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droneseco · 3 years

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The DDPai Mini5 Dash Cam Review: 4K Video, Convenient Onboard Storage, Terrible Audio

Mini5

8.00 / 10

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Despite a few glaring flaws, the 4K Mini5 from DDPai is still a pretty decent dashcam pick.

Key Features

Capacitor power

4K UHD resolution

Wide 140-degree field of view

Realcube color technology

64 GB eMMC onboard storage

Wide F1.8 aperture

6-axis gyro sensor with impact detection

H.265 hardware encoding, HiSilicon processor

8 MP CMOS Sony IMX415 sensor

GPS

Onboard ADAS

Parking mode

SR2.0 augmented reality

Specifications

Number of Cameras: 1

Front Camera Resolution: 3840x2160

Field of View: 140-degrees

Emergency Power: No

Brand: DDPai

Pros

Crisp 4K UHD footage

Discrete size

Removeable

Can be hardwired

Simple install

Loop recording

Cons

Excessive noise in low-light footage

Recorded sound quality is laughably bad

Frequent false alerts from ADAS system

App needs work

If onboard storage fails camera will need to be replaced

Banding/distortion in parts of the image

Potential to overheat

Buy This Product

Mini5 amazon

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One of the best ways to protect yourself from traffic tickets, insurance fraud, and terrible drivers is to install a dashcam into your vehicle. Dash cameras can record road rage, help you keep tabs on your teenager's driving habits, or even document exciting road trips. Adding this simple device can also help you capture evidence of who's at fault if you're in an accident.

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The newest dashboard camera from DDPai, the Mini5, offers the ability to record your commute in ultra-high definition 4K and features both 5GHz Wi-Fi and eMMC built-in storage. But is this the right dashcam for you? Today, we're test-driving the Mini5 to determine if it can take the checkered flag in the race for the best 4k dashboard camera.

Meet The DDPai Mini5

The Mini5 is a screen-less dash cam that records in 4k UHD. It offers 64 GB of built-in eMMC storage, uses Realcube image technology for bright, detailed images, and boasts a Sony IMX415 (8MP) image sensor. It's currently available on Amazon for $139.

The Mini5 also includes an advanced driver-assistance system (ADAS) with lane-assist, pedestrian detection, takeoff reminders, and collision avoidance. DDPai also states that its SR2.0 system allows viewing of real-time driving data. We're going to explore these features in-depth, but first, let talk about technical specifications.

Technical Specifications

All technical specifications were obtained directly from the DDPai website.

CPU: H.265 hardware encoding, HiSilicon processor

Wi-fi: 5 GHz

G-Sensor: Built-in 6-axis gyro sensor with motion locking and adjustable sensitivity

Storage: Built-in eMMC high-speed flash memory of 64GB (non-removable)

Loop recording: Yes

GPS: Yes

Video output: Wireless support including both Android and iOS devices (Can also access videos as a hard drive)

Lens: 140 degree wide-angle lens at f1.8

Image sensor: 8MP CMOS Sensor (Sony IMX415)

Image resolution: 3840x2160

RAM: 4 GB

Optimal Temperature Range: -4F - 158F (-20C - 70C)

What’s in the Box?

In the package for the Mini5, you'll get:

Dashcam unit

Mounting bracket

Power cable

12V USB charging plug

User guide

Installation tool

Additional 3M adhesive pad

Two Static Cling Films

Included in the test unit that DDPai sent to us was a hardwire installation kit that included three different types of wiring harness. These harnesses used different fuses and a length of cable to connect to the camera. We chose not to use this harness but wanted to mention that DDPai was kind enough to include it as part of our demo.

Note on hardwiring this dashboard camera: as an automotive industry insider, I can confidently tell you that externally wiring accessories into your fuse box or OBDII port can have some potentially damaging effects on the electrical system of your car.

Whenever possible, I always recommend that external accessories are kept separate from your vehicle's internal wiring. Additionally, if your car is still under manufacturer warranty you, should check with your dealer before hardwiring anything to ensure it won't negate your automobile's warranty.

Let's Install the Mini5 Dashboard Camera

The installation of this unit is easy out of the box. Simply choose a spot you'd like to place the camera, give the area a quick wipe down, remove the 3M adhesive, and stick the camera's mounting bracket to the windshield.

If you'd like, you can also use the included static films between the adhesive and the windshield to make removal easier. The mounting bracket has a slight tilt function to accommodate different windshield angles. The bracket holds the camera in place magnetically, which means you can remove it from the windshield if you're worried about someone swiping it.

Routing the wire for the camera was also easy, and the included installation tool made quick work of hiding the wires under the headliner, down the a-pillars, and under the dash. When finished, about a foot of wiring was left that I just stuffed behind a plastic panel to keep it out of the way. While there aren't any cable clips included for this unit, this doesn't limit the installation as long as you are conscious of where you're mounting the camera.

You also want to consider whether or not your vehicle has built-in ADAS before installation. If you have ADAS, check your vehicle's owner's manual to make sure you install the Mini5 in a spot where it won't interfere with the onboard system.

Once I plugged the Mini5 in and started the car, the camera greeted me with an enthusiastic "Hello, Ding Ding Pai!" before the light on the unit turned blue to indicate it was recording.

As mentioned above, there is the option to hardwire the Mini5 into the car as well. Doing so will allow you to monitor what's happening outside your vehicle while you're parked. Because I garage my vehicle, I felt that this feature wasn't worth tapping into the vehicle's fuse box. Instead, I plugged the Mini5 directly into the 12v power socket.

Key Features of the Mini5

The Mini5 offers an LED on the rear of the camera that will blink green if there is an issue with the unit's storage. Assuming the unit is in an area where you can easily see the LED, this should be all that you need to determine if the camera is working correctly.

For the Mini5, we think this is a great feature. If something goes wrong with your dashcam, it's always better to know about it before an accident occurs. The ability to see an indication of malfunction without opening the app is a massive plus for the Mini5.

Another feature that is worth noting is the built-in loop recording function. This function means you won't have to miss recording because your storage is full. In this case, the Mini5 will continue to overwrite the oldest video in favor of a more recent one. That means you don't have to bother with formatting SD cards or with swapping them out when one fills up.

While we're on the topic of storage, this unit uses 64 GB of eMMC memory for storage. This type of memory means that the transfer of videos to the internal storage is lightning fast compared to TF cards, but it also means that you don't have a way to repair storage that becomes corrupt. If the storage on this camera fails, then you'll be buying a whole new unit.

