Marc's Public Blog

The script: https://marc.merlins.org/linux/scripts/vidcomp

There isn't a lot of documentation, except the script itself. Please get the version from the link above, but for indexing purposes, I'll include a potentially slightly out of date version here:

#!/bin/bash

# vidcomp -h -time "-dvd-device . -alang English" dvd://1 /var/local/space/vid/10com8.avi

# http://gentoo-wiki.com/HOWTO_Mencoder_Introduction_Guide
# http://electron.mit.edu/~gsteele/ffmpeg

# http://www.mplayerhq.hu/DOCS/HTML/en/menc-feat-enc-libavcodec.html
# http://web.njit.edu/all_topics/Prog_Lang_Docs/html/mplayer/encoding.html
# http://www.linux.com/article.pl?sid=06/08/22/2121258

# transcode -f 15 -w 800,250,100 -y divx5,lame -N 0x55  -o test.avi -i $1
# enable PAL on PVR350 mpeg2 encoder
#v4l2-ctl --set-input 2
#v4l2-ctl -s 2
#v4l2-ctl --set-ctrl=video_peak_bitrate=8000000
#v4l2-ctl --set-ctrl=video_bitrate=6000000

# dumpstream stream# file.tivo 
dumpstream () {
    mplayer tivo://tivo/$1  -demuxer 33 -dumpstream -dumpfile "$2"
}

die () {
    echo "${1:-}"
    exit 1
}

# vidcomp -br 10000 -time "-edl cuts" rec_0012.mov

#mplayer -vf cropdetect enquete.vob
#vidcomp -h -vf crop=336:320:12:126 enquete.vob
# Aspect ratio has to be forced with codecs other than xvid
#vf='-vf scale=480:370'
# vidcomp -vf "-filter:v fps=29" $i
vf=""
af=""
#codec=h264
#codec=h265
#br=3000

# AV1 is supposed to be better tan VP9, but on my short tests,
# VP9 was faster and gave smaller files.
codec=vp9
br=2000
abr=128
rot=""
ffrot=""
aud_channels=""
aud_srate=""
time="" # -ss 10 -endpos 1:54:00 (mencoder)
# -time "-ss 0:3:40 -t 3:20" (ffmpeg)
# or -time "-ss 0:3:40 -t 3:20" -vf "mp=eq2=0.9:1:-0.1" (ffmpeg)
# vidcomp -br 8000 -time "-ss 04:00 -t 0:29:20" -vf "mp=eq2=0.9:1:-0.1" full.avi

# Crop the right side crop=1540:1080:0:0

if [ $0 = *tivo* ]]; then
    echo "Tivo Mode"
    # tivo files are sometimes mis-detected: force the right demuxer
    demux="-demuxer 33"
    # Aspect ratio has to be forced with codecs other than xvid 
    aspect='-force-avi-aspect 1.333'
    # and remove crap we don't want (tivo inserts a line of crap at the top)
    vf="-vf crop=352:476,kerndeint"
elif [ $0 = *pal* ]]; then
    # Couldn't quite get this to work yet, crop overrides it :(
    #vf='-vf scale=540:405,crop=512:384,kerndeint'
    vf='-vf scale=768:576,kerndeint'
    # problem with divx is that pass2 can fail with br too low errors
    codec=h264
    br=800
# elif [ $0 = *camvidrecomp ]]; then
#     codec=ffmpeg
#     br=8000
#     abr=128
# old cameras
#    abr=48
#    br=2400
#    aud_channels="-channels 1"
#    aud_srate="-srate 22050"
fi
# Hack for MTS
demux="-mc 100"
#demux="-demuxer lavf"

#aspect='-force-avi-aspect 1.777'

while [ ! -z "$1" ] && [ "$1" =~ ^-.* ]]
do
    if [ "$1" = "-w" ]; then
	shift
	codec=win
	vf="-forceidx -vf kerndeint"
    fi

    if [ "$1" = "-d" ]; then
	shift
	codec=divx
	#vf="-forceidx -vf kerndeint"
    fi

    if [ "$1" = "-D" ]; then
	shift
	codec=divx1
	vf="-forceidx -vf kerndeint"
    fi

    if [ "$1" = "-F" ]; then
	shift
	codec=flv
	br=400
	abr=56
        aud_srate="-srate 22050"
        vf='-vf scale=512:384'
    fi

