Mick Waites

UK based software developer and owner of Four Horses Ltd.

[Mick Waites @MickW8s]

@thatpixelguy I don’t remember that level… Are you making new ones?
😜

[Mick Waites @MickW8s]

Hmmm. Pretty sure I’ve flown a plane at a lower altitude than this seat….

[Mick Waites @MickW8s]

@solderparty @pimoroni @adafruit Yeah, floating on a nest of wires. Easy to remove and reuse on a custom PCB when I’m happy with the design.

[Mick Waites @MickW8s]

Half of my latest project with goodies from
@solderparty @pimoroni @adafruit.

It is a transmitter to change the display on an LED sign telling people when it is safe to enter our archery shooting range.

Still a bit of a prototype, needs an enclosure and a better antenna.

[Nindie Spotlight @NindieSpotlight]

Find out which diverse 20 #IndieGames under $5 are absolute steals right now on the #Nintendo #Switch eShop! #SwitchCorps
https://t.co/V4dBIPxF3P

[@[email protected] @RichardKogelnig]

Have some amusement on a Monday morning: A friend made a lunar lander game which hooks into the Windows copy dialog "While running, the app will detect all windows copy dialogs and paint a game overlay on top of them while they are focused." https://t.co/ghUeZic34e

[Mick Waites @MickW8s]

I took my first flight as a qualified pilot yesterday. The main perk is getting the passenger to do the work.

[Mick Waites @MickW8s]

My pilot licence arrived today.

[Mick Waites @MickW8s]

@WindRunnerShan Yeah, I’m in the North East so the scenery for my training has been fantastic. Much countryside. Plenty of fields for ditching in emergencies, and quite a few nice castles to spot. Found one on my cross country qualifier and decided to visit it with my wife for our anniversary.

[Mick Waites @MickW8s]

Today I completed the final requirement for my UK Private Pilot License after 45hrs real world training spread thinly over 2 years.

Using @MSFSofficial MS Flight Simulator to reinforce learning, pre-fly navigation exercises and reduce skills fade helped massively. Thank you.

[Mick Waites @MickW8s]

@WindRunnerShan I’d say so. Visual quality is compromised, but the freedom to look around naturally and the added depth perception just increase the realism by such a huge amount.

[Mick Waites @MickW8s]

@WindRunnerShan @MSFSofficial Yeah, a good force-feedback option on the yoke would be nice. I’m on the Honeycomb gear.

I’ve also got a decent VR headset, and that makes a huge amount of difference.

[Mick Waites @MickW8s]

@MSFSofficial Thank you.

[Mick Waites @MickW8s]

@petshopboys We just realised that the first time our son saw you live was at The Sage the night before his first day of high school.

Tonight we all see you at the Utilita Arena and today is his final day of high school. How cool is that?

[Mick Waites @MickW8s]

@petshopboys See you there!

[Mick Waites @MickW8s]

@pimoroni Can it be hooked up to a solar panel to charge when sunlight is available?

[Mick Waites @MickW8s]

@MrEdByrne I’d thank them for the compliment.

[Mick Waites @MickW8s]

@mark_mcgookin @solderparty I don’t know, I’d be surprised, though. Part of my aim was to avoid libs anyway, as I like to understand how it all works. I did the same driving a 32x32 RGB matrix from an Arduino Due. I had to crack out some ARM code to get the speeds I wanted.

[Mick Waites @MickW8s]

@mark_mcgookin @solderparty Right. I’m using C++ as I’ve never got round to learning Python and my day jobs require C.

I’m using both cores for the flight computer, mainly so that one is reserved for reading the rotary encoder fast enough to never miss. It also reads all the other inputs and updates state.

[Mick Waites @MickW8s]

@mark_mcgookin @solderparty 🤣 The Pico is an amazing chip. Perfect for my needs. Plenty fast, dual core, decent RAM, decent flash capacity for the code and you can use any unused flash for “save data”