The Mini5 has a supercapacitor to power the device, and the camera can handle temperatures of -4F up to 158F. So even in extreme environments, the camera shouldn't complain. For folks like me, who live in New England, this is important. On the other hand, I have seen temps drop into the negative double digits here, so this might not be the best bet for frigid environments.

As for the sensor, the Mini5 sports an 8MP CMOS Sony IMX415. Sony's sensors are well-respected in the realm of dashboard cameras, and this sensor offers superb image reproduction with bright and reasonably accurate—though slightly over-saturated—colors.

The camera uses DDPai's Realcube color box technology and algorithm models for image processing. This technology offers a sharper focus and allows greater detail for reading things like road signs and license plates when reviewing footage.

The lens on this unit offers a 140-degree viewing angle and an f/1.8 aperture. The wide aperture means the camera can take in more light at night or in low-light environments.

The wide-angle is also great for getting a good look at the area surrounding your vehicle, so you don't lose critical contextual details if you wind up in a fender-bender. The lens on this unit is pretty sharp, though there is noticeable barrel distortion—that fisheye effect—toward the edges. But, with such a wide field of view, this isn't unexpected.

Finally, the Mini5 also takes advantage of SR2.0 (Sensor Reality), an augmented reality interface that allows access to real-time data like speed, turn, incline, decline, and lane change data. The camera uses an included high-precision 6-axis gyroscope sensor to generate this data.

This sensor also instructs the camera to take a snapshot if it senses an impact and sensitivity is adjustable. SR2.0 is a pretty neat feature, and it's nice to have access to that data within the video interface in case you're forced to answer questions like "do you know how fast you were going?"

Related: What is Spotify's Car Thing and How Does it Work?

Daytime and Nighttime Image Quality Testing With the Mini5

We wanted to test this unit both in the daytime and at night to determine if camera performance would suffer in low light. The performance of this unit was outstanding during the day, and both video and stills were decently sharp. It was easy to make out license plates and road signs when stopped. When in motion, the camera blurred the details a bit, but this is something that my research has shown to be common with most dash cams, regardless of manufacturer. Even the best quality dashboard camera and lens aren't going to be tack-sharp when moving 20 MPH or more.

As for low-light performance, the Mini5 did a decent job, though brightly lit street signs seemed to get blown out. There was also significant lens flare on passing street lights and headlights. It wasn't horrendous, but it was noticeable during playback. While it seems like the sensor on the Mini5 operates best in higher light situations, the low-light performance is good enough, though not mind-blowing. Additionally, to my eye, the barrel distortion is slightly more noticeable at night.

I should also mention that the camera breaks up recordings into 60-second intervals when directly accessing the device. You can extend this to 3 minutes by using the app.

Audio Recording and Alerts

This area is one where the Mini5 is seriously lacking. To us, audio recording is not as crucial in dashboard cameras, and some states won't let you record others without their consent (check your local laws), so this isn't much of an issue. Regardless, the audio recording feature of this camera is horrible.

Playback sounds like it was recorded while someone was trying to smother the driver with a damp blanket. Even at high volumes, the audio was muddy and almost useless. My advice in this department is to turn the audio recording function off and not bother with it unless it's an absolute emergency.

In addition to that, the alert functions of the Mini5 should also be disabled. The ADAS system constantly spouts phrases like "front car launching" and "too close to front car," even if you're operating your vehicle safely. At first, these alerts are amusing, but after about ten miles, the novelty has worn off, and notifications become annoying.

Related: The Aivo Connect is A Superb Way to Bring Alexa Into Your Car

The DDPai App

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Like most connected devices these days, the DDPai Mini5 has an app that is the primary means of control. To initiate the app, you power on the camera, then connect to its Wi-Fi via your phone's settings. From there, you can explore the Mini5's settings, as well as watch a live video feed. The app also has a community where DDPai camera users can share video footage and interact.

As for the app here, there were several problems using it. First was the fact that it would not establish a consistent connection to the camera. It usually took two or three tries before the app would allow you to enter the settings or the video feed. On occasion, the unit would drop the connection entirely. The whole app experience felt surprisingly unpolished for such an expensive unit, though this may change as DDPai upgrades.

The only practical purpose of this app, for me at least, was to change the Mini5's settings. Once you set everything up the way you like it, though, it's almost easier to remove the camera from your vehicle and connect it to your computer when you'd like to monitor footage.

Download: DDPai for iOS | Android (Free)

Is the Mini5 Dash Cam Worth It?

There is a lot about the Mini5 that warrants consideration if you're in the market for a dashboard camera. If you turn the alerts and ADAS system off, this camera provides a hassle-free way of keeping track of your commute. You plug it in and let it record.

Removability is another excellent feature of the Mini5. It's small enough to fit in a purse or pocket if you're not comfortable leaving it mounted to your windshield. It's also quick to reinstall once you're back in the car.

The loop recording is also helpful, and it's nice not to worry about swapping out memory cards. This camera will be a solid pick for those users who prefer to be hands-off with their in-car electronics.

Image quality is also above average, letting you see tiny details that might be important if you're in an accident or need to fight a traffic ticket. Additionally, the camera is small enough that it doesn't attract much attention.

Finally, the installation was a breeze, and the two ways to power this camera are nice if you need options or only have one 12V power socket.

What's Not to Love?

There are three main gripes that I have with this camera. The first is sound. Recording playback is painful, and the ADAS and alerts systems aren't very useful in their current state. While lane departure and collision detection are essential to some people, most modern vehicles have these features already built-in. The numerous false alerts from the ADAS system of the Mini5 were also relatively obnoxious after a bit, so turning off the speaking aspects of this unit is advisable.

My second concern is the app interface. This app needs some significant work to feel user-friendly. The camera fails to connect half of the time, despite the strong Wi-Fi signal, and sometimes the camera's wireless network isn't even broadcast.

The DDPai app is probably one of the worst apps I've seen for any electronic device in recent years. The rating on the iOS app store is a scant two stars, and the rating on the Google Play store is only one star higher.

Finally, I see the built-in storage as a potential problem here. Because this is non-removable storage, if it fails, then the entire camera will need to be replaced.

Can You Repair the Mini5?

This unit is not repairable. When it stops working, you'll have to buy another one. DDPai offers a one-year warranty against any manufacturer defects.

Should You Buy the Mini5 by DDPai

For folks looking to buy a mid-tier 4K UHD dashboard camera, the Mini5 will scratch the itch. It's a decent unit with some great features. If you don't need onboard audio for your recordings, then you'll do just fine with this unit.