    if [ "$1" = "-h" -o "$1" = "-h4" ]; then
	shift
	codec=h264
	vf="-forceidx -vf kerndeint"
    fi

    if [ "$1" = "-h4ff" ]; then
	shift
	codec=ffmpeg4
    fi

    if [ "$1" = "-h5" ]; then
	shift
	codec=h265
    fi

    if [ "$1" = "-vp9" ]; then
	shift
	codec=vp9
    fi

    if [ "$1" = "-av1" ]; then
	shift
	codec=av1
    fi

    if [ "$1" = "-x" ]; then
	shift
	codec=xvid
	vf="-forceidx -vf kerndeint"
    fi

    if [ "$1" = "-ff" ]; then
	shift
	codec=ffmpeg
    fi

    # https://trac.ffmpeg.org/wiki/Encode/H.264
    # says not compatible with most players
    if [ "$1" = "-ffll" ]; then
	shift
	codec=ffmpegll
    fi

    if [ "$1" = "-vol" ]; then
	shift
	vol=":vol=$1"
	shift
    fi

    # try instead of rotate
    if [ "$1" = "-f" ]; then
	shift
	rot="-vf flip,mirror"
	#ffrot="-vf hflip,vflip"
	# https://www.baeldung.com/linux/ffmpeg-rotate-video#:~:text=transpose%20is%20an%20FFmpeg%20filter,the%20values%20from%200%2D3.
	ffrot="-vf hflip,vflip"
	ffrot="-vf transpose=1,transpose=3"
    fi

    if [ "$1" = "-r" ]; then
	#rot="-vf mirror,rotate=$2"
	# works with -r 3
	rot="-vf rotate=$2"
	ffrot="-vf transpose=$2"
	shift 2
    fi

    if [ "$1" = "-br" ]; then
	br="$2"
	shift 2
    fi

    # -ss 10 -endpos 1:54:00
    # -ss 00:01:00 -to 00:02:00
    if [ "$1" = -time ]; then
	time="$2"
	shift 2
    fi

    # for instance -vf scale=540:405,crop=512:384
    if [ "$1" = -vf ]; then
        vf="$2"
        shift 2
    fi
done

test $# -eq 1 || test $# -eq 2 || die "$0 file_src file_dest (please read script for options)"
test $# -eq 2 && test -f "$2" &&  die "file_dest should not exist"

src="$1"
dest="${2:-$src.new}"

#set -vx
if [ "$codec" = win ]; then
    ionice -c3 nice -19 mencoder $demux $aud_channels $aud_srate -oac mp3lame -lameopts mode=3:abr:br=$abr$vol $time $aspect $vf -ovc lavc -lavcopts vcodec=msmpeg4v2:vhq:vbitrate=$br $rot -o "$dest" "$src"
elif [ "$codec" = divx1 ]; then
    ionice -c3 nice -19 mencoder $demux $aud_channels $aud_srate -oac mp3lame -lameopts mode=3:abr:br=$abr$vol $time $aspect $vf -ovc lavc -lavcopts vcodec=mpeg4:vhq:trell=yes:v4mv=yes:vbitrate=$br -ffourcc DX50 $rot -o "$dest" "$src"
elif [ "$codec" = flv ]; then
    # http://www.jeremychapman.info/cms/mencoder-avi-to-flv-conversion
    ionice -c3 nice -19 mencoder $demux $aud_channels $aud_srate -oac mp3lame -lameopts mode=3:abr:br=$abr$vol $time $aspect $vf -ovc lavc -lavcopts vcodec=flv:vbitrate=$br:mbd=2:mv0:trell:v4mv:cbp:last_pred=3 -of lavf $rot -o "$dest" "$src"
elif [ "$codec" = xvid ]; then
    ionice -c3 nice -19 mencoder $demux $aud_channels $aud_srate -oac mp3lame -lameopts mode=3:abr:br=$abr$vol $time $aspect $vf -ovc xvid -xvidencopts bitrate=$br $rot -o "$dest" "$src"
elif [ "$codec" = ffmpeg4 ]; then
    # aspect/-force-avi-aspect not supported by ffmpeg
    #ionice -c3 nice -19 ffmpeg $time -analyzeduration 9999999 -probesize 9999999 -y -i "$src" $vf -c:v libx264 -preset medium -b:v ${br}k -pass 1 -c:a libfdk_aac -b:a 128k -f mp4 /dev/null
    #ionice -c3 nice -19 ffmpeg $time -analyzeduration 9999999 -probesize 9999999 -i "$src" $vf -c:v libx264 -preset medium -b:v ${br}k -pass 2 -c:a libfdk_aac -b:a 128k -f mp4 "$dest"
    ionice -c3 nice -19 ffmpeg $time -analyzeduration 9999999 -probesize 9999999 -y -i "$src"  -filter:v fps=30 $vf -c:v libx264 -preset medium -b:v ${br}k -pass 1 -an -f mp4 /dev/null
    ionice -c3 nice -19 ffmpeg  $time -analyzeduration 9999999 -probesize 9999999    -i "$src" -filter:v fps=30 $vf -c:v libx264 -preset medium -b:v ${br}k -pass 2 -c:a aac -b:a 128k -f mp4 "$dest"

