@hans Great!  I hope you find a great way to rig and add collision...I mean, after that the world in VR is limitless for adding assets :)

By the way, sorry I don't mean to disturb your trip...it's obvious, but please don't feel obligated to respond right away!  Hope you are enjoying Switzerland.  I have yet to visit Europe sadly, but I would love to see Holland, Germany, Greece and Italy.  Italy and Greece for the unbelievable food and Germany and Holland for beer (of course all those countries have good food, but I do love olives and pasta haha).  And of course the history and architecture.

Surprisingly, I couldn't find much info on Hammer, but if this is a program specifically for rigging VR models, I am sure it would be a contender to Blender.  Blender is still very much a manual program with endless add ons, so it is not as straightforward with rigging I find.  Also, most tutorials are for rigging characters, which is annoying because they aren't the only things in reality that move.  But if Hammer simplifies it, then I would stick with it for sure.  Haha yes, all roads do not lead to Rome in Youtube land...one of the pitfalls of self-teaching (which I am).  Forums I find are much better because of the voting system for answers.

I'm not surprised that most cars on Blendswap would be missing interiors.  A lot of Blender art is merely for single renders and not video games.  Thus, you have tinted black windows and don't have to worry about people seeing inside the car.  There must be some though, but ya probably not many. Turbosquid would likely have fully-rigged, perfect cars with everything but might also be expensive to buy.  If you do find a car you like with an interior, I can add proper glass and leather/light materials for you.  Glass in Blender is interesting in that the glass material you can make very quickly right out of the box is more suited to actually drinking glasses and bottles, but glass for windows is virtually transparent and is a more complex shader. In fact, the only way you would know it was there is if there was a reflection in front of it or dirt.  But this is to allow proper light transmission through windows...otherwise your interior scene will be very dark.  Lol yes this stuff is my sudoku as well.

I haven't been keeping up on my GPUs for a while now but from what I've read, you're right the user preference is actually higher for the 2060!  I generally trust the benchmark sites, especially with user ratings.  That said, either of those would blow my 1050ti's to smithereens haha.  I always thought the Titan 1080s were the best but now they must be cheaper (I think they were $1000 when I heard of them).  Nope haven't heard of the 3000, but man it sounds powerful! Lol.  Wow AMD CPUs?  Never thought of them beyond GPUs.  I've definitely been way too far in the 3d printing and LED world lately haha.  Yup good problems to have 😋 

No problem, I will try the original code again, but I can't help but wonder if it's the difference of the Arduino vs the ESP8622?  But I don't think that should make a difference.  Hm, would you be able to upload the .ino file?  Perhaps I was messing up something in that. 

I'm very sorry to hear you are a resident of the US right now given all the chaos and turmoil they are going through with the pandemic.  I am very fortunate to be in Canada compared to their situation (although I am also looking for work).  But in a sense you are fortunate too because Europe is handling the pandemic relatively well from my understanding.  I hope the government finally comes to their senses and helps Americans, as they are really trapped right now.  Hopefully your family is OK if you they are there right now.

Sorry for the late reply ... it's a 10+ hour drive from Switzerland back to Holland. So that chews up a day for that and a day for preparing hahah.

Once I understand the mechanism of rigging in Hammer, I'm sure I'll find a way to get that going.
There is not much information out there (no manual to speak of) on Hammer, so I'm heavily relying on others to find out stuff as well.
Importing static models works great though, and I'll try to test the add-on you mentioned earlier, hopefully this week.

Switzerland was great indeed. I was close to the Italian border, so most people speak Italian (which I don't hahah). The Italian influence is very obvious in the architecture as well. Very nice, very relaxing and very nice weather. Couldn't ask for more! 😊 

Haha, when it comes to food, then I'd see this all very much depend on your preferences. The most refined would be France. But Italy has great food as well. Not sure about Greece, simply because I don't know. But come to think of it, you're probably right. As for beers: Pilsener is absolutely the best in Germany, hands down. With pilsener I mean the straight forward beer, not too much alcohol in it, which you'd drink on a sunny day or when being with friends. 
When talking about actual beers, I'd highly recommend Belgium. But these are heavier beers and you should enjoy those almost like it is a nice wine. I really think Belgium has the best beers ever. But be careful, don't drink them like a regular pilsener or you'll find yourself under the table haha. 

As for Blender models and lacking car interiors; you're probably right. And even when the model are used in a game, it's quite often just a static prop, even in Half-Life: Alyx.

My current gaming PC is a Razer Blade laptop with a GTX1060, and it performs well. I'm sure a 1050 will perform pretty good for regular games as well. Just for VR even my 1060 is having a hard time. with some VR headsets it will not be good enough. But the entire GPU marked is a little confusing (better said: sketchy). I hope the upcoming nVidia 3000 series and the upcoming AMD GPU's will either make 2080's cheaper or the cheapest new model will perform in that range.
The nVidia Titan is indeed impressive, performance and price wise haha. Unbelievable how expensive things have gotten. Oh well, I'll just hold off for now. Maybe try to sell my Mac Pro and use the money for a new build. 

The AMD CPU's have been around for a very long time, but they were always the underdog. Slower, or heat problems, etc. But the generation that was released this year is giving Intel a serious run for the money. The AMD's are cheaper, faster, use less power, more cores. Definitely something to consider when doing a new PC build/buy 😋

After playing with the Arduino and the EPS8266, I wouldn't expect much difference either. The code is not using anything specific for the ESP8266, nothing even points to an ESP8266.
I've attached the code that I ran on my ESP8266. 