Also, if you don't mind connecting the camera to your computer to download footage, then the Mini5 will serve your needs well. It does what a dashboard camera is supposed to do—records excellent-looking video that will keep people honest.

But, if you're looking for a solid app interface, removable storage, and audio that doesn't sound like it was recorded underwater, then the DDPai Mini5 isn't for you. In that case, other options on the market demonstrate better quality at only a slightly higher price.

Overall, the Mini5 gets the job done, and without audio cues enabled, you can forget it's there. While this might sound like a bad thing, a dashboard camera should be unobtrusive. It shouldn't be so noticeable you think about it every time you look out the windshield. At this feat, the Mini5 excels. It disappears until you need it, and that is probably my favorite feature.

The DDPai Mini5 Dash Cam Review: 4K Video, Convenient Onboard Storage, Terrible Audio published first on http://droneseco.tumblr.com/

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steelframers · 4 years

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PCB (Printed Circuit Board) Design and Routing Tips as well as Methods

PCB (Printed Circuit Board) Design and Routing Tips as well as Practices

4layers pcb produce 1. Introduction A new PCB is a branded circuit panel. PCBs usually are a part of all of our everyday lives; Computers, Cellphones, Calculators, Wrist-watches and every single electricity component we communicate with each day. This content is targeted at authorities who will be familiar with Equipment design and also have PCB layout background. special offer for 2layers pcb 2 . Shaping the actual PCB The commonest shape with regard to PCB is usually rectangle. Several people also prefer to get the corners rounded, that decreases the possibility associated with edge-cracking. Is very important of PCB highly is dependent upon where anyone are going to spot the board, and what your mechanical specifications tend to be (the final pack just where the product is placed). Normally, there are 4 big cracks in the particular board, each hole inside one corner. These holes are used to carry the board into position employing a patch or some sort of PCB holder. The height is usually more than 2 millimeters, and it is plated. three or more. How many layers to use? Now we get to the next phase, how many layers should all of us use? This highly depends on the maximum frequency utilized in the design, how a lot of components you have, regardless of whether you have Ball-Grid-Array components not really, and most essential of all, exactly how compacted your design is. To get systems running around 80 MHz, usually they have ok to use 2 Tiers, should it be achievable to path the panel doing so. Consider Chemical. E. Certification in addition to FCC regulations in consideration. Almost all of the times, the require a maximum of -130dBm emission on community broadcast band (FM 80-108MHz). That can be problematic if you use a new high-current clock operating among 45 to 80 MHz (The second harmonic could be among 80 to 160 MHz, which can easily violate these rules). For programs running above 80MHz, it is very important to consider using far more cellular levels, (4 is very good example). You will discover 2 methods in 5 layers: Top and base layers may be Ground in addition to Electrical power planes. The middle tiers used for routing. Top in addition to bottom layers made use of for indication, Middle tiers used for planes The first method has the top notch signal quality, because alerts are sandwiched among a couple power planes, and as a result, you could minimum emission. The secondly process can make course-plotting easy, when you will not really need a via (vertical interconnect access) for each and every flag, as the green resides for a passing fancy signalling layer. Further more, the interior aeroplanes can have multiple of the islands, to cover all your power demands, reducing the via count up even additional. BUT this method can be extremely tricky, and it is usually extremely important NEVER TO bust power planes underneath dangerously fast signal, as this can result into a return path picture, making unwanted emission more prone to occur. Using considerably more layers always results in quality of product, however it will make it far more expensive to develop, particularly in the prototyping stage. (The change between 2 layers original and 4-6 layers, can be as high as few one hundred dollars dollars). The six-layer+ technique is almost ideal. Applying top along with bottom part as power-planes and inner layers with regard to routing can prevent emission, increase resistance to noise and considerably reduce design initiatives, as there are more levels to apply for routing. Impedance-matching can be performed easily, and most of us will cover this section for high-speed signals. 4. Arranging layers for Impedance-matching On this point I suppose you managing high-speed process which has SSTL, HSTL, LVDS, RSDS, GTL+, High speed TTL and other speedy interconnections (USB HS, 2 . 5Gbps PCI-Express, etc. ). These routings require specific considerations. The lines call for impedance-matching. For many newcomers, this is often a questioning term. Often the difference between Impedance along with Resistance is great. If you need resistance matching, it is simple to use a resistor along with be done with it. Impedance matching, on the other hand, has obtained nothing to do having resistors. It depends on the Size of the track, the underside power-plane, whether is it Strip-Line (Surrounded between two power planes) or uStrip (which suggests has a electrical power plane within it, although the other part is definitely free, as in TopLayer or BottomLayer). To obtain a certain impedance on the track, it is best to carefully decide on these guidelines. Use a impedance calculator (search google) to find the right principles for width, top above the power-plane, and width of the metallic layer, to be able to achieve the sought after impedance (usually 50 or maybe 70 ohms). Be encouraged that will a miss-matched impedance relationship (especially on RF, Speedy USB, SATA or PCI-Express, and memory lines including SSTL or HSTL), and also the board fail without obvious reasons. This can push you to get for the next original, without ever finding what exactly triggered the first original to fail. your five. Power-planing. Power-islands are the most essential factors in a high-speed digital design. An FPGA or perhaps high-speed processor panel together with in-accurate power-planing can easily be very unsound. Throughout early days, you might way power tracks any little bigger than signal-tracks, and handled them similar to normal connections. Today, the actual story is different. When you use and FPGAs or Excessive processors, you should realize that a big number of flip-flops are transferring at any given moment within your system. Their switching causes a huge amount of present going back-and-forward through their own electrical power and ground pin codes. The ground-pins in this specific case can create ground-bounce if the amount involving current (and especially typically the slew-rate) is actually high. My partner and i must remind a person involving the famous V=L. di/dt (Delta-Voltage equals inductance by current-rate). If you work with a the path (for instance) to path ground indication, you will have various voltages on each aspect with the track. It will be very funny in order to have +0. 5V using one side of your floor, as well as -1V on the actual other side. This can trigger COMPLETE SYSTEM FAILING. From the experiencing this issue in early days, which forced me to be able to problem even the very essential entire body rules I understood. Discovering this bug may be difficult, and possibly in case discovered, you will certainly have no choice but to produce another prototype. Often the same principle applies with regard to power-plane a couple. You can easily have drops in many tracks if you complete not use a plane, or a large power-islands, to aid your power voltage. Using a greater number of decoupling capacitors is extremely recommended for dangerously fast and high-powered processors/FPGAs, in close proximity to their particular power lines. Often the RF section, and the power-supply switching sections needs exclusive care for their ground-planes. Their islands should end up being isolated from the system ground-plane, and will need to have tracks joining your changing island in order to system terrain (the songs should be okay in order to have near-zero DC weight, but not more). This is because moving over and RF section, can produce mounds on ground-plane, that may generate ground-bounce on your techniques ground. You can search google with this subject if you need more clarification.