### H265 in MP4 => slow and royalties
elif [ "$codec" = h265 ]; then
    # https://trac.ffmpeg.org/wiki/Encode/H.265
    ionice -c3 nice -19 ffmpeg $time  -y -i "$src" $vf $ffrot -filter:v fps=30 -c:v libx265 -b:v ${br}k -x265-params pass=1 -an -f mp4 /dev/null
    ionice -c3 nice -19 ffmpeg $time     -i "$src" $vf $ffrot -filter:v fps=30 -c:v libx265 -b:v ${br}k -x265-params pass=2 -c:a aac -b:a 128k -f mp4 "$dest"

# https://trac.ffmpeg.org/wiki/Encode/AV1
# 
# vp9 vs av1 comparison and flags:
# https://jonathanmh.com/p/encoding-webm-videos-with-ffmpeg-vp9-av1

# Gemini says: Compression Efficiency
# * AV1: Offers the best compression efficiency, resulting in smaller file sizes for a given quality level
# * H.265: Provides significant improvements over H.264, offering better compression than VP9 in many cases
# * VP9: While not as efficient as H.265 or AV1, it still offers decent compression and is widely supported.
# Encoding and Decoding Speed:
# * AV1: Requires more computational power for encoding and decoding, which can impact performance on older hardware
# * H.265: Offers a good balance between compression efficiency and encoding/decoding speed.
# * VP9: Generally faster to encode and decode compared to AV1.

### VP9 is free version of H265
# https://caniuse.com/?search=vp9
# cpu used lower values are slower but better quality -row-mt 1 added HT. Speed is faster than AV1 but compression seems still good
# 2453715 file1.mp4
# 1555963 file1_av1_4.webm
# 1611192 file1_av1_6.webm
# 1611192 file1_av1_8.webm
# 1668740 file1_vp9_4.webm
# 1598794 file1_vp9_6.webm
# 1595698 file1_vp9_8.webm
elif [ "$codec" = vp9 ]; then
    ionice -c3 nice -19 ffmpeg $time  -y -i "$src" $vf $ffrot -filter:v fps=30 -c:v libvpx-vp9 -b:v ${br}k -cpu-used 6 -row-mt 1 -pass 1 -an -f null /dev/null
    ionice -c3 nice -19 ffmpeg $time     -i "$src" $vf $ffrot -filter:v fps=30 -c:v libvpx-vp9 -b:v ${br}k -cpu-used 6 -row-mt 1 -pass 2 -c:a libopus -b:a 128k "$src.webm"

### AV1 a better version of VP9
# https://caniuse.com/?search=av1
# https://trac.ffmpeg.org/wiki/Encode/AV1
# cpu used lower values are slower but better quality -row-mt 1 added HT
elif [ "$codec" = av1 ]; then
    ionice -c3 nice -19 ffmpeg $time  -y -i "$src" $vf $ffrot -filter:v fps=30 -c:v libaom-av1 -b:v ${br}k -cpu-used 8 -row-mt 1 -pass 1 -an -f null /dev/null
    ionice -c3 nice -19 ffmpeg $time     -i "$src" $vf $ffrot -filter:v fps=30 -c:v libaom-av1 -b:v ${br}k -cpu-used 8 -row-mt 1 -pass 2 -c:a libopus -b:a 128k "$src.webm"