Yeah, being stuck here is not helping at all haha. Time will tell what approach was the best when it comes handling Corvid-19. I suspect in the US the upcoming election have a negative influence though on how things are handled (political versus actually useful for people's health). I could be wrong though. I always liked Canada: it's similar to the US (nature, etc), just with a more European style government and kilometers (I'm still struggling with inches and miles) haha. Not that I'm an expert on Canada, I've been there only 3 times. But I always loved being there. My aunt has a very nice place in British Columbia and I spend some time for work in Toronto. Maybe not the best reflection of what the country really is like, but very nice none-the-less. Maybe I should move there 😉 

I love rural areas, and I don't think there will be a shortage of that in Canada ...

My family is doing fine, I hope you and your family are OK as well.
I went to Switzerland to visit my aunt, my uncle had passed away in April due to Corvid-19 complications, and for the longest time she was there all alone. No friends, no family, and borders closed 😞 

@hans No problem man!  No obligation to reply :)  That's a long drive wow!  Also sorry for my late response...haven't been home in the past few days.

Cool let me know how the rigging goes with either Blender or Hammer.  Looking forward to hearing the results 👍 

Wow that's interesting regarding the area you were in being largely Italian and even influencing the architecture!  But that makes sense since it is near the border.  Kinda reminds me of South Tyrol in Italy, where the population speaks German.  Oh yes for sure French food is renowned for it's cuisine.  From what I hear, it's food and wine are generally speaking much better on average compared to other countries.  In Canada, you most frequently see Lowenbrau, DAB and Holsten in stores, although you can find ones like Wernesgruner and Warsteiner.  Not sure if those are technically pilsners or lagers; we also have the wheat beers as well in bars. I still think there would be other brands made there that taste better...especially on a nice sunny day like you mentioned :) Definitely Canadians love their Belgian beer, especially in the bars that specialize in very large selections of beer.  I know exactly what you mean about the higher alcohol percentage haha...the trappist beers hide that so well with their refined taste. But I agree, they are some of the smoothest tasting beers if you are not already under the table haha.

Flying Monkeys is a Canadian brand that I find very good.  They have a highly hopped flavour but also notes of citrus and fruits.  New microbreweries have exploded here so it's nice to have the variety now. 

Wow Razor Blades are serious gaming laptops!  I'm sure any of them would outperform mine several times over.  You run the GTX1060 with the laptop?  Does it plug in via USB?  In demos, the 2080 looks very impressive; especially with it's shadows.  I didn't know there was such thing as ray tracing GPUs; I figured the games would all have that stuff baked in but maybe it's to process faster.  Haha yes, these products are truly expensive.  If I was trying to render animations, I would likely invest 1000s into some top cards.  Some people even make their own render farms at home; I think that's very ambitious.  Interesting about AMD though; I don't buy GPUs often so I never looked into them as the better option.  Also, at the time I got my 2 1050ti's, Blender did not have support for AMD cards.  Now they do, likely because AMD is a major donor to Blender :)

Ah OK, yes I don't think there should be much difference if any for code used on the ESP vs Arduino.  I have noticed matrix patterns in the fastled library don't work with Arduinos, only Teensy and ESP32 I believe.  I uploaded a quick video ( https://drive.google.com/file/d/17xZMw7J0cNaS9IpFNRwGQYgWWLtQsXRG/view?usp=sharing) of the problem I am experiencing with the code.  I think you've done all you can though so please don't worry about it, I don't know maybe it has to do with the drivers for my Arduino Nano (the brand is Elegoo). 

Yes I agree time will tell about what happens in the US after November 3.  My own view is more of the same neglect and muzzling of scientists is not going to help at all ☹️

Thanks for the compliments on Canada!  Wow 3 times!  That's a lot of trips.  And cool that your aunt owns property here!  Yes we have elements of the British and French legal systems as well as standard parliamentary style.  Quebec by far though is visibly much more European in culture and architecture, although very different compared to modern France; especially in accent.  Yes, there is a LOT of rural space here haha...only problem is it's so big you need to spend a year to see it all.  Even to drive from one side of Ontario to another is a whole day practically.  Camping in Canada is one of the greatest things ever; especially with the stars and forest at night with a campfire...very much like the soothing nature of your fire effect code haha.

Haha funny you mention you were considering moving here; sometimes I consider moving to Holland for the design appreciation and style of social policies.  I guess I will have to visit first.  If you ever do visit Toronto let me know; I would be happy to show you around and grab a beer 👍 

I'm very sorry to hear about your uncle ☹️ my girlfriend's aunt passed in Holland from Covid19.  I'm glad you were able to see your aunt though; that must have been very hard for her.  Hopefully the world will be better prepared in the future for possible pandemics...especially from what we have seen with this one.  Yes my family is fine thanks.  Very glad about that.

Haha, just like you said: No obligation to reply 😉 

As soon as I get to rigging, I'll let you know my findings. Still catching up with having been gone for 2 weeks hahah.

I think Lowenbrau is one of the better known Pilsners, and I think a Pilsner is a Lager or a kind of Lager? Oh well. One you drink when you're thirsty or when you out and about with friends that drink a little faster than sipping. The other one is typically darker and has a higher alcohol content, which you should be sipping like a wine (almost). 😜 
In the past 2 weeks I had quite a few Lowenbrau. It was hot and I was thirsty 😁  (at least that is what I keep telling myself haha).