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yogaburnchallenge8-blog · 4 years

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PCB (Printed Circuit Board) Layout and Routing Tips and also Tactics

PCB (Printed Circuit Board) Layout and Routing Tips and also Methods

fast pcb supply 1. Introduction A new PCB is a imprinted circuit mother board. PCBs usually are a part of all of our everyday lives; Computers, Cellphones, Calculators, Wrist-watches and every single electrical component we work together with each day. This content is targeted at specialists who will be familiar with Equipment design and possess PCB style background. ultrafast pcb prototype minimal payments Shaping the PCB The commonest shape with regard to PCB is usually rectangle. Several people also would prefer to get the corners rounded, because decreases the possibility regarding edge-cracking. The shape of PCB highly depends on where you actually are going to place the board, and exactly what your mechanical prerequisites are usually (the final field just where the product is placed). Commonly, there are some big slots in the actual board, each opening throughout one corner. These holes are used to hold the board available making use of a patch or the PCB holder. The diameter is more than 2 millimeters, and it is plated. three or more. How many layers to make use of? Now we get to help the next step, exactly how many layers should most of us use? This highly depends upon the maximum frequency utilized in the look, how a lot of components you have, whether or not you have Ball-Grid-Array components not really, and most critical of all, just how dense your design is usually. Intended for systems running about 85 MHz, usually they have okay to use 2 Levels, should it be achievable to option the mother board doing so. Get Chemical. E. Certification in addition to FCC regulations in thought. Most of the times, the require a more -130dBm emission on open radio stations band (FM 80-108MHz). This kind of can be problematic when you use some sort of high-current clock operating between 30 to 80 MHz (The second harmonic will be involving 80 to a hundred and sixty MHz, which can easily violate these rules). For systems running above 80MHz, it is significant to consider using considerably more levels, (4 is fine example). You can find 2 practices in some layers: Best and base layers can be Ground along with Power planes. The middle levels used for routing. Top rated as well as bottom layers employed for indication, Middle levels used for planes The particular first method has the excellent signal quality, due to the fact alerts are sandwiched involving a pair of power planes, in addition to as a result, you may have minimum emission. The secondly approach can make redirecting easy, because you will not need a via (vertical interconnect access) for each and every pin number, as the pin resides within the exact same signalling stratum. Further more, the inner aircraft can have multiple countries, to cover all your personal power requirements, reducing typically the via depend even further more. BUT this method can be very tricky, and it is extremely important NOT TO EVER crack power planes beneath excessive signal, as this appear into a return way trap, making unwanted emission apt to occur. Using far more coatings always results straight into top quality of product, but it can make it more expensive to develop, mainly in the prototyping stage. (The distinction between 2 layers nouveau modele and 4-6 layers, will be as high as few one hundred dollars dollars). The six-layer+ technique is virtually ideal. Employing top in addition to bottom coating as power-planes and internal layers with regard to routing can certainly prevent emission, increase resistance to noise and substantially reduce design work, while there are more cellular levels to use for routing. Impedance-matching can be performed easily, and all of us will cover this regarding high-speed signals. four. Organizing layers for Impedance-matching In this point I assume you managing high-speed process which has SSTL, HSTL, LVDS, RSDS, GTL+, Excessive TTL and other high speed interconnections (USB HS, 2 . 5Gbps PCI-Express, etc. ). These routings require particular considerations. The lines require impedance-matching. For many starters, this can be a questioning term. The difference in between Impedance along with Resistance is fantastic. If an individual need resistance matching, you can actually use a resistor along with be carried out with it. Impedance matching, alternatively, has received nothing to do together with resistors. It depends with the Width of often the track, the underside power-plane, whether is it Strip-Line (Surrounded between two energy planes) or uStrip (which signifies has a power plane under it, but the other part is actually free, as in TopLayer or BottomLayer). To attain a certain impedance on the track, it is best to carefully select these variables. Use a impedance calculator (search google) to find the appropriate prices for width, level on the power-plane, and width in the metallic layer, for you to achieve the preferred impedance (usually 50 or seventy-five ohms). Be recommended in which a miss-matched impedance network (especially on RF, High-Speed USB, SATA or PCI-Express, and memory lines including SSTL or HSTL), create the board fail without obvious reasons. This will push you to head out for the next prototype, without ever finding what exactly caused the first type to fail. 5. Power-planing. Power-islands are one the most critical factors in a dangerously fast electronic digital design. An FPGA or even high-speed processor aboard along with in-accurate power-planing may be very unsound. Throughout early days, you could possibly course power tracks any little larger than signal-tracks, and taken care of them such as normal connections. Today, the particular story is different. If you utilize and FPGAs or Dangerously fast processors, you should understand that a large number associated with flip-flops are transitioning in any given moment inside your system. Their switching the huge amount of existing proceeding back-and-forward through their very own electrical power and ground pin codes. Often the ground-pins in that case can create ground-bounce if the amount connected with current (and especially the particular slew-rate) is high. My partner and i must remind anyone connected with the famous V=L. di/dt (Delta-Voltage equals inductance a current-rate). If you utilize a trail (for instance) to path ground signal, you will have distinct voltages on each part on the track. It will probably be very interesting to help have +0. 5V using one side of your terrain, in addition to -1V on typically the other side. This will probably result in COMPLETE SYSTEM MALFUNCTION. I remember experiencing this challenge in early time, which often forced me to help issue even the very basic physique rules I knew. Discovering this kind of bug can easily be difficult, and even if discovered, you will have no choice although to make another prototype. Often the same rule applies regarding power-plane two. You could easily have drops in most tracks if you do not use a jet, or a large power-islands, to compliment your power discorde. Employing a greater number associated with decoupling capacitors is really recommended for high-speed and high-powered processors/FPGAs, near their power lines. The actual RF section, and the power-supply switching sections needs particular care for their ground-planes. Their very own islands should possibly be isolated from the system ground-plane, and will need to have tracks attaching your changing island to help system terrain (the paths should be large enough for you to have near-zero DC level of resistance, but not more). That is because moving over and RF section, can create swells on ground-plane, which could generate ground-bounce on your techniques ground. You can research google within this subject if you need more explanation.