# old legacy mencoder stuff (mencoder h264 or divx)
else
    pass="$dest".pass
    for i in 1 2
    do
	echo "DOING $codec PASS $i"
	echo "------------------"
	if [ "$codec" = h264 ]; then
	    #vf=$vf,dsize=4/3,scale
	    #vf=$vf,scale=720:480
	    vf=$vf,scale  # why is scale there by itself?
	    # Trellis searched quantization

	    # do not allow space in source, to allow a multi file source
	    ionice -c3 nice -19 mencoder -passlogfile "$pass" $demux $aud_channels $aud_srate -oac mp3lame -lameopts mode=3:abr:br=$abr$vol $time $aspect -vf $vf -ovc x264 -x264encopts bitrate=$br:turbo=1:pass=1:threads=0 $rot -o "$dest" $src || die "multipass failed on pass $i"
	elif [ "$codec" = divx ]; then
	    # Trellis searched quantization
	    ionice -c3 nice -19 mencoder -passlogfile "$pass" $demux $aud_channels $aud_srate -oac mp3lame -lameopts mode=3:abr:br=$abr$vol $time $aspect $vf -ovc lavc -lavcopts vcodec=mpeg4:vhq:trell=yes:v4mv=yes:vbitrate=$br:vpass=$i -ffourcc DX50 $rot -o "$dest" "$src" || die "multipass failed on pass $i"
	fi
    done
    /bin/rm "$pass" *.pass.mbtree &>/dev/null
#else
#    echo "Unknown $codec" >&2
fi

#vidrename --noinfo "$dest"

/bin/rm ffmpeg2pass-0.log ffmpeg2pass-0.log.mbtree x265_2pass.log* &>/dev/null

Again, to up to date version is here: https://marc.merlins.org/linux/scripts/vidcomp

The script: https://marc.merlins.org/linux/scripts/vidrename

Possible video containers supported by this script *.mpeg (original mpep1/mpeg2 from the '90s) *.rm (very old realaudio/realvideo from the 90's) *.mov (old apple quicktime container, also from 90's)

The script does not bother to show old/obsolete codecs for WMV/AVI (you can add support if you care), and concentrates on only showing some more popular formats over the years that I cared more about:

This is what it looks like

sauron [mc]$ l
total 15148
drwxr-sr-x 1 merlin merlin     188 Nov 17 19:32 .

drwxr-sr-x 1 merlin merlin     184 Nov 17 19:32 ..

-rw-r--r-- 1 merlin merlin 2453715 Nov 17 19:31 file1.mp4
-rw-r--r-- 1 merlin merlin 1572011 Nov 17 19:31 file2.mp4
-rw-r--r-- 1 merlin merlin 1734137 Nov 17 18:25 Out16_av1.mp4
-rw-r--r-- 1 merlin merlin 1433362 Nov 17 18:29 Out16a_vp9.mp4
-rw-r--r-- 1 merlin merlin  827673 Nov 17 18:35 Out16c_vp9.mp4
-rw-r--r-- 1 merlin merlin 1449311 Nov 17 18:26 Out16_vp9.mp4
-rw-r--r-- 1 merlin merlin 3496280 Nov 17 18:22 Out_av1.mp4
-rw-r--r-- 1 merlin merlin 2527312 Nov 17 18:20 Out_vp9.mp4
sauron [mc]$ vidrename --noinfo *
Going from file1.mp4
to         File1 - H265.mp4
Going from file2.mp4
to         File2 - VP9.mp4
Warning for Out16_av1.mp4, webm != mp4
Going from Out16_av1.mp4
to         Out16 av1 - AV1.webm
Warning for Out16a_vp9.mp4, webm != mp4
Going from Out16a_vp9.mp4
to         Out16a vp9 - VP9.webm
Warning for Out16c_vp9.mp4, webm != mp4
Going from Out16c_vp9.mp4
to         Out16c vp9 - VP9.webm
Warning for Out16_vp9.mp4, webm != mp4
Going from Out16_vp9.mp4
to         Out16 vp9 - VP9.webm
Warning for Out_av1.mp4, webm != mp4
Going from Out_av1.mp4
to         Out av1 - AV1.webm
Warning for Out_vp9.mp4, webm != mp4
Going from Out_vp9.mp4
to         Out vp9 - VP9.webm
sauron [mc]$ l
total 15148
drwxr-sr-x 1 merlin merlin     298 Nov 17 19:32  .

drwxr-sr-x 1 merlin merlin     184 Nov 17 19:32  ..

