it just grows and grows and grows lol
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MX Linux. Based on Debian stable instead of Ubuntu, uses XFCE by default (which is probably what you want on an old machine anyways). There’s KDE Plasma and a Fluxbox WM image (if you need something lighter than XFCE) as well. Has a nice package manager that rolls in the MX packages, Debian backports, Flatpaks, and another thing I forgot. Seems to “just work” on older machines based off my installing them on ~2014-15 Macs. It includes the drivers for the annoying Broadcom wifi cards those use too. I can’t say enough nice things about it as a simple “install it and it works” distro that doesn’t lock you down at all either.
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I occasionally use Zorin18 on an HP 6710b, which has a C2D and 4GB DDR2, and an SSD for light internet use. Although, of course, you have to moderate your expectations quite a bit and not compare the responsiveness to relatively modern hardware.
Admittedly, that HP also handled W10 similarly to Zorin, which is nothing more than Ubuntu underneath.
So your i3 should eat my C2D for breakfast. 
Maybe check out Zorin or download Windows 10 + ESU activation.
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Im going to hold off on the Toshiba until some work its being used for idles down.
Did some surgery on the ole T420. Now my left button under the track pad works again.
Only using the t420 for openxcom extended with FMP (final mod pack) and FMP extended lately.
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@PhaseLockedLoop I’m going to flash my rooftop repeater to meshcore and some of my mobile devices and get a feel for it
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We did that out here. We ultimately stuck with meshtastic. Supports great… existing eco system. Meshcores rooms are wonky … lol but curious to see how it goes for you.
Just remember an empty network will always perform better than a populated one
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Finally got to doing a RAK 4631 base station and a T-echo.
Had to review the T-echo process again:
Double tapping the top #1 button and dragging over the firmware.
Using the web flasher for the 4631 was strait forward after a reset on the board and an erase after a few failed attempts.
After flashing both I had to manually input the 910.525 MHz freq via the app (no drop down like meshtastic).
So far no nodes detected except me talking to myself (t-echo to RAK 4632).
Edit, apparently ‘standard’ freq isn’t cool enough for socal types and im supposed to use:
Frequency (freq): 927.875
Bandwidth (bw): 62.5
Coding Rate (cr): 5
Spreading Factor (sf): 9
Instagram! How dare you… and you go to defcon… excuse me… jk jk
That’s dope. Do they have a full network down there?
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LOL I have a weakness for the gram haha
Phone has been buzzing all evening with new clients and repeaters. The question is if i send traffic myself does it UDP into oblivion like meshtastic or be resilient.
When i go mobile later this week it will be more of a test. Before with meshtastic there would be amazing node count and repeater coverage in the mountains but it just wouldn’t work- IMO a combo of meshtastic protocol, freq they use, background noise etc dropping the coms
That question is easily answered. Look at the source and how message delivery works
We solved this problem. We maximized routers abilities to see each other 0 hop. We divided each area into sectors and made sure all of that land is covered by at minimum 3 routers and in dense areas with high buildings… clients all over as high as possible on roofs
Wow, great results! Test messages on both the public and a private channel that would have to use a number of hops and successful.
Next, im 200 miles away this weekend and the map says that location has a big presence and links back at my starting point.
I’m curious how it handles a ton of congestion. A lot of my core non tastic friends complain that core crumbles under that
I only know the small internet drama, no data from tests or code review.
The drama from what I understand (via Kirby’s Tube channel) was his frustration at how badly Meshtastic handled congestion and I think that was the driving force behind Meshcore, which really feels like a fork of Meshtastic then the changes to handle congestion better (some obvious other ‘flavor’ changes as well).
I can’t imagine Meshcore having the pace of development that Meshtastic does but I see that as a feature- its running so reliably right now I don’t want to touch it. Also with Meshtastic it would be so frustrating to get on the app and get told the client firmware was already too old to even work with the app.
AirFrames has expanded their Cavity Filter options with a drop down to support more frequencies.
Onto another dubious home electronics mod.
I have a component at home that when used (BT from phone to turn it on/off) it makes a beep.
I have a dog that freaks out and hides hearing things of that frequency (YouTube vids of the ‘bing’ sound effect, gun tubers shot timers etc).
So i cracked it open expecting to find an obvious little beep component (they look like smaller wired cmos batteries) but nope.
Looks like it’s this surface mount thing
Im perplexed why it has three leads.
Its looks intensive to remove plus I wouldn’t want to mess up some kind of circuit dependency. Can a big blob of hot glue all over it mute it down a lot?
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I believe that would be a self drive type piezo buzzer. Pretty much has them produce the loudest sound they possible can… assuming I remember this from college correctly, but that’s been a long while.
I would check this write up on them here: Wayback Machine
Probably wouldn’t hurt, but I doubt removing it would cause any issues unless the engineer decided to get weird with the design of the device to make everyone’s life more complicated.
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If you have hot air, it shouldn’t be a problem, or you can use a pair of hot tweezers.
The pads look quite large, and the component’s legs are quite large, extending upwards, allowing for direct heating.
A regular soldering iron will also work, just pour in some flux and use a wick to remove the solder. If there’s room underneath, place something thin to provide leverage.
In the worst-case scenario, if it’s magnetically reactive, you can use a strong magnet hanging above it. It will also lift the component once the solder heats up, and it probably won’t rip out the pads.
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So hot glue didn’t work so started to use flux and a whick to no avail so just man handled it off.
Success.
Dogo no longer getting Nam flashbacks when using the device.
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I have a smd workstation on my Amazon list that includes hot air but ive been too cheep to get it.
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I really really lucked out. Cranking the thing off took a pad with it, very lucky its not like a mech keyboard and took out functionality elsewhere. If i had the schematic that pad is either parallel off of a trace and not a critical part of the trace or maybe its a pad to the ground plane of the pcb. I freaked out for a minute.
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Solid pads… Last time I tried to desolder something by brute force, I took all the pads from the PCB with me.
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