0 notes

fastpcbsupply · 4 years

Text

PCB (Printed Circuit Board) Layout and Routing Tips along with Methods

fast pcb supply 1. Introduction

Some sort of PCB is a branded circuit panel. PCBs tend to be a part of each of our everyday lives; Computers, Cell phones, Calculators, Wrist-watches and each electrical power component we work together with each and every day.

fast pcb supply

This write-up is targeted at pros which are familiar with Computer hardware design and still have PCB layout background.

second . Shaping the actual PCB

The most prevalent shape with regard to PCB is usually rectangle. A lot of people also would prefer to get the corners rounded, since this decreases the possibility involving edge-cracking. The contour of PCB highly depends upon where anyone are going to area the table, and exactly what your mechanical demands are usually (the final field exactly where the product is placed).

Normally, there are some big gaps in the particular board, each opening throughout one corner. These openings are used to carry the board available applying a patch or some sort of PCB holder. The height is usually more than 2 millimeters, in addition to it is plated.

several. How many layers to make use of?

Now we get in order to the next action, exactly how many layers should all of us use? This highly will depend on the maximum frequency utilized in the look, how a lot of components you have, no matter if you have Ball-Grid-Array ingredients not really, and most essential of all, just how compressed your design is definitely.

Intended for systems running approximately 85 MHz, usually really fine to use 2 Cellular levels, should it be probable to way the aboard doing so. Acquire M. E. Certification as well as FCC regulations in thought. Almost all of the times, typically the require a more -130dBm emission on open public stereo band (FM 80-108MHz). This particular can be problematic in the event that you use a new high-current clock operating among forty five to 80 MHz (The second harmonic can be in between 80 to one hundred sixty MHz, which can easily disobey these rules).

For techniques running above 80MHz, it is significant to consider using far more cellular levels, (4 is fine example).

There are actually 2 methods in 5 layers:

Best and bottom level layers could be Ground and also Electrical power planes. The middle coatings used for routing. Leading along with bottom layers applied for transmission, Middle levels used for aeroplanes

Typically the first method has the good signal quality, considering that alerts are sandwiched involving 2 power planes, in addition to as a result, you could minimum emission.

The subsequent technique can make direction-finding easy, while you will not necessarily need a via (vertical interconnect access) for every single flag, as the green resides for a passing fancy signalling coating. Further more, the inner airplanes can have multiple of the islands, to cover all your own personal power demands, reducing often the via count up even further more. BUT this method are often very tricky, and it

is actually extremely important NOT TO EVER bust power planes below excessive signal, as this appear into a return way hook, making unwanted release prone to occur.

Using considerably more tiers always results straight into good quality of product, nevertheless it could make it much more expensive to develop, particularly in the prototyping stage. (The variation between 2 layers type and 4-6 layers, is really as high as few number of dollars).

The six-layer+ approach is virtually ideal. Applying top as well as bottom level as power-planes and dimensions layers regarding routing can certainly prevent release, increase opposition to noise and also substantially reduce design endeavours, while there are more cellular levels to utilize for routing. Impedance-matching is possible easily, and we all will cover this intended for high-speed signals.

four. Preparing layers for Impedance-matching

With this point I think you coping with high-speed technique which has SSTL, HSTL, LVDS, RSDS, GTL+, Dangerously fast TTL and other high speed interconnections (USB HS, 2 . not 5Gbps PCI-Express, etc. ). These routings require unique considerations. The lines call for impedance-matching. For many starters, landscaping design questioning term. Often the difference concerning Impedance along with Resistance is wonderful. If you actually need resistance matching, you can actually use a resistor in addition to be finished with it.

Impedance matching, in contrast, has acquired nothing to do along with resistors. It depends about the Girth of the actual track, the underside power-plane, whether is it Strip-Line (Surrounded between two electrical power planes) or uStrip (which signifies has a electric power plane beneath it, although the other part will be free, as in TopLayer or BottomLayer).

To obtain a clear impedance on any track, you must carefully decide on these guidelines. Use a impedance calculator (search google) to find the appropriate prices for width, top over a power-plane, and density from the metallic layer, to be able to achieve the ideal impedance (usually 50 or even 80 ohms).

Be encouraged in which a miss-matched impedance interconnection (especially on RF, Speedy USB, SATA or PCI-Express, and memory lines for instance SSTL or HSTL), create the board fail with virtually no obvious reasons. This will certainly power you to get for the next nouveau modele, without ever finding just what brought on the first modele to fail.

your five. Power-planing.

Power-islands are the most crucial factors in a dangerously fast a digital design. An FPGA or perhaps high-speed processor mother board together with in-accurate power-planing may be very volatile. Throughout early days, you could possibly course power tracks some sort of little much wider than signal-tracks, and taken care of them similar to normal internet connections. Today, the particular story is different.

The use of and FPGAs or Excessive processors, you should recognize that a large number connected with flip-flops are transitioning with any given moment in the system. Their switching the huge amount of latest planning back-and-forward through their own energy and ground codes. The actual ground-pins in this particular case can create ground-bounce if the amount associated with current (and especially typically the slew-rate) is usually high. My spouse and i must remind a person regarding the famous V=L. di/dt (Delta-Voltage equals inductance times current-rate). If you employ a keep tabs on (for instance) to path ground sign, you will have distinct voltages on each aspect in the track. It may be very interesting for you to have +0. 5V during one side of your floor, as well as -1V on often the other side.

This can lead to COMPLETE SYSTEM INABILITY. From the experiencing this matter in early nights, which often forced me to help problem even the very standard technique rules I recognized. Discovering this specific bug can easily be difficult, and possibly in the event discovered, you will probably have no choice however to make another prototype.

The particular same concept applies to get power-plane a couple of. You could easily have drops in most tracks if you accomplish not use a planes, or a large power-islands, to compliment your power brouille. Employing a greater number involving decoupling capacitors is remarkably recommended for speedy and also high-powered processors/FPGAs, next to their particular power lines.

Typically the RF section, and the power-supply switching sections needs specific care for their ground-planes. Their very own islands should always be isolated in the system ground-plane, and need to have tracks attaching your transferring island in order to system surface (the paths should be okay to be able to have near-zero DC level of resistance, but not more). This specific is because changing along with RF section, can cause swells on ground-plane, which will make ground-bounce on your devices ground. You can look for google for this subject in case you need more reason.