-rw-r--r-- 1 merlin merlin 2453715 Nov 17 19:31 'File1 - H265.mp4'
-rw-r--r-- 1 merlin merlin 1572011 Nov 17 19:31 'File2 - VP9.mp4'
-rw-r--r-- 1 merlin merlin 1734137 Nov 17 18:25 'Out16 av1 - AV1.webm'
-rw-r--r-- 1 merlin merlin 1433362 Nov 17 18:29 'Out16a vp9 - VP9.webm'
-rw-r--r-- 1 merlin merlin  827673 Nov 17 18:35 'Out16c vp9 - VP9.webm'
-rw-r--r-- 1 merlin merlin 1449311 Nov 17 18:26 'Out16 vp9 - VP9.webm'
-rw-r--r-- 1 merlin merlin 3496280 Nov 17 18:22 'Out av1 - AV1.webm'
-rw-r--r-- 1 merlin merlin 2527312 Nov 17 18:20 'Out vp9 - VP9.webm'

Other example uses:

sauron [mc]$ vidrename --help
Unknown option: help
/var/local/scr/vidrename [--fixepisodes] [--verbose] [--extonly] [--dots] [--spacedash] [--spaces2dash] [--ucname [num]] [--add text] [--noinfo] [--writetofile] [--norename] [--addfps]

--extonly:	only fix file extension, do not beautify filename
--dots:		remove all dots from filenames ane replace with spaces
--spacedash:	add spaces around all dashes if not already present (only one by default) (IGNORED, ON BY DEFAULT)
--spaces2dash:	replace all spaces with dashes
--fixepisodes:	normalize showname - 1x01  episodename.ext
--ucname:	number of letters in a word before we uppercase the first (default 3) (IGNORED)
--add:		add random text before the extension
--noinfo:	do not add file info to filename ( - XxY - z kbps)
--writetofile:	do not add fileinfo to filename, write to a different file
--norename:	only print what would be done, do not rename files
--addfps	add fps of video to filenames

sauron [mc]$ vidrename --spaces2dash  --addfps *
Going from File1_-_H265_-_H265.mp4
to         File1_-_H265_-_1920x1080_-_2974kbps_-_30.000_fps_-_H265.mp4
Going from File2_-_VP9_-_VP9.mp4
to         File2_-_VP9_-_1920x1080_-_1861kbps_-_60.000_fps_-_VP9.mp4
Going from Out16_av1_-_AV1_-_AV1.webm
to         Out16_av1_-_AV1_-_1920x1080_-_30.000_fps_-_AV1.webm
Going from Out16a_vp9_-_VP9_-_VP9.webm
to         Out16a_vp9_-_VP9_-_1920x1080_-_30.000_fps_-_VP9.webm
Going from Out16c_vp9_-_VP9_-_VP9.webm
to         Out16c_vp9_-_VP9_-_1920x1080_-_30.000_fps_-_VP9.webm
Going from Out16_vp9_-_VP9_-_VP9.webm
to         Out16_vp9_-_VP9_-_1920x1080_-_30.000_fps_-_VP9.webm
Going from Out_av1_-_AV1_-_AV1.webm
to         Out_av1_-_AV1_-_1920x1080_-_30.000_fps_-_AV1.webm
Going from Out_vp9_-_VP9_-_VP9.webm
to         Out_vp9_-_VP9_-_1920x1080_-_30.000_fps_-_VP9.webm

And again, the script is here: https://marc.merlins.org/linux/scripts/vidrename

The event was organized by Goldenvoice. The flier didn't have any info on whether they were going to be OTC, have openers, or until what time the event was running. The only piece of info was that it was supposed to start at 21:00. By the time I arrived at 22:00, wary of previous events announced at 21:00 but having so-so openers, or sometimes not even really opening doors until 22:00, but this time around they apparently did open at 21:00 and Orbital themselves did start at 21:00, go figure... So, I missed the first hour, but they were going strong by the time I arrived:

not every time you see this

The somewhat weird thing is they stopped in the middle of the set after saying something I was unable to comprehend due to poor microphone sound, but they took a 20mn break where they just left the stage and everyone in the room, and came back 20mn later :)

The 2nd half of the show had more top tracks, including of course the Halcyon and on, but plenty more including "where times becomes a loop" that I had totally forgotten about:

the room was packed

one of them performed without shoes :)

The show ended at 00:40. Definitely good time were had:

he still has a few books I should read :)

the list of movies for his 2nd talk

those doors were indeed portals to a 4th dimension we can't see as 3 dimensional beings

wizard of oz was wrong all along!