Maybe the weathbeers are "beers" as well, I'm not sure.
Haha, and Trappist indeed can hit you over the head by surprise haha. But they do taste great.
In the summer, as an alternative, my favotire Belgian beers are "Kriek" (from Bellevue only! Not from other brands - the other brands have a nasty after taste) and "Palm". "Kriek" has a cherry flavor (very refreshing) and "Palm" tastes more like a Pilsner but just a bit more hoppy. Both are easier to drink (alcohol is not shocking in any way) and when I was younger we'd drink Palm instead of anything else.
Note: In this area of The Netherlands, people do not like Heineken all that much 😉 

I have heard of Flying Monkey, always wanted to try their beers - just never got to it.
I remember my first visit to Canada, after arriving we went straight from the hotel to a restaurant and I ordered "a typically Canadian beer". I think it just said "Canadian" or something like that on the bottle, which of course was very funny. Tasted good as well. But then again, after a 8+ hour flight, most cold beers taste good 😉 

I bought my Razer back in 2016 ... so it's been around for a bit, but it never disappointed. The GTX1060 is showing its age though. The GTX is build into the laptop, and so far it keeps up well for VR. The latest VR headsets (Valve Index, HP Reverb G2) do require a little more power (higher resolution screens), although they'd still work with the 1060. I know HP switches then down to half resolution (which still looks good).
For me a sign to consider selling it ... it performs great with regular games, so somebody will be very happy with it.
Now that I'm looking for work, I'd probably not buy a Razer agan (budget constraints hahah).

I don't buy GPU's that often either, so it's been quite the search and re-education process for me. They sure do their best to make it confusing. I did read Intel is doing an attempt to compete with nVidia and AMD, which is great, but I'm wondering ... Intel doesn't have the best track record when it comes to GPU's 😉 

I hope the new GPU's (from all 3 parties) will push down the price of the 2080, or provide newer models that perform similar at a lower price. It is getting a little ridiculous that a GPU costs more than the rest of the PC 😜 

Back to the ESP8266/Arduino: Just watched you video. (cool design!)
That is so weird. Can you upload the INO file for me? I'd like to look at it one more time.
Maybe I'll give it a try with my Arduino Uno and see what happens.
Not sure what you mean with the matrix patterns though.

November 3rd, we will see, I fear history is going to repeat itself ... 😞 
It definitely is a concern that Facebook chatter seems to have more value than actual science 😞 

Oh I love camping, away from people, technology, traffic, etc. That is one reason why I love living in a more rural area (there should be some modern things available though like power, indoor plumbing and Internet hahah).

Awesome! Well, whenever you visit Holland: let me know as well. I'll show you around and grab a beer for sure! 😁 

@hans Haha yes I am not too sure about the difference between pilsner and lager; I think pilsner is slightly hopped?  Anyway, I am no beer expert even though I love it.  I make it too; but only the extract kits.  Haha yes, that's a great distinction...the summer thirsty beers vs sipping wine ones :)  Man that's awesome you have Lowenbrau so available on tap to enjoy, I feel like Europe must be a whole other level for beer selections. 

Interesting I haven't tried Kriek or Palm, although I did get a gift of a cherry Chimay bottle once and it was great.  I have tried Duvel and Trappistes Rochefort.  I think I need to try some different ones.  Everyone here laughs about Delirium Tremens...but only because it has a cool name and is guaranteed to put under the table if you don't sip like you said 🤣  I was given a bottle of Westvleteren 12 by my Belgian friend who I did the LED sketches and installation for.  I am saving it for a special occaision as he told me it is literally the best and rarest beer in the world!  Now that's a gift haha

Ah yes, I heard about the reputation of Heineken to Dutch people; here it is considered a premium (and therefore one of the most expensive imports) beer and it is available everywhere.  That and Stella Artois, although Heineken is more popular. I think Grolsch is still good quality and cheaper (although it gives me a headache with even a small amount for some reason).  I also love the Grolsch bottles because you can reuse them for home brewing again and again without having to buy bottle caps :)

Ah cool you've heard of Flying Monkeys!  It's an awesome beer and tons of variations.  Hahaha you had a typical Canadian beer, which I am guessing is Molson Canadian.  It is the most generic and in my opinion not awful but definitely a stale flat beer.  Pretty much like the American Coors Light, except there is no such thing as "light" Canadian beer lol. But yes, on a hot day and long flight I would welcome it.

Ah yes, so I can see a pattern with the GPUs being ranked in gaming vs VR.  Well if it's still good since 2016, then that's a pretty good brand.  Yes, it sucks when you need great equipment and there are budget constraints....I had to make that compromise when I was trying to render animations...that is definitely a very expensive hobby for those who wish to render something that is faster than waiting for a month with Blender on all day all night 😆 

Wow Intel is gonna start making GPUs? Well, it will be interesting to see if they try to offer lower prices for higher specs.  Although I doubt they will...Hm, have you looked at used GPUs? Yeah the GPU really is the gold inside the otherwise inexpensive computer.

So the .ino file I used was the one you uploaded to this chat.  I didn't change anything except the data pin I believe

 Yeah it probably is a hardware issue.  If you try it with the Arduino and nothing changes then don't worry about it; I am fine.  And I do appreciate all the work you did for me with that effect so thank you again! 👍 

The matrix patterns are for making cool patterns on boards that have an LED grid style.  Unfortunately, I cannot understand why they haven't been made for Arduino in the Fastled library, but I imagine it has to do with memory.  The ESP and Teensie boards are much faster as you also pointed out.  Rasperry Pis are too but they are a whole other world...

Yes it is alarming that Facebook is a large source for "news" for many people.  I'm not sure why more Americans are not critical of this, but I guess their large media networks are no better in some ways.  Youtube has some good channels like Democracy Now, but a lot of Youtube is political pundits (which is OK as long as the viewer thinks about it critically I suppose).

Hahaha yes, I love the rural areas too but I would still need internet and plumbing.  I could do without it for a few days but not permanently :)

Yes absolutely I will let you know when I visit Holland!  And I'll also try to check out the Blender head office too haha.

Haha, I'm no beer expert either - I just had to Google it: so a Pilsner is a "subclass" of Lager. Oh well, as long as it tastes good - I don't care what they call it hahah 😉 

As for available beer selection: I guess the selection is available in most bars, where I noticed in the US (can't speak for Canada) that some bars have a pretty good selection as well. Just the majority of the bars do not. Oh well. Plenty micro breweries in the US, and some of them are pretty good.
I have made my own beer as well in the past haha ... (from a kit as well). It was a fun thing to do, and boy was that a heavy beer haha.

