Down the rabbit hole vs. incoming projects rate - Page 1
Forum section: electronics / general

author: RoGeorge
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: April 05, 2023, 09:15:13 pm
content: It happens when you start a fun and easy project. You think you'll get it done in an afternoon, maybe a weekend at most. Then you lookup some detail, then another, only to find yourself a few days later digging through very narrow topics mostly unrelated with the initial project, yet captivating. Chasing down a rabbit hole is intoxicating.Meanwhile, you made close to zero progress with the initial project, and now you have a backlog of ten more projects and ideas to experiment with. And you barely started that fun and easy one, initial project.Finding out about new things is fun and interesting, while building nothing is frustrating. Do you just let it be and go with the flow, or force yourself to finish that initial project, make deadlines for it and spoil all the fun? How to deal with that?

author: SiliconWizard
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: April 05, 2023, 09:34:02 pm
content: Definitely happens frequently, and the outcome depends. Obviously if the project is for work and has to be delivered, you have to finish, with deadlines.But for personal projects, it all depends. I admit I will sometimes get distracted by some rabbit hole, dig into it and favor this particular topic rather than the initial project.And sometimes I get back to finishing the initial project months, or in some cases, years later. I always try to finish projects in the end, as leaving stuff hanging is no good for your mind IMO. But it can definitely take a longish time.One example I'm working back on lately as a personal project is a LCD display to replace the CRT for the Lecroy 93xx series of oscilloscopes. (I personally own a 9354AL.)I had this project started in 2017. Yeah. The initial approach was to get the digital video signal out (directly from the video processor) in color (yes, the video processor actually handles colors on theses monochrome scopes, just the CRT screen is a monochrome one and the video DAC is just one channel), feed it to a FPGA, compress the video on the fly and send it through USB (high-speed) to a RPi board, which would decode the video stream and display it in real-time on the HDMI output.I got that part done basically, but was not really happy with having to deal with a RPi inside the scope, having to bother with the boot process, proper shutting down of it, etc.There was a reason I had taken this approach rather than directly generating a video signal (HDMI or VGA), but it added all this overhead.So next version was supposed to be a direct LCD drive. That would of course require fast DRAM on the FPGA board for the framebuffers, which I didn't have on my first board, and I let this project hanging for a few years.Then I recently got back to it. The new board has DDR3 RAM for the video framebuffers. I have implemented the driving of the LCD panel (LVDS interface), the double framebuffer in DDR3, and it now works. What's left to do is to write the code for filling the back buffer from the digital video output of the scope, taking into account the difference in frame rates (the scope generates a 50Hz frame rate and the output is 60Hz on the LCD panel.) This will probably require triple buffering, I'm just working on this last part and should be finished shortly now. 6 years later.

author: RJSV
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: April 06, 2023, 02:21:03 am
content: Even with valid pursuits, I (privately) term them as 'distracting', during an active phase. That phase could be several years, and distracting things maybe 30% of any total interest 'pallet'.For example, I've copied electric guitar effects pedal schematics, and conceptualized some clever-ish mods, but then suppressed any sense of proceeding. That's almost like a parent supervising in that I know ahead of time can't do it, in times when doing more critical engineering.Not that hard to compare, as if you had a day job, the requirement is simple; You've got to make it to work on time. Also might help to know, if this is question about free lance self schedule, vs. an engineering group job.For example, if I'm 'dedicated' to designing and patenting a new hair dryer design then some playing around with guitar pedal is, deliberately kept limited.It's an acquired skill, as, infact: (lol), I'm probably pretty good at avoiding work !But seriously any boss or project manager would (should) be pleased at (my) ability to stay on one course of action. Otherwise maybe flakey. But of course that singular focus can get off balance, too.Like, wearing a wedding dress for a couple weeks, after getting jilted at the wedding. Besides, I'm a male, so...But it is a useful and aquired skill, to be able to resist those (interesting) 'side' distractions. But also, like in bathing, some things a person can't delay. I guess you'd call them 'essentials' that shouldn't be ignored.You can do similar management of the cash flow priorities, as the above described time management.

author: sleemanj
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: April 06, 2023, 02:57:44 am
content: https://youtu.be/8fnfeuoh4s8

author: RoGeorge
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: April 06, 2023, 03:05:25 am
content: Quote from: RJHayward on April 06, 2023, 02:21:03 amLOL, you want belive but I've bumped into a guitar pedal today. It was unrelated with what I was looking for, I'm not even a bit into playing guitar.Started from a DCF77 beacon which I was needing, slipped into VLF receivers, then somehow landed to a time-nuts mailing list, where I've spotted the term White Emitter Follower, which I didn't know. Searched about that, and such arrived to a wah pedal, because it was an application for the WCF.There was a 30 seconds demo with the circuit, best wah pedal I've ever listened! You tell me if it's of any good:Found the video here:https://www.diystompboxes.com/smfforum/index.php?topic=112272.0

author: RJSV
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: April 06, 2023, 05:20:07 pm
content: The pedal I had, circa 1992, (with schematic) used a bucket brigade chip, but most useful were the analog buffers, LM 358, that being a single OPAMP 8 pin package.I'm more of a hobby historian these days; scouring the artists and focusing on:Motivation. Presentation, and good luck timing...All factors under a big umbrella called professional ambition. That's the context I use, watching 50 year old films.Best example is Jimi Hendrix, very first opening song, in US first venue, Monterey Pop Fest concert (June 18, 1967). Ambition driven...and likely 'speeding' on the weaker forms of METH (I can't support THAT).That's the gum chewing.But anyway, he had his big break, a receptive audience, and giving his best 'Here I am'.See how easy I got sucked in, to a distracting (fun) topic ?At any rate, just to finish this idea, try Google:' Hendrix Monterey Pop Rock Me' Baby'That's towards middle of his set, but the guitar solo speed is so fast I've tried playing it at 0.25 speed !I really got to get to work, solving today's conundrums!

author: tooki
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: April 09, 2023, 04:56:26 pm
content: Quote from: RoGeorge on April 05, 2023, 09:15:13 pmSounds like classic ADHD! (Literally, not being sarcastic.)

author: mendip_discovery
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: April 09, 2023, 08:29:49 pm
content: Quote from: tooki on April 09, 2023, 04:56:26 pmWe wouldn't be here if we weren't on the spectrum.