I never caught that one either

parsecs are a unit of distance, they can't be used for speed or time (BTW a parsec is 3.6 light years as I found out)

Gravity: haha, that's an easy one. It had lots of good physics, but also some glaring holes

As a bonus, he gave he attendees a hall pass for the next day if they were late :)

And I had no idea he was on zoolander 2 :)

It was another very fun night, very quick video summary:

After asking around, I was told to try the Ubiquity Edgerouter 4, which is indeed a nice little router and comes with linux out of the box. The best thing is it's designed to give you full access so you can install your own linux software. Well done!

But, for some strange reason, the then wonderful people at ubiquity did not figure out that it was useful to plug a serial port adapter to monitor or connect to another device, or even to use/need external USB storage. It is of course linux, you can build your own kernel and modules, but doing it for another architecture requires cross compilers and a non trivial setup that would likely have taken me days to setup.

This is where Nils Andreas Svee (Lockhair) comes in, and as part of his CAKE project to improve networking on that device (requiring a new kernel), he built a full compiler suite for that kernel, and very nicely added USB serial modules to his build for me a few years back for the ER1.x firmware.

Fast forward a few years, and the original 1.10.11 was based on Debian 7 (Wheezy) which became totally obsolete. Getting updated packages for that ancient distro became difficult, so I figured I should upgrade to 2.x.
After doing so ( EdgeRouter ER-4/ER-6P/ER-12/ER-12P: Firmware v2.0.9-hotfix.7 31 Jul 2023 from https://ui.com/download/releases/firmware ), I of course realized it was a new kernel that needed new modules.

But then I realized that during that time Ubiquity turned evil and stopped releasing GPL required code, including the kernel, which in turn caused Lochnair to stop being able to maintain his project: https://community.ui.com/questions/CAKE-thread-gone/27de66b2-9ac2-4fcb-93f7-d02cd5785b4c

I had a glimmer of hope that the new binary kernels were close enough to the last officially released kernel source, and asked him if he could build the extra missing modules: https://github.com/Lochnair/kernel_e300/issues/2 . He super nicely agreed and they worked!

Thanks to him, I now have have a fully upgraded and featured linux route with usb-serial support and usb-storage support.

You can get the modules here:

usbcore: registered new interface driver pl2303
usbserial: USB Serial support registered for pl2303
pl2303 1-1.1:1.0: pl2303 converter detected
usb 1-1.1: pl2303 converter now attached to ttyUSB0
usbcore: registered new interface driver uas
usb 1-1.2: new high-speed USB device number 4 using xhci-hcd
usb 1-1.2: New USB device found, idVendor=0951, idProduct=1666
usb 1-1.2: New USB device strings: Mfr=1, Product=2, SerialNumber=3
usb 1-1.2: Product: DataTraveler 3.0
usb 1-1.2: Manufacturer: Kingston
usb 1-1.2: SerialNumber: 1C6F654E48EBB131D95D0ABB
usb-storage 1-1.2:1.0: USB Mass Storage device detected
scsi host0: usb-storage 1-1.2:1.0
scsi 0:0:0:0: Direct-Access     Kingston DataTraveler 3.0 PMAP PQ: 0 ANSI: 6
sd 0:0:0:0: [sda] 121110528 512-byte logical blocks: (62.0 GB/57.8 GiB)
sd 0:0:0:0: [sda] Write Protect is off
sd 0:0:0:0: [sda] Mode Sense: 45 00 00 00
sd 0:0:0:0: [sda] Write cache: disabled, read cache: enabled, doesn't support DPO or FUA
 sda: sda1 sda2
sd 0:0:0:0: [sda] Attached SCSI removable disk

If you use this, please make a donation to him for his good work:

1) Oh, I need to finish writing code to get the SAO badge holder to do something fun

2) Mmmh, why does this python global variable thing doessn't work in the function

3) Goes to re-learn python, with help from gemini and how python forks global variables by default in functions so what you write to them isn't saved at local scope (oh my, why did they do that?)