Duvel is heavy, so much that I do not drink it anymore. Just a little too much.
Trappist on the other hand I do drink on rare occasions, but not often. I used to drink it more often back in the day.
Delrium is indeed funny - love the pink little elephants on the bottle - a good indication where you're going when you drink to much of that hahah 😜 

Stella I like much better than Heineken and Grolsch, but to be honest, you won't find me drinking either (Heineken or Grolsch).
My daily beer would be Jupiler (Belgian) or Krombacher (German). But with German beers there are plenty that are very similar to the untrained drinkers like us 😉  -- main criteria for me are good taste, easy to drink and no headache the next day.

Ad for GPU's; getting a used good GPU may be an options when nVidia 2080 users sell their GPU to get a 3080 or better. But the good years of eBay and the likes are definitely over. eBay is usually as expensive or even more expensive than new items in a store. Alternative websites show the same behavior, not to mention the scammers on those websites. So unless a friend has one for sale, I'll probably stick with a new one. 
On that note: my friends are like me holding on to their investment as long as they can. Keeping up with the latest and greatest has become just a way too expensive hobby.

Thanks for posting the ino file, I'll try to see if I can test it today. It is odd though that it works on my ESP8266 and not on your Arduino. So I'll try testing it on my Arduino Uno and see what happens.

The Raspberry Pi is very powerful as well, but the only downside is that it runs a non-realtime OS. So controlling LEDs would be OK, but certain functions may not be as reliable when comparing it to the Arduino. I haven't tested the Teensy, for some reason it already took me a few years before I finally could find time to test the ESP8266. Somehow days fly by when you're having fun hahah.

Yeah, Facebook should never be a source for "news" haha. And then keep in mind that most people do not know how to read statistics, especially with the Corvid-19 pandemic. It is sad to see how people have an opinion to then see and realize how dumb they were reaching that opinion. Sad and very alarming indeed. And the scary part: the rest of the world is slowing adapting this as a new normal as well.

I've lived in a rural area for more than 10 years now - plumbing and Internet and ... UPS/FedEx delivering at home hahah.

Enjoy the rest of your weekend 😊 

@hans Sorry for the delay...been a crazy few days. Hope you had a great weekend too. Yes the golden rule...if it tastes good, it is good!  Oh yes, that's true the US has had a long time renaissance of micro breweries.  I learned that apparently there used to be hundreds of breweries before prohibition, but after that only a few remained.  So Americans only had a small selection for a while.  Haha that's awesome you made beer!  They do tend to be heavier but the lagers are fairly light I would say.  My favourite is brown ale for homebrewing.  If you add maple syrup during the bottling phase, it has a very nice rich flavour. 

Yes I haven't had Duvel in a while either lol.  I agree with you, it's quite strong...definitely can't have more than one of those lol.  But once in a while is OK.  Haha yes!  The pink elephants are very indicative of where the night is going 🤣 There's a pretty popular local beer here called Boneshaker and everyone I know who has relates it similar to the pink elephant night lol...although it's not as strong as Delerium.

Yes I imagine you would enjoy more beers than the standard ones from Holland.  Lots of Canadians drink Molson, but I can't understand why when there is so much better selection.  I haven't heard of Jupiler, but I'll try it sometime if they sell it here.  Krombacher I can't remember if I have tried before.  I usually drink IPAs these days, even though I know they are very hopped and trendy.  I definitely have to see Germany and Belgium now hahaha...too much amazing selection.

Yes I agree, getting a used GPU is definitely risky.  And the classified sites don't enforce anything, so it is just buyer beware unfortunately.  I totally understand the hesitation, especially an expensive item.  It's true the latest and greatest really is expensive.  I like to get the greatest from 3 or 5 years ago...it's usually still pretty good and can often do the job.  At least with cameras and computers, IMO.   But it sounds like you and your friends do that too? 

No problem, sure let me know what happens with the Arduino.  Yes, unfortunately controllers seem to be quite unreliable when using code (although I am not a coder).  Like the matrix libraries should work for Arduino Megas at least, but only right now work on Teensy and ESPs, or Adafruit products.  I recently got a garbage T1000S and had to return it; the software was a nightmare and most of the links on the site were dead.  If you tried to download the most recent version of LED Edit, it came with millions of viruses!  Fortunately, my antivirus software quarantined them.  However, it is a generic device from China, so different companies on Amazon put their name on it and you don't know what you are getting sometimes.  Youtube has a few videos and it seems to work for those people, so it's quite frustrating that it didn't work for me.  I wrote an in depth review of all the flaws and bugs in the software and spent a long time crafting it so that other customers would know what they are getting but Amazon rejected my review with some vague accusation I was not conforming to their policies. Which is so crazy because customers have a right to know what they are getting. Anyway, I bought another different version of the controller which supposedly comes with a working version of the software from a more reputable seller, so hopefully this one works.

Yeah the Raspberry Pi is not real time and also requires booting and shutting down.  So hardly practical for an LED project.  Haha ya so many controllers out there and not enough time to work with all of them.  It's too bad Arduino isn't more powerful...they have a huge following and could really be community of LED lovers.  Right now, if you notice on Youtube many users merely use Arduinos to just test on LED on a breadboard.  It's OK but really just for educational purposes.  Any large LED project or advanced one really starts to push the limits for those micro controllers.

Yes I agree 100%; these days misinformation is shaping people's views. We can only hope that the younger generations push back against these social media platforms and realize that division is what these companies want because it generates clicks.  I have faith people will come to their senses 😀 

I think one day I will live in the country.  For now I will try to get a few more days of camping until the winter 🙂 

No worries about slow replies - we do have a life and (especially here) things are slowly moving back to "normal", so the days tend to fill up real fast latetly.