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originaldetectivesheep · 6 years

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A Life of Riley Part 2: The Building That Had A Grudge Against Furniture Or Something ch 5

Chapter 4

If you were desperately looking for an upside in this stupid goddamned mess that we had gotten ourselves into, like we were, the fact that Riley showed up with the blueprints and the coveralls and an explanation before the backhoe started tearing up the lawn and the sidewalk and half the garage access would count as a small blessing. It was a real, real, real small one, though, because we barely had time to get changed and get down to the machine room before the heavy construction equipment started off on a tear practically right under our windows. "Riley, is that your bulldozer?" I asked, pulling my hair back into a ponytail and tucking the end into the collar of my cheap gray jumpsuit. "Because I thought we were just going to be working here in the machine room – why is the whole front of the condos getting torn up?"

"Partly," Riley said, spreading out a large-scale architectural blueprint of the complex across a wilting half-ping-pong table that Remy and Yuping had salvaged from somewhere, "because without a big-ass distraction out front, people might notice the stuff we're loading down in here, partly because we need to reuse the culvert that the stream we're moving is routed through right now, and partly because daylighting that dumb creek that got buried for this place makes the perfect cover story for all the other construction we're going to be doing. Just think about it for a second: this place is losing money hand over fist, and what gets all those hipsters that hang around the architecture school wishing they had the math scores to get in or the daddy's-money to major in urban planning wetter faster than daylighting every random inch-wide open sewer anyone can dig up on a map from a hundred years ago? It's exactly the kind of twee-ass friggin thing that developers would lean into to save a place like this, and they're going to be dragging in so much crap to build up their Disneyland landscaped storm drain that people won't pay any attention to a few more crates into the machine room." Riley traced out the proposed daylighting course, and marked how it connected to the existing culvert – a culvert that as far as I could tell was running nearly under our feet here.

"Okay," I said, "and if they're going to get a nice water feature out of it I can see why the developers would be paying for it, but there was something else there – why the culvert? What do we need that for?" There was a clatter behind me, and I turned around to see Leo bent over, breathing hard, a regiment's worth of picks and sledgehammers and stuff with their heads on the floor and their handles leaned on his stooped shoulders; behind him, Carolína was staggering down the stairs with an armload of what looked like crowbars and mortar-spreaders.

"You're not going to like this, Saj," Riley said through a grim-set jaw, "but this one is going to be friggin complicated. I thought when we first took this that it was going to be another hyperfold, like that accident with the disnub phlogistihedron or whatever that Carolína got stuck in last term – and that some idiot was running around on a collapsed infinite lattice and it only looked like someone was messing around with the state space. In that case, it woulda been simple: you get someone into it, someone like you or Remy who can throw a punch if they gotta, and then mark out the anchor points, use the dislocator to reachieve continuity, and the friggin hyperfold will unfold itself – three-space doesn't want to get crumpled up like that, so if you just get the right quantum hammer out, shit will tend to fix itself." I nodded, but tentatively; I remembered that stupid thing with Riley's old wackadoodle roommate and his impossible origami polyhedron, and how Carolína had gotten stuck outside of reachable three-dimensional space for most of three days when she went back over – and now that was supposed to have been the easy, simple, normal case of whatever Riley was now considering to be 'complicated'. This was going to suck – even worse than it did already.

"From everything that I've been able to pick up around here, though," Riley said, tossing a welding glove hand to hand to vaguely imply the room and the condo complex around us, "there's nothing folded up here. Now, that doesn't mean there's no fold – all it means is that I can't judge the fold, which points to a fold, if there is one, which is still the simplest friggin explanation, that involves the fucking q axis instead of or in addition to some subset of x-y-z that isn't the full set and thus detectable by normal three-space physics tools." Riley snorted and threw the glove onto the table. "So at a minimum we have, in that case, an agency that either can make a fold in q, which we can't, or an agency that's gotten stuck in a maybe-accidental fold in q and is twiddling its goddamned thumbs there eating people's microwaves." Riley turned back to me; probably Leo and Carolína had already gotten this spiel while I was struggling with how these coveralls were cut in the hips. "I'm doing a poll: what do you call an agent that can move in q?"

I gave Riley a look. "Everyone moves in q – we're all moving in q right now."

"We're moving along q, and that makes all the difference in the world." Riley picked up the glove again; there was some kind of a beeping upstairs, like someone was backing a heavy truck in. "We move along q through hyperspace with all the rest of the x-y-z complex; I'm talking an agent, potentially an intelligent agent, that moves in time like we can go left-right forward-back up-down. If something is taking the lamps and couches, rather than them falling through holes in three-space – which, I remind you, don't exist as such because whatever fold there is or isn't here isn't hitting all three of our normal axes – then that's per se a higher-order intelligent being. Not more intelligent, not superman-superior – but something that's as different from us and as alien to our way of thinking as we are to a goddamned pencil sketch."

"So you do think there's a ghost or a god or a demon here," I said, not sure what to believe.

Riley shrugged. "Call it what you like; that's what I was asking for. But a rose by any other name would still got its needs: and that's what we need the culvert for, the culvert and these tools – and Remy and Yuping, when they can start getting goddamned down here with the dislocator assemblies." Riley bent over, squinting around and up the stairs; the guys obviously still hadn't unloaded those parts from the truck or whatever.

"I'm sorry, Riley," I said again, "but I still don't follow."

Riley gave up on the stairs and sauntered back to the parabola valleys of the dying ping-pong table. "So after I reasoned out that we had a probably higher-order entity here, something with agency in q, I did some thinking; you should never, when you run into a new observation or a new principle in science, assume that just because this is the first time somebody noticed it, it's the first time in the history of the goddamned universe that it's happened. So I thought, okay, we've got a higher-order agency here, and we obviously can't credit everything in folklore because humans are huge liars all the damn time and stories spread, but what do people pretend to know about these kinds of intelligences? Gods or demons or spirits or ghosts or what the hell ever all over the world, you strip off all the paint and stage dressing, and what do you got? That you can make deals with them under the right circumstances, and they like it when you give them stuff. Offerings, sacrifices; there's always a way to cut a deal. So what I'm betting is that whatever's stuck in this fold we can't find or unfold here will respond within those parameters once we get it nailed down, and that we can offer it a better deal than it got from whatever orisha got evicted to put up your little party pad."