4) after more hacking, get a proper demo working:

5) publish code https://github.com/marcmerlin/2024-Supercon-8-Add-On-Badge/blob/main/README.md (actual code is here: https://github.com/marcmerlin/2024-Supercon-8-Add-On-Badge/blob/main/software/software/main.py )

6) Oh, I need to make a video demo of the SAO, but...

7) oh yeah, there was that hat on my desk I needed to add LEDs on for an upcoming party, start hacking on that

8) mmmh, the hat won't work long enough with a USB battery, start hacking on a lipo solution

9) ah, lipos work, but the front LED panels rated for 5V start failing around 3.5V, so I need to make a dual lipo solution, one for the neopixels and one for the RGB panels

10) test and measure the dual lipo solution and figure out it will last close to 12H, that's good. Ok, hat works mostly, post that https://www.instagram.com/p/DCYEl1jJd_-
11) Ah yes, the SAO video I was supposed to work on: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z7MSywf7js4

12) During that time, I get interesting distracting packages on my doorstep, like lovely flexible LED panels that will hopefully power my future outfit: https://rpi-rgb-led-matrix.discourse.group/t/rpi0-2w-speed-compared-to-rpi3a/913/2

13) While I'm testing them, also try some new rPi0 2w chips and microcontrollers to see if they can power my LED outfit with a smaller form factor (and yes they can): https://rpi-rgb-led-matrix.discourse.group/t/rpi0-2w-speed-compared-to-rpi3a/913 . In the interest of briefty, I'm going to skip the part that included migrating from raspbian to a new dietpi linux distro and port back all my custom changes on it :)

14) That said, I had a long-ish discussion and planning with the electrodragon folks in China on how to make a new 3 channel daughter board that is much smaller and would decrease the over footprint of all new picture frames like the one I built, and of course my LED outfit.

15) but wait, now I also find out there is a new beaglebone solution that does 6 channels output instead of 3? Ok, make a post about it: https://rpi-rgb-led-matrix.discourse.group/t/interesting-6-port-board-beaglebone-pocketcroller-v2/918/2

16) and file a couple of RFE bugs to look into it: https://github.com/hzeller/rpi-rgb-led-matrix/issues/1733 + https://github.com/FalconChristmas/fpp/issues/2054

17) Oh, I just found this old video on my laptop, why did I never post it? Ok, fix that: https://marc.merlins.org/perso/linux/post_2021-01-23_Linux_conf_au-2021-LED-Talk.html

18) Mmmh, so when I quickly posted those pictures from Neil deGrasse Tyson who just gave a talk, I got a reminder it was annoying for my blog system not to be able to link to videos directly without having to upload them to youtube.

19) Ok, learn about html5 video tag, hack my blog system to support videos, and push a new blog with my first video tag: https://marc.merlins.org/perso/outings/post_2024-11-14_Neil-deGrasse-Tyson-back-at-San-Jose-Center-for-Performing-Arts_-An-Astrophysicist-Goes-To-The-Movies_-the-Sequel.html

20) ok, but why did I have to rescue my video from my phone because the H265 recompressed version did not work in the blog? Ah, because of royalties on H265 being too high, most browsers refuse to add support for it: http://marc.merlins.org/perso/linux/post_2024-11-17_Vidrename-Script_-Clean-up-Normalize-Video-Filenames-and-Add-Codec-And-Container-Format-With-Mplayer.html

21) Ok, sure, but now I need to upgrade my vidcomp script to support VP9 and AV1: http://marc.merlins.org/perso/linux/post_2024-11-17_Vidcomp-Script_-recompress-videos-on-linux-with-mencoder-or-ffmpeg-to-div3_-div4_-div5_-xvid_-mpeg4_-h264_-h265_-VP9_-and-AV1.html

22) then I find an Email from a chinese engineer who is willing to talk to me about making better LED shoes. That's exciting, let me reply to him first

23) ok, now I can recompress my videos to VP9, which I benchmarked to somehow be faster to compress and still smaller file size than AV1 (not supposed to be the case, but that's what I'm getting). On the plus side, VP9 works with more browsers than AV1.

