7 ms·
I recently bought USB off/on switches [1] for the external webcam and microphone on my desktop. I think they control the power line and not the data lines, but
by caleblloyd 5y ago
I recently bought USB off/on switches [1] for the external webcam and microphone on my desktop. I think they control the power line and not the data lines, but they do the trick. Reduces port fatigue and USB orientation frustration.
[1] https://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/B08M44D79T https://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/B08M44D79T
- jareklupinski 5y agofunny story, i just spent a day troubleshooting why a microcontroller would not reset after cutting its power lines turns out it was leeching power from another still-active device through its data pins! there was not enough power flowing through this way to actually do something, but there was enough to keep the brownout detector from kicking in and resetting the chip
- formerly_proven 5y agoI mirrored the pinout of an AVR once and spent a few hours debugging why ISP wasn't working (so I unsocketed it for programming) and all the pins were wrong. It worked just fine pulling ground and Vcc from the I/O pins just opposite. These are of course fairly low-power 1.8-5 V devices, so when run on 5 V there is a huge margin for the supply voltage.
- phaker 5y agoYou were powering it through the protection diodes. Some 10-15 years ago someone built dirt simple radio tags this way. Just a microcontroller, with a capacitor and an antenna trace connected to some io pin. I loved that hack.
- a1369209993 5y agoTo be fair, the 'correct' way to do this is to use a double-pole switch that actively pulls (whole-device) VCC to ground when off, but that has it's own problems, especially if any of your sensors are capable of generating electricity on their own (piezoelectric microphone, radio reciever, alleged photo'transistor's that can operate photovoltaicly, etc).
- klysm 5y agoThe amount of energy generated by the microphone is gonna be crazy small
- WalterBright 5y agoI didn't know those existed. Nice! But it does have a serious flaw - no indication which switch position is "On" or "Off". C'mon, makers!
- bonestamp2 5y agoTrue, but that flaw can be addressed with a label maker.
- WalterBright 5y agoTrust me, I have a label maker and use it :-) It's really, really helpful to figure out which wall wart goes with which device. Another tip I learned from another. You know those green plastic tabs that keep a bread bag closed? They clip onto a cable nicely, and write on them with a sharpie which device the other end is attached to. That really helps with the rat's nest of wires under my desk. One of them says "cam" on it :-)
- a1369209993 5y agoAlso cellophane tape with a chunk of index card inside. (More legible on account of high contrast.)
- thechao 5y agoMy boss took my label maker away. Apparently, I am "not responsible". Also, with respect to cables, this is really why we need tri-colored braided cables from a reputable dealer (ANKER!?): white, black, gray, blue — that gives 64 possible combinations!
- bonestamp2 5y ago> My boss took my label maker away. Apparently, I am "not responsible". I'd consider that an honor.
- thechao 5y agoNow I really want a USB blade switch.
- stavros 5y agoI bought a super cheapo USB hub with four ports and on-off switches. I didn't think I'd have any use for them, but it turns out they're extremely useful because it turns out I need to unplug/replug things on my desk much more often than I thought. In related news, I used an old Android phone and DroidCam over USB as a webcam. The picture quality is stellar, much better than any webcam you might find, and it's very simple to stop it by unloading the driver (I know, I know...).