"You're going to renegotiate the demon's contract?" I asked; this was if anything getting less clear. "How? With what?"

"How, yeah, I'm still working on that," Riley said, scratching at a stray neck pimple. "We'll cross that bridge when we come to it." A super reassuring sentence from someone who'd just admitted the likelihood of higher-dimensional intelligences. "But with what, that's fuckin' easy. Everything back to the book of goddamned Genesis is on board: these things want live flesh instead of dead planks. There's no way this thing's going to keep eating its last contract's endtables and TV stands when we can pipe it straight in grinckles." Grinckles. Again. Of course. The culvert, the stream – the fish had been mostly driven off campus, but not out of town, and now were were going to be driving them in here into the basement to buy off a demon. I took a moment, squatting down, double facepalming like that was going to help, as the top of the stairs rattled and the others moved out of the way to let Yuping and Remy start bringing the quantum-state dislocator down piece by piece.

The first parts down, though, weren't the familiar controls or even the containment-cell panels that had been the biggest culprits in how there was no space in the lab for the longest time. It was me and Carolína putting them together as the guys dragged them down, and what was emerging out of the greasy machine parts was, at least to start, a gigantic bank of extremely-high-voltage pass-through capacitors: a power supply assembly that was more on the scale of a railgun to launch spaceships than anything we'd ever built in the lab…yet. "Riley," I asked, locking the ears of a mains plug in place and then turning the screws down to make sure that the connection was secure, "is this really safe? This is a lot more potential power than we've ever put through the dislocator before – are you sure this is going to work, and not just melt down all around us?"

Riley squinted through the eyepiece of a short-legged transit, checking the level or the range to the back wall or something, and stood up with a snort. "If it slags, it slags; not that much we can do about it." Remy and Leo were coming down the stairs with a tall, heavy chunk of steel and glass – one of the panels for the dislocator's containment cell – and Riley moved out of the way, motioning them towards the far wall. "One of the things about the physical universe, though, is that if you want something out of it, you can generally do it if you dump in enough energy to get it past its moment of inertia. I'm betting that there's a fold somewhere around in here, like I was saying, and if we can throw enough giga-electron-volts through it, we can pin it back a little, even if it's partway on q. Yeah, it's not exact, but if we wanted to be sure and theoretically perfect and delicate with our energy budgets, we'd be up sipping tea with the string-theory bozos in Wetmore Hall. This is Applied Physics – as the founder of our discipline said back a couple thousand years ago, give us a lever and a place to stand and we'll move the world. It's just that this lever, if we really rigged it up for pure throughput, could pull enough juice to brown out the friggin Three Gorges." Riley paused for a moment, admiring the technological terror we were putting back together in our condo's basement.

"But yeah, the contain on this is probably going to be pretty sloppy. If you had anything important, you'd probably want to put in a Faraday cage – like up on campus, though; you'd probably need a 150-millimeter lead castle down here. And it would've been smarter to do it yesterday, before I started pulsing around with the small unit off the truck; anyway, just worry about getting those capacitor cells lined up and drawing out of the mains. We're not going to be able to make necessary throughput off the power the city can get us through those wires – what we get from the power supplies is easily ninety percent of our uptime." Behind Riley, Leo and Yuping were settling another containment panel in place; I could be wrong, but it sure looked like Riley's big plan for finding or contacting this demon was to ramp up as much power through the quantum-state dislocator as possible and hope it wandered into the beam. That was fine as a dumb hypothesis went, but the last time that we tried to overvolt the dislocator like that, something in the power supply failed, and nearly burned a hole in the floor – and that was with only one of these mega-capacitance cells.

"Right, if the shielding's up and all the power's drawing, then as soon as we can get the friggin beam housing down, Sajitha and Carolína will get it coupled in and check all the connections and software while Remy and Leo go knock a hole in the culvert and wedge the goddamn fish grate in. Bira, that dude that Sandra's got running the construction crew, says they've got water into the surface cut; that's all we need, the fish'll go up that way until we can get the lures and crap in." Riley flipped through some papers on top of the blueprints, checking on something. "Yuping and I will bring in the beam as soon as the generator head is on line, then Yuping, you have to go and get the rest of the stuff together." Yuping nodded, but with a roll of his eyes, like whatever that 'rest of the stuff' Riley was putting on him was so dumb and unnecessary that even he would push back on it. I raised my hand.

"Riley, if we need to move fast I can help dig. We've already gotten all the power connections together, and I'm buffer than Leo, and he's nearly as good as Carolína at equipment ops. Wouldn't that be easier?"

Riley shut me down with an upheld hand. "No, Saj, I need you in here to bring the beam in, in case I have to hop on something else while Yuping's out collecting the crutches and our fish specialist." Yeah, that was pretty goddamned stupid, and it totally explained why he didn't want to do it. "Just do your job and get the equipment up and running; you can let Leo go and get sweaty with Remy just this once. You'll have all the time you like once this shit's done and you can be sure the mattress isn't going to bamf out from under you." I gritted my teeth as Riley turned back away to check something in the containment panels; Remy's eyes met mine as he and Leo set down the main beam generator module, and he quickly turned away before coming around to a half-look back.

"Say, thanks, Sajitha, even – I –"

"Save it," Riley cut across, pointing at the pile of rock-breaking tools randomly stacked around the foot of the stairs. "Hands, move; you've got two feet of concrete between the wall and the culvert to get chunked out. I need live fish and a hot beam, and until we got those, you can keep your hands to yourselves and your parts in your pants." Remy took up a pick in his left hand and a sledgehammer almost effortlessly in his right; he looked back at me – Riley was checking something else on the blueprints and talking up at probably the construction foreman by phone – as he turned for the other door towards the room closest to the culvert, but I stayed ducked down, working on hooking up the main dislocator module, not looking for his gaze. It wasn't that there was anything there – not that there hadn't been all the way along, which was nothing, of course. There wasn't anything wrong about wanting to watch Remy's muscles working, back and shoulders and arms slinging a pick to smash through and break the rock apart, to chip in on my own controlling a heavy hammer and show him that I could handle myself, handle some of the physical work once in a while; nothing that ought to get Carolína smiling like that at least.

I closed up the interconnect and booted the dislocator controls off the on-board battery, making sure that it wouldn't be exposed to the capacitor cells until Riley was ready to go for the big time. If this stupid thing could just work, and solve the appliance disappearances, and additionally not set everything on fire and wipe every hard drive for eight blocks around; if it could just work correctly without somehow getting even stranger, then Riley and Carolína and whoever could ride me and Remy up and down and back and forward about whatever dumb not-happening relationship they liked. If it could just work.

