sneekee_snek_17

joined 4 months ago
[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 month ago

Yeah, I'm not surprised help is limited without a diagram. Maybe I can get around to making one tonight

[–] [email protected] 10 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago)

This story concerns war and death, if you want to avoid those kinds of things.

I was 18 years old. I was an Infantryman in the US Army and had been in Afghanistan for a few months, when my platoon responded to an IED strike on another platoon in my company, while they were doing a dismounted patrol.

A guy riding a donkey laden with explosives made his way to the center of their staggered column formation (effectively two spaced out lines on opposite sides of the street), before detonating the explosives. It was particularly effective, because walls on either side forced the column in tighter than normal.

This point begins my memories, which are mostly a disjointed collection of visual snapshots.

The first thing I remember is the smell, which I can't accurately describe, but burned meat, chemicals, and some kind of feces is the closest I can get. It is easily the clearest part of the memory.

The next thing I remember is seeing the severed foot of the man responsible laying in the middle of the road and my immediate and overwhelming impulse was to kick it, since it was the only tangible evidence of a 'responsible' party. There were also two generally recognizable bodies in the ditch, as well as several casualties receiving medical care.

From this point it is a series of vignettes. One, I was setting down my radio pack and very clearly telling the lieutenant where it was, since the medics needed extra hands. Another is seeing one of the casualties smoking a cigarette. The last, and clearest visual memory was holding the hand of one of the casualties as we waited for the medevac bird, and trying to keep the mood light be telling him "hey, at least you don't have to walk back to base". I have no clue if he responded.

I have absolutely no memories following that day, for probably months, until another, somewhat less traumatic situation took place.

But yeah, that is the day that pretty much all of my emotions died. On my wedding day, I felt just a flicker of happiness. The only emotion I feel with any intensity whatsoever is occasionally anger.

That's about all, I'm willing to answer questions of anyone is curious.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 month ago

I've never seen those, but it sounds fun

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 month ago

I still need to run the numbers to figure out exactly which transistor fits this application, but I feel like anything getting that hot isn't properly matched to 8 LEDs

[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 month ago (2 children)

How do I calculate which transistor to use?

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 month ago

Huh, if I had the time I'd do some reading about it. Sounds like there's some really interesting physics going on there

[–] [email protected] 1 points 2 months ago
[–] [email protected] 2 points 2 months ago (2 children)

That's actually really really good to know, I would have just dove right in, heaedless of color

[–] [email protected] 1 points 2 months ago

That being said, I redid it with your input in mind. It's currently got 100U resistors and draws a good bit more than the power supply is capable of

[–] [email protected] 1 points 2 months ago (3 children)

When you say "the real world" what do you mean, exactly? Because the 12V, 200mA power supply I used to power it for these pictures is likely what will ultimately power it

[–] [email protected] 4 points 2 months ago (6 children)

I had that same thought, but I'm running 4, 3.3V diodes per parallel branch/arm/whatever, with a 12V power supply, so the calculations I've seen for determining the appropriate resistor tell me this doesn't need any.

It felt wrong, but I wanted to see if it would light up, and it did! I tried to wrap this concern into the "is it going to start on fire?" Bit lol

[–] [email protected] 2 points 2 months ago (7 children)

And then cut it to shape?

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