24) what as I doing again? (now days have passed). Oh yes, I was supposed to write a blog on hackaday supercon: http://marc.merlins.org/perso/electronics/post_2024-11-01_Pasadena-Hackaday-Supercon-2024.html

25) of course the ridiculous amount of time spent to allow these 2 videos in that post, is a bit hard to justify, but it's really solving a problem I've had for over 10 years, and never got to the top of the pile, because, well, you see what happens when I try to put something on top of the pile :)

26) and I was good, I didn't even play with the micropython rpi micro I received in the mail this week, or the electromage pixelblaze and I/O board, or more LED panels that somehow showed up at my doorstep :)

27) mmmh, and there are all those webcams I ordered and need to configure, but now it's clear I'm going to have to re-install my camera controller, shinobi, from scratch, and that's yet another rabithole...

28) in the meantime I have to finish my LED hat, and design my new shirt and pants for Dreamstate in 4 days... Wish me luck :)

What wasn't expected, was that it would be in a side building which was mostly a hangar party, for some reason they were badly lacking bathrooms, so there was a 30mn bathroom line, which was not good.
The lineup felt a bit all over the place in that there was no real unity in the music style, and I found myself waiting for Jason to take over, which he did at 0:30. I had a good time for the remaining 90mn.

30mn bathroom line outside

It was very cool that I got to wear my LCA SAO badges for the first time:

This post, because of its 2 video inserts, a new addition to my blogging software, was also an interesting exercise in non linear time and tasks, more on this page: Getting Things Done in an ADHD World

Day 1, Friday

Thanks to Anthony for letting me know about it, and I was able to attend. Went there early on friday for the pre-conf to work on the badges:

the conference badge was this 6 port micropython rPi micro with a couple of SAOs.

they nicely provided food all 3 days

essential geek survival food :)

They gave us a quick primer on how the badge worked, although it would have been better on a webpage with links and info for total beginners who had never used micropython and thorny or knew what thorny was (that included me):

I'm glad I took pictures of these slides, they only made sense many hours later. They should have been online

finding fellow LED geeks :)

learning blinkies for beginners, scan this

While I was there, I 9ound out they had a wonderful 4 bit computer some years back. I actually really regret not having been there that year, programming that in hand crafted assembly would have been epic:

someone hacked a basic I2C on it

people now hard at work

I used the opportunity to bring previous LCA toys and show them off (and fix a few)

People came with plenty of SAOs:

some came more ready than me :)

SAO extenders, cool!

SOA badge holder bag, sweet!

I found Tom Verbeure, the person who had been hacking on RGB Panels with open source FPGAs (colorlight). Cool project for sure. See: https://github.com/q3k/chubby75?tab=readme-ov-file#colorlight-5a-75b and https://github.com/lucysrausch/colorlight-led-cube/tree/master

Also, finally got to meet Henner Zeller, the rpi-rgb-panels author I've been working online with for years:

epic watch!

Also got to meet Daryll Strauss from precision insight, later acquired by VA Linux some 25+ years ago:

People still hacking at night:

I was lit up enough not to get lost :)

Day 2-3, Saturday & Sunday

went to attend a few talks

hacking radio sound and B&W video from a chip, super cool!

learned about an online microcontroller emulator, wokwi, very nice

I got to see a pick and place machine, nice to see them work:

this is what the machine was 'printing'

I tried the SMD challenge, that was hard as hell:

we got old and fat irons, making things harder :)

I couldn't get the last 2 LEDs working, they were so stupidly small

I had someone help me fix mine :)

and they all worked, thank you to the master solderer!

added the result on my badge :)

Random fun shots :)

people hard at work

During the weekend, the SAO wall got populated:

Original from Burning Man

more and more

and more :)

Saturday evening party had a nice real time AI image generator:

some were far out :)

The conf ended with a presentation of best SAOs:

This guy won the contest of biggest SAO, he had a printer working off USB, run by his SAO

Sunday ended with a party at a bar, thankfully I had my battery soldering iron :)

This was loads of fun, and I definitely learned some good stuff. Sad I didn't go earlier but glad I went this year. Thanks bunch to all the organizers and attendeers who contributed!

More pictures: https://photos.app.goo.gl/2hYRaaB5dF5mvv4N8