Haha the "it tastes good" rule goes for a lot of things; a wine, a movie, food ... and whatever critics may say, I do seem to have a mind of my own haha 😉 

The beer I made myself (with my brother in law) was hilarious ... pretty much every step in the process we goofed up, mostly since we did not have the right tools, and sometimes because we were just too lazy 😜  - but it was good for a ton of fun, especially when we started tasting haha. We were actually scared to even try it, but man it was good 😊 

Did you see the expected pricing of nVidia's new GPU's? $2000 and up 😱  - too right for my taste.
For that kind of money I'd actually expect a complete PC haha.
It does make me wonder about AMD's new GPU's and what the pricing will do of the older nVidia GPU's (2000 series).
AMD quietly launched the 5300, which is supposed to directly compete with the nVidia 1600 models.
For VR I need a little more than that though, and I even wonder if the 2060 is good enough. But nVidia made their model numbers very confusing. Like I may have mentioned before; the laptop 2070 is on par or worse than the desktop 2060, and with the mobile GPU's we have the "regular" model and the [slower] MaxQ models.
Oh well ...

I totally get your frustration with the China clones ... that's why I always recommend beginners to get a real Arduino (at the time the Uno R3).
The ESP8266 however, I found very impressive, so I'm wonder what its bigger brother (ESP32) can offer. 😊 
The Raspberry Pi is super cool as well, but indeed not the best option for LED projects.

Haha, I'd LOVE to live in the country. I'm so fed up with the [bad] attitude of people in more densely populated areas. I do understand where the attitude comes from though - with people (including their noise and behavior) that close by, I'd get irritated pretty quick as well. I used to be much better at dealing with that, but after 10+ years living in a rural area ... I just cannot go back to city life ... (I grew up in small city, and as a student lived in Amsterdam for a while) 😊 

@hans Just got back from camping...one last trip before the winter 🙂 

Haha that's awesome about the beer brewing.  Yes, I have been scared before too but honestly beer is hard to screw up unless you really added to much sugar or did not have proper sanitation of equipment.  I have been meaning to do all grain recipes, but the extract kits are so much easier and cheaper.  But I do recall the few times I tried it, they were definitely better than the Coopers cans.  The other thing too that's amazing about making beer, is that even if you screw up the ingredients it usually sorts itself out if you let it age longer.  Anyways, glad to hear it worked!

Wow $2000??!  That's totally out of my league too.  I just saw that the Titan RTX is like $3500 Canadian lol...that's insane.  Even the Nvidia 1080Ti is still $1600. I wonder, could you use two 2060s?  Would that be fast enough for VR?  I wonder if that would be faster than using just one 1080Ti. Wow it does seem confusing though with the laptop prices vs. desktop in terms of performance. I just use benchmark sites because I don't understand the technology enough 😋 

Yes I'm really thinking I should have used an ESP8266 or a real Arduino Nano (not the Elegoo one) for my lamp...now I'm starting to have glitches where the effects pause and freeze with random colours.  The toggle switch is starting to mess up again as well and sends me back to the beginning.  I'm beginning to think it might have been some of the soldering loosening up.  Ah well, it all part of the learning process...

So interesting regarding the experiences you had with rural life vs. big city. I noticed whenever I leave Toronto, people seem to get a lot nicer and actually talk to you lol. It seems everyone is trying to make a lot of money in the city being a banker or tech startup CEO but not much for creativity.  Then again, I suppose if you want to make it in design it's almost a necessity to live in the city unless you are very established and can work anywhere.  What were some of the good things you liked about Amsterdam?  I have been thinking lately about what it would be like to live there or maybe Germany or somewhere known for design.  Canada is great for landscapes and nature, but if you don't have a car or house in the country, you just pay a lot to live in a cold and unforgiving city hahaha.  Also, here people believe in working late all the time to impress some boss and no independent thinking of their own.  Kind of like Japan in that sense actually.  But my girlfriend (who's family is Dutch and Indonesian) talks about the relaxed culture of Holland and the importance of work/life balance.  I guess Amsterdam would be very expensive to live in though as well?

Camping? Nice! I love camping (haven't done it in a long time though - more and more people prefer a motel/hotel, especially the ladies hahah).

Haha funny you mention the sugar; that is where we got cloppy at some point (probably added too much). It was good beer though.
And yes sanitation/hygiene is super important! 😊 

They just published the new prices and models - things aren't as bad as I thought.
The the nVidia 3070 (outperforms the 2080) is marked at $499, and the nVidia 3080 (said to be [up to] twice as fast as the 2080) is set for $699.
So not as bad as the gossip would suggest. The 3090 however is (I hope I remembered that right) set for $1499.

The 1080Ti would be borderline "OK" for the highres VR that I'm interested in (HP Reverb G2).
Considering the pricing of the new models, I think the 3080 would be my choice. I'll hold off a little to see what AMD will come with.

Pairing 2 GPU's, in my experience anyway, works only part of the time. I suspect it depends on the game/software if dual cards are supported and as far as I can see, linking 2 cards is slowly becoming something from the past or only for highly specialized applications. But I could be wrong of course 😉 

The ESP8266 could still be a good option for you 😊  -- you can find them for $5 at Amazon or even less.

Haha, I agree with your experiences when leaving the city - in rural areas people are much nicer (often anyway) and they still seem to respect certain values eg. leaving your car unlocked, or leaving valuables in your car, or in winter leaving your car running at the grocery store, or leaving your house unlocked -- nobody will touch your things, where as here your car or valuables would be gone. 

I can imagine that for some work you'd need a network to work with or share your work with. With certain things this can be a challenge when living in a rural area, but then again: maybe this will change now that Corvid-19 came by and folks become more used to working from home. But I hear you: you (and for my work as well) would need a network to promote your work, get opportunities, and make "friends" that are willing to promote your work.

