Manjaro – Get that arduino to connect!

If you find that your Arduino isn’t connecting in Manjaro (and most other Linux flavors), you can run a command in terminal to give permission for your computer to connect.  You will want to run lsusb to find where your device is sitting, but for me this command works:

sudo chmod 666 /dev/bus/usb/003/*
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Encrypt your zip file in macOS

First make your compressed zip file as per usual.  Then use this command in Terminal:

zip -e nameOfNewSafeFile.zip nameOfOldFile.zip

Terminal will ask for a password – this is the password you want to use on the new file, not your local user password.

Happy encrypting!

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macOS Stickies not staying in place?

If your Stickies windows aren’t “sticking” in place on your external monitor, here’s the fix:

  1. Remove ~/Library/Saved Application States/com.apple.Stickies.savedState
  2. Close Stickies and reopen
  3. Enjoy!

Thanks go to Sera H for this fix from StackExchange!

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Handy macOS keyboard shortcuts

Every now and then I forget these two helpful macOS shortcuts – maybe others do too, so I’ve decided to share!

Immediate logout
Command + Option + Shift + Q

Show/hide hidden files
Command + Shift + .

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Axial SCX24 LED light pinout

It seems a popular thing to put additional lights onto SCX24’s of all flavors (C10, Deadbolt, Wrangler, Gladiator, and now the Bronco).  Interestingly though, no one seems to want to share information for how to add functioning brake lights and reverse lights.  I’ve created a pinout after putting tail lights, brake lights, and reverse lights on my C10.  Please do keep in mind that this is for the Axial AE-6 ESC/RX and may not be compatible with the newer SCX24’s that use different electronics.

Axial AE-6 LED Pinout

Axial AE-6 LED Pinout for tail lights, brake lights, and reverse lights.


Note:  To do the tail and brakelights as combination units with the same LED, I use a larger resistor to allow through about 5ma per LED for tail lights.  Then the brake controller turns on and sends a parallel charge to the LEDs giving an additional 15ma per LED.  You can sort this out by using a parallel resistor calculator and making sure that your two resistors together in parallel do no exceed the value you were looking for as a maximum for the LED you chose.

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