Comments for wracky.net

Comment on The LED matrix. First 2 Planes done. by Wracky

Wracky — Thu, 15 Dec 2011 14:58:36 +0000

Hi iduktech, and thanks for commenting!

I don’t have a final design yet, but I’ve learned a lot from vespine.
I’m planning on using 12 TLC5940 LED drivers which should give me enough channels for 192 leds (64 dots per layer, RGB per dot) and 8 mosfets to multiplex the layers. I’m going to try a 100Hz refresh rate on the cube, like vespine did. The TLCs will be daisy-chained. I’m not sure if I can pull off a chain of 12, but I could also split them into smaller chains. The MOSFETs and TLCs will be driven by a microcontroller. (I use the Pic32 starter kit).

The TLCs control the current per LED. The MOSFETs switch the horizontal layers. Since the TLC drivers supply a constant current sink, these have to be common ANODE leds. All the anodes will be connected per layer, and the TLCs give you column adressing. FUN!

I will do a full article on my design once I’ve figured out how I want it exactly.
Hope this helps!

Wracky.

Comment on The LED matrix. First 2 Planes done. by iduktech

iduktech — Thu, 15 Dec 2011 10:33:57 +0000

hi, how do you controll these? doyou have a sketch?

Comment on HP Envy 14 Review by Sam

Sam — Wed, 23 Nov 2011 04:30:23 +0000

hey! great review! would you reccomend the envy 14 or the dell xps 14 z? ive been debating so much!! ok thx

Comment on HP Envy 14 Review by Geri

Geri — Mon, 14 Nov 2011 01:04:21 +0000

Hi Wracky,
Thanks but I’ve tried every combination I can think of. Alt, Cntrl, Shift, alone and together. I guess I’ll shoot a note off to HP and see what happens. Thanks for replying though.
Geri

Comment on HP Envy 14 Review by Wracky

Wracky — Sun, 13 Nov 2011 16:30:05 +0000

Hi Geri and thanks for commenting!

I have a US model myself, which does not have any of the extra blue characters.
If the FN keyn doesn’t work, have you tried the Right ALT button in combination with the key you need?
I’ve seen that work on some systems.

Good luck!
Wracky

Comment on HP Envy 14 Review by Geri

Geri — Thu, 10 Nov 2011 23:33:04 +0000

Hi, Great review and I just bought this model. I have one question for you, and I feel very silly not knowing the answer, but I’ve given up looking and trying.

On keys such as the number keys. Let’s take, for example “3″.
You can access the # sign by using the cap lock, but how do you access the “british pound” sign and the backslash. I can’t find a way to access any of the blue things, if you know what I mean.

Thanks!

Comment on HP Envy 14 Review by Chris

Chris — Fri, 21 Oct 2011 16:06:47 +0000

Loved my Envy 14 but also had a hard drive crash while hooking up an hdmi cable. just out of warranty too. :/

Comment on HP Envy 14 Review by Wracky

Wracky — Wed, 14 Sep 2011 09:22:45 +0000

Hi Geoff, and thanks for commenting!

Most of the time hard drive will get damaged because of G-forces, with which the bottom plate doesn’t help. Direct damage from pointy objects is hardly ever a problem.

In my opinion, the bottom plate is a nice compromise between strength (it IS made of metal) and weight. I do want to add that my Envy is well over a year old now, and there have been some revisions since then, so maybe something changed.

I would advice against putting any laptop down hard on top of any pointy things If it doesn’t dent the casing, it’ll sure leave a nasty scratch

Thanks again!
Wracky.

Comment on HP Envy 14 Review by Geoff Ives

Geoff Ives — Mon, 12 Sep 2011 14:01:56 +0000

One point I feel I should make. After only four months my hard drive failed. I got notified on Thursday and had a replacement HD on Friday – that’s a good thing. However, upon removing the bottom plate and replacing the HD I noticed that the protective plate is extremely thin – amost foil like. It wouldn’t take much to impact the HD. For instance, if you place that laptop down hard on a flat surface with a bump on it (a srew head, or wooden button of some sort.) That could be enough to impact the HD – so be aware of it. And get as much foam in your carrying case as possible.

Comment on HP Envy 14 Review by Allayna

Allayna — Mon, 21 Feb 2011 20:19:12 +0000

That’s amazing! I am a new ENVY 14 owner and I’ve been troubled by the whine, tried to ignore it, read a lot of forum posts and wasn’t able to resolve the issue. I had disabled Bluetooth because I read it contributed to the issue, but after reading your post just now I went back to check my settings and observed that Bluetooth can be “turned off” even when it is disabled. I turned it off, and like magic, the whine went away! I turned it on and it came back, then off and it went away again, so that’s definitely the cause/solution. Thank you so much for saving my laptop experience!