As for a designer working in Germany, or the Netherlands for that matter; population density is pretty high here and everything is really close by. To give you an idea: I'm staying near a town called "Breda". From here it is about 5 minutes by highway to get to Belgium, and about an hour to get to Germany, and a 2 hour drive to get to France. Having said that, you can imagine that moving around in the Netherlands is a piece of cake as well (eg. from Breda to Amsterdam takes an hour - just as much as from where I live in the US [Osceola, WI to St.Paul, MN).

I envy you with your girlfriend having a Dutch/Indonesian background 😊  - especially when she's a good [indonesian] cook 😁 
How did she end up in Canada? (good for you! haha).

The culture here is indeed, up to a point anyway, much more relaxed. Especially when it comes to work and opinions. At least compared to the US. Balance in life is a must for sure, but that too can go sideways here in Holland 😉 

Amsterdam is super expensive these days. I have the impression that BRExit did crank up the prices (buy or rent) a LOT. Seems some of the larger corporations moved their European main office from London to Amsterdam and the surrounding areas, which results in more wealthier people to move to that area as well.
A friend of mine, his step daughter, purchased a tiny dinky apartment (like REALLY small!) and that was already beyond €300,000 to buy (about 465,000 Canadian $). Yikes. And then to think I used to have an apartment in Amsterdam (as a student) which was about €80,000 (about 123,000 Canadian $).
If I would have kept that one and would have sold it today, then I'd be a very wealthy man. 😫

Life is different here (Netherlands), not just when it comes to work. People are much less "extreme" when it comes to opinions as well. Not all people are like that of course, but the very vast majority is.
But in the end I'd rather be home (US) or in Canada 😜 

@hans haha yes it's very hard to get ladies to go camping...especially since here in Ontario they have made it forbidden to use the showers due to covid-19.  But you can buy biodegradable soap and wash in the lake :)

Ohhh yes, I have a tendency to overly use sugar in home brewing...but over time it does mature and get dry as you found out :)

Wow the 3080 sounds like an amazing price for the specs!  Do you think you will get one?  That's awesome it's twice as good as the 2080.  Oh but you said you will wait for AMD; that's fair. 

Ohh OK I see regarding the 2 GPUs.  I only know about that because Blender supports it.  I figured it would be cheaper to use the 1 GPU I had in the desktop I bought and then buy another one of the exact same and use them both.  But I remember from my research at the time, it was quite debated among the Blender community about whether or not 2 GPUs of average quality were better than one very expensive good GPU. 

I hotglued the Arduino Nano in my lamp, but maybe I can rip it out and use the ESP8266.  I'm looking at pics of it now...can I simply use the same data pins like the Nano?  Do I have to modify your All-Effects sketch in any way?

Yes it is an interesting phenomenon of how people think when they are trusted (i.e. in the country leaving things unlocked) vs the city, where it is often expected you will have something stolen if it is left unattended.  I always find it funny when I tell people I found a wallet they ask why I didn't take the cash inside hahaha.  I find the same fatalist, survival of the fittest attitudes are encouraged in capitalism but of course human beings are actually much more caring and altruistic by nature, and these things are always decisions that can be made; we are not slaves to ideologies and we have free will IMO :)

Yes I just came back today from Niagara, it is super peaceful out there and so nice.  Of course, the main attraction beside the falls is the wineries and they provide a lot for the economy out there as well as fresh fruit.  But I think in general to live out there you have to be lucky enough to be able to work from home or you already have a business out there like paving or landscaping.  Exactly like you said, for our work it sucks but we need to be around the action and networks.

Wow when I look at Breda on the map, you are absolutely right about how close it is to neighbouring countries and other cities!  Yes even the US I imagine is not as bad as Canada in terms of getting from one state (or province here) to another.  To give you an idea, Ontario is 1,076,395 sq. km / 415,598 sq mi.  Apparently bigger than France and Spain combined.  So if you want to go to Ottawa, it's at least 5 hours by car, even longer sometimes by bus.  And you might as well get on a plane if you want to go further haha.

Haha thanks man, she can cook but she was born here. Her family is Chinese Indonesian, but they speak German, English, Dutch and Indonesian.  Also, I found out Eddie Van Halen is part Dutch-Indonesian lol.

Ah yes, I understand it can be stressful in any country in certain jobs and there are always deadlines and busier times.  My dream is to always set my own schedule, deadlines and never to have to answer to an unaccountable, private tyranny again👍 Sigh, one day....

Ah I see regarding Brexit and corporations moving to Amsterdam.  I never really understood Brexit well because here we are not so affected by it.  But if it does decimate the economy in the UK, I can see how many Britons would be rushing to better countries.  And yes, with more multinationals, it's inevitable that the rich will also arrive, which boosts the cost of living and rent.  In Toronto, it's absolutely insane.  Probably on par with some of the most expensive cities in the world now. Mainly because we just let the real estate industry do whatever they wanted and allow for foreign investment and speculation. And we stopped building social housing.  So you pretty much have to win the lottery if you find an affordable building that isn't infested with cockroaches, or you move far into the surrounding cities and drive in to Toronto every day from far. 

Haha $465,000 is more like $800,000-$1,000,000 now in Toronto. And they are small here too. I would totally be kicking myself too if I had sold that apartment you sold but of course you could have never known it would be so valuable in the future.

