. With a curvature of 1000R it matches the human eye's FOV at 1 meter and provides a great experience for games which support the 32:9 aspect ratio. Although Samsung primarily targets gamers for the marketing of the display, productivity apps are excellent as well; 49" + Windows 11's enhanced support for window docking has allowed me to do away with a dual-display setup. There are a few oddities which may help others: Adaptive-Sync cannot be "On" with Screen Size "Auto" If your game does not support an ultra wide 32:9 aspect ratio, you cannot use AMD's FreeSync or NVIDIA's G-SYNC. The "Auto" setting for Screen Size provides vertical black bars on the left/right to provide proper display of non-ultra wide content; when this setting is disabled due to Adaptive-Sync your game will become horribly stretched across 49&q

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nVidia's RTX 3090 is a beast of a GPU featuring the latest Ampere architecture with 10,496 CUDA cores and 24GB GDDR6X. Like many products these days it's suffering from limited availability, but I finally managed to acquire one. The 3090 replaces my aging GTX 1070 Ti FTW2 as the primary gamer and boosts my daggerhashimoto rate for Ethereum mining. Unfortunately the 3090 cooling system is not well suited for mining workloads and upon firing up NiceHash, the VRAM temperature quickly reached 110C and began throttling due to excessive heat. Searching the web I found a solution - replacement of the stock thermal pads with higher efficiency aftermarket pads . There are two paths - replacement of all thermals pads front and back or replacement of just the back. I elected to do a full replacement (as it's not terribly difficult to continue once the card is torn apart) and followed CryptoAtHome's YouTube guide . -WARNING- This process may void the warranty of your GPU and carri

Building Custom Beeswax Molds with 3D Printed PETG and Silicone Resin

Through my beekeeping operation I accumulate dozens of spent frames from which I salvage beeswax. Until recently I created candles as a means of storage for refined wax, though it reached a point where candle creation exceeded consumption. I decided to cast the refined wax into blocks for long term storage and began the process of creating molds. I pursued a number of concepts before settling on one which fit my needs; this post is will hopefully save others a fair amount of time as little information is available on the web for fabricating custom beeswax molds. Guidelines for the project: Use materials on-hand: 3D Printed PLA or PETG Silicone Resin Must be capable of reliably imprinting fine detail; minor defects are acceptable so long as it fits within the definition of "rustic" Technique must be adaptable across a range of sizes: 1/4 Lb to 5 Lbs Preheating of molds prior to casting not required Mold release agent (silicon spray) not required PETG Mo

TK Brown

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