I like that the opinions are relaxed in Holland. It's kind of like that here too; not too political. Interesting though you want to live in North America.  Maybe we all get bored of our homelands and want to explore different cultures or work opportunities?  One thing I could see being cool about living in Europe though is that I imagine you could live outside the city centre and commute from the outer areas to work, but it wouldn't be too long.  Here, it's called the GTA (Greater Toronto Area) and it is BIG.  So many people will live in some far place like Burlington or Hamilton and they drive to a train, park their car there, take the train to the subway, then subway and go to work from there.  So your days are like 3 hours or more of travel and then you spend a huge amount on transit (because the train pass charges you more the further you live from Toronto).  I think I calculated some passes would be $300 or more per month, plus your car haha. Of course, if you can afford to live downtown, then all your problems are solved.

Haha, most ladies I know already prefer a hotel. Adding the lack of shower capabilities makes it even worse. I better start looking for female companions that are less picky haha 😉 

Well, I'm debating on building a new PC from scratch, after I have sold my Mac Pro.
In the meanwhile, the 3080 is indeed on my short list, but yes; wait and see what AMD has to offer.
I'm guessing the will have their top model positioned between the 3070 and 3080 - but I could be very wrong.
For VR, not just 3D needs to be powerful, but also realtime video encoding (h264 or h265). Well, at least important for playing wireless (and I LOVE playing wireless).
nVidia so far has the advantage over AMD, but we will see and I'm not in a hurry 😊 

Doing a build has become increasingly more challenging, to find the correct components etc.
I'm thinking a small case with water cooling, but we will see 😉 

When trying the ESP8266, I noticed that I did not have to change anything to my All-Effects-in-One code. I just worked, as far as I recall.
You may have to modify the pin your're using, I use PIN 4.
I only needed to add some library's to support the build-in WiFi and have a little webserver running.
In my new project I did also change the way switching between effects happens (no longer using an interrupt, no reset and no EEPROM use).

Before using teh ESP8266, you'll need to tell the Arduino IDE what the specs of the ESP8266 are - this is not complicated (see for an example this article).

Haha, I have been to Niagara once, when I visited Canada for work. Me and my colleagues rented a car and drove there for a one day visit (we drove back the same day).
It was cool to see the Falls, but boy was it touristic haha. I can imagine that, when going off the beaten path, one would find beautiful areas there though. We just didn't have time for that at the time.

As for driving around; yeah ... the distances are much more than here in Europe. I remember Houston being bigger (sqft) than one of the provinces here haha.
But don't forget how much beautiful nature you do have available there - you will not find that here in Europe 😞 

Cool! Yeah, I know us Europeans talk multiple languages, and often even mixed. But then again; I'd carefully assume you speak English and maybe some French?
It was always a funny situation with my aunt and uncle. When the 3 of us would chat, we'd literally mix up German, Dutch and English. Just some expressions are so much more powerful in one language versus the other. I cannot even imagine how that would be if we'd mix Indonesian in it (I don't speak Indonesian, but without know I may accidentally know one or the other Indonesian word - Indonesian culture has had its influence on the Dutch language for sure).

Some funny phrases may be "holz klasse" (wood class) to indicate "economy" class in a plane, or "reetkever" (butt-beetle) for a person that sucks up to their boss. Haha.
I suppose Dutch can be a little brutal at times, German can be a little condescending, and English comes with shorter sentences to say the same thing haha 😉 

I didn't know Eddie has some indonesian ancestors. Interesting!
Not surprising though with the Indonesian influence (I think Holland occupied Indonesia for some 300 or 350 years - up to world-war 2 when the Japanese kicked us out haha).
Chinese-Indonesian food is amongst my favorite foods though 😁 

Well, as far as I know, Brexit makes the UK independent of EU dictatorship partnership - so no more silly and super expensive EU rules. In my opinion (and I'm sure others will see it differently), the concept of a united Europe is great, however the implementation is not that great (and very expensive). So I understand the UK wanting to leave the EU (wished Holland would do the same thing).
I do not think, once the dust settles, there will be much economical impact for the UK (again: I could be very wrong).
the companies leaving the UK is more of a tax benefit than anything else (I think). Staying within the EU makes them benefit from the EU tax advantages. If they would stay in the UK, then suddenly they could be facing extra taxes (import/export/etc). 

Haha, yeah, in Amsterdam there are plenty apartments in the 1 million and higher range as well. My dinky apartment was just in a cheap neighborhood, being a student 😜  
Winning the lottery seems a requirement these days. 

That is what I like about Canada as well (versus US) - much more chill and not being extreme when talking about politics or other stuff.
Exploring different countries is interesting of course, maybe not for everybody, but I sure like it.
Maybe "grass greener on the other side" plays a role as well.
I for one really like seeing how people live in other countries - that, and nature, has always been much more important to me than sightseeing cultural thing (interesting as well of course). 

The downside of Holland (not a problem in for example Germany, France, Spain, Portugal) is that there is not much space outside of the cities, effectively making it expensive to even live in the smaller towns. Haha, I like GTA hahahaha ... (Grand Theft Auto) Quite a few people here commute in a similar way, just in a much smaller country 😉 
I never liked commuting ... always felt like a waste of time and it can be quite draining. I had a few jobs like that; wake up at 5 AM, get back home around 7 or 8 PM, and be totally burned up, leaving no time for fun things to do. So after a few of those kind of jobs, I decided to not do that any more. I'd rather get paid less, and have some "life" left after work 😉 

I guess that all comes back to living in a rural area and being able to work remotely ... or win the lottery 😉 

@hans haha it's ok to find a lady that doesn't like camping...more time for us dudes to get away for a while...like a spa for men 🤣 

Cool man let me know how the 3080 turns out (or comparable AMD) if you end up getting it. Maybe I will get one too when I finally get into VR :) Funny I have seen the Nvidia office downtown in Toronto before.  I believe we also have an AMD headquarters somewhere far in the GTA (or Grand Theft Auto hahaha).

Yeah I really would find building a PC from scratch to be difficult.  I bought mine used years ago and it has a pretty good CPU (from 2012 but still good) and cooling tubes/fans.  Then of course there are the GPUs, which is pretty much the only reason I got it.

Well I finally ordered some ESP8266's!  So it'll be cool to try them out.  The article you sent seems pretty straight forward, so I think it won't be too hard of a transition.  Glad to hear your sketch works with it perfectly and that is no problem to change the pin of course.  Only thing that will be a little cumbersome will be to modify the CAD model of my lamp to fit the dimensions of the ESP8266, but if it proves to be more reliable than the Nano, then it is worth it for sure.  By the way, do you have a link to the updated sketch?  With the omission of no interrupt, no reset and no EEPROM use?  My lamp is still messing up the effects (freezing some and distorting others) and sometimes doesn't even turn on at all unless I leave it off for a while.  I tried updating all my libraries, (Arduino IDE was already up to date though) and uploading the sketch again but it did not improve.  I am wondering if it is the Nano itself, but I doubt it.  Power still light shows as on on the Nano.  So I am hopeful that your new sketch might help 🙂 

Oh yes haha Niagara Falls in Canada is VERY touristy.  I really hope they change that over time.  There's a casino and a haunted house for kids but other than some hotels and restaurants, not much.  The wineries in the area are fun though.

Oh yes the cities in the US can be quite large.  But yeah you're right it is a trade off between convenience of traveling from country to country relatively easily in Europe vs. the vastness of Canada's nature. Have you ever seen Banff or Jasper in Alberta?  Can't remember if you mentioned it.  I went once and it was so amazing to see the glaciers and the rockies.  Also very clean air.  I would like to go again one day when I can afford it.  Sadly, I haven't seen most of Canada due to the high cost of travel and hotels but I definitely would like to see more.  It's pretty crazy when you think about how huge the country is with such a tiny population relative to the size haha.

Yep you're right; I speak English and very bad French lol...I tried so hard to learn it but sucked so much at it.  Which is kind of unfortunate considering it's the second official language.  Haha interesting regarding the amount of languages you and your family spoke interchangeably.  My gf says the transition from Dutch to German is not as extreme as one might think, but I am still amazed at how different the languages sound to me.  I remember watching the episode of Anthony Bourdain (one of my favourite human beings ever, RIP) when he went to Holland and they had Indonesian food there. So the influence is vice versa like you said.

Very cool phrases! Haha I think it'd be so cool to call it wood class here for economy class and butt-beetle for sycophants 😎 Interesting regarding the differences in tone of the languages you mentioned.  I was told Dutch language is direct, as well as German.  The British I find are similar in the indirectness of Canadians, although I think Canadians are more polite by our stereotype :) English is a funny language.  It can be concise, but also incredibly tedious and unnecessary, depending on how large your vocabulary is.  Personally, I think it's unhelpful to use the many obscure and large words in English to describe something that might otherwise have been said more simply.

Yep Eddie Van Halen was born in Amsterdam but his mother was Indo-Eurasian from Java according to Wikipedia. Yep, I imagine there must have been some interesting overlaps of culture after several centuries of Dutch influence in Indonesia and vice versa. 

Hahaha!  Yes, EU could be seen as a dictatorship, I agree.  From my limited understanding, it sounds like austerity and policies that favour certain countries economically and banks.  So I can see how it would be such a huge issue.  Yes, the corporations moving offices due to uncertainties around taxation makes sense but even though we don't know what will happen, I do not think the UK will really miss them.  After all, new business can replace them there :) Perhaps if it works out for England, Holland and others will follow suit.

Ahh I see regarding the apartments.  Ugh, I hope it gets better for regular people to own. I guess it's tough in these desirable cities.  I think if I ever get the money for a property, it will be far in the country and I will rent it out for Airbnb and use it whenever I want to enjoy the country.

Thanks for the compliments regarding Canadian attitudes!  Yes I agree 100% though, the grass is greener is very much a factor in my fantasies of living somewhere else.  But it's still a worthwhile experience if you can do it.  Also, even though people with families and nice homes may look perfect, I am sure there are many who wish they could be free to travel and see other countries.  It's very cool you enjoy it!

Yeah I think I heard that about Holland.  That many of the buildings were already built long ago, so there is not much room for more and therefore it can be expensive relatively speaking no matter where you live?  Perhaps it's also due to the taxation?  Here taxes are high, but other than healthcare, you don't see much of it.  For example, we don't have universal drug coverage or dentistry still.  Or paid vacation days (this is worked out by your employer, like the US).  We don't even have free university or college, which puts us also in the same boat as Americans.  Only difference is that it is cheaper for Canadian citizens to borrow student loans than it is in the US. We also have the highest cell phone plans in the world and high electricity bills.  So sometimes you wonder what you did to upset the government so much that they want to squeeze you dry hahaha. Sorry about the rants by the way, you can see why I imagine myself living abroad 🤣 

Wow that commute sounded brutal! 5:00AM to 7/8PM!  Man I would hate that so much.  I'm glad you made the choice to earn a bit less and enjoy life.  We only have so much time on earth, so why not invent things and enjoy nature like we have done most of our history? 🙂 🙂 🙂 

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3. Great intermediate printer, the LulzBot Mini 2. ...
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8. The Toybox 3D Printer.

Hi Stillc,

for the price, this looks to be a decent printer for beginners.
This is a sub $300 printer (see price here), so I wouldn't expect miracles.

See also this All3dP review and this review of its predecessor. 
I did find this review as well, which seems positive when it comes to getting a cheap beginners printer.

One of the reasons why I would not buy it, is that leveling is done manual - which I found can be quite a pain.
But that's a personal preference. I'm sure there are users out there that have no issue with manual leveling (manual leveling of the plate on which the print is being made).
If you're patient, then this does not need to be a problem, and if you're just exploring 3D printing for the first time, this may be a good choice.

Having said that: a 3D printer that comes with auto leveling will also be more expensive.