Chapter 6

#nanowrimo #alifeofriley #fiction

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braincoins · 7 years

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Title: The Good That I Can Do Fandom: “Voltron: Legendary Defender” Summary: Allura’s helping the paladins out so Shiro can have a day off Ships: Shallura, background Klance Warnings: Barely-edited silliness Author’s Notes: There’s some stuff mentioned that won’t make sense if you haven’t read the rest of the Connection-verse. Short version though? Shiro’s got a new, non-Galra arm because the Galra one was corrupting him, and also Allura piloted the Black Lion for a bit and formed Voltron with everyone. Knowing that, you should be good to go.

It’s just something cute and sweet, okay? (Actually, this would’ve had more significance with EH3, but... OH WELL.)

(3,286 words - also on AO3)

Allura walked into the dining room alone that morning, and pretended not to notice everyone’s surprise. “Where’s Shiro?” Keith asked as she took her seat at the head of the table.

“He needs a day off to rest,” she said, and braced for impact.

“Yeah, I’ll bet he does.” There it was. From Lance, of course.

“Lance,” Pidge hissed at him.

But, of course, he ignored her, still grinning over at Allura. “You two stay up too late last night?” he teased.

“No, actually,” she informed him archly. “Shiro had more nightmares last night.” That settled the mood down quickly.

“I thought he was better now that we got rid of that arm?” Hunk asked.

Allura shook her head. “He is better. The nightmares aren’t as regular or as bad as they were before, but he does still have them.”

“He went through a lot,” Keith pointed out.

Allura nodded. “I believe the corruption used his existing trauma as a foothold. It exacerbated what was already there. But that trauma hasn’t entirely gone away just because that one reminder of it is gone.” There was a murmur of agreement. “I told him to sleep in a little, and to spend the day resting. He’s no good to any of us in the state he’s in.”

Lance started to say something (likely another smart comment), but Keith clapped his hand over his boyfriend’s mouth. “And he actually agreed to take it easy today?” he asked her instead.

Allura grinned a little. “It took some convincing. He said he’d promised all of you help with various things today, and I told him I’d take care of it. That was the only way he’d agree to taking the day off.” She smiled at them. “So let me know what you need, and I’ll be glad to help in his stead.”

“After breakfast,” Coran interjected, setting a bowl down in front of her.

“After breakfast,” she agreed. She’d used a lot of energy last night, and not in the way Lance had been thinking (or the way she might’ve liked). She’d had to calm her love more than once, but the nightmare he’d had a scant hour ago had been the worst yet, and that was what had sparked the conversation she’d relayed to the paladins just now.

She was tired, but she hadn’t been the one having the nightmares, and she thought she could handle one day of helping everyone out with things. She felt closer to them now after having formed Voltron with them all. She wanted to be able to help them more than ever, and that she could help Shiro in the bargain made it even better.

She went to help Hunk first. “It’s not anything all that important,” he hedged when she showed up in the Yellow Lion hangar. “I mean, it’s not really princess-y…”

“I’m here to help,” she told him with a smile. “It doesn’t have to be ‘princess-y’.”

He frowned at her usual dress and cape and then shrugged. “Okay, well, I’m doing some maintenance. It… might get messy.”

She smiled. “I can go change, if that will make you feel better.”

He nodded. “Yeah. I’ll get started; just come back in when you’re not so…”

“‘Princess-y’?” she supplied.

Hunk grinned. “Exactly.”

So she went and changed into something more utilitarian and came back to find him halfway inside one of the lion’s panels. “That you, princess?” he asked without pulling his head out.

“Yes, Hunk. What do you need?”

“The one-and-a-half calibrator.”

“One-and-a-half? What are you doing in there, exactly?” But she hunted up the correct tool and handed it to him.

“Just some fine tuning.”

“You’re not adjusting the lemniscation assembly, are you?”

He poked his head out. “Yeah, why?”

She shook her head. “If you’re not careful, you’ll fry the polarity adjusters.”

“Yeah, I know, but I already tweaked the capacitors. See?” He moved aside to let her look.

She peered in. “Huh. You’re sure they can handle the increased throughput?”

“Mostly sure.”

She frowned thoughtfully. “What’s this?”

“Oh, I hooked the plasma charger directly into the crystal array. I thought that would stabilize the vortices in the delta region and give it a smoother flow.”

She blinked at him. “That… actually would, wouldn’t it? What a great idea!”

He beamed proudly and started going through the various changes he’d made to “Goldie’s” innards. Allura suggested some new alterations based on his existing modifications. She spent the next few hours hauling parts, handing over tools, and getting more than a little greasy as they rooted around inside the lion.

“I think that should do it.” He wiped at his forehead with the back of his hand. “Thanks for all the help! I was just expecting Shiro to hand me stuff and occasionally hold things, but you really know your lions!”

She laughed a little, wiping her hands with a rag. “Well, I ought to, after all! I don’t know everything, and I certainly couldn’t have thought up half the things you did! And I was glad to help, truly. It’s been very educational.”

He grinned happily and she waved as she went to wash up.

--- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- ---

“You know you don’t have to,” Lance told her.

“Yes, I know I don’t have to,” she assured him. “But I want to help.”

“Well, okay.” He shrugged and sat down in the training deck. “I’ve been trying to meditate more, like Shiro suggested. But it’s not always easy for me to sit still and clear my mind, y’know? In fact, it’s pretty much never easy.”

“Shiro suggested you meditate? Why?” She sat down also, facing Lance.

“Well, he said it helps him focus. And, well… Shiro’s been my hero ever since I joined the Garrison. He’s a great warrior; if meditating helps him, it could help me, too. Also,” he rubbed the back of his neck self-consciously, “sometimes I think I’m a little too… energetic for Keith. I can tell that Keith really enjoys the times when we’re just quiet together.” Lance was blushing. “But it’s hard for me to enjoy not talking, not doing anything. Sleeping’s one thing, but just sitting there in the same room is enough for Keith sometimes, and that’s really flattering in a way? But it also kinda drives me nuts?” He shrugged. “I ask Keith to put up with me a lot. I should be able to put up with something like this. Extra bonus points if it helps me connect with Blue and be awesome like Shiro.”

She smiled and reached over to pat his hand. “Have you tried guided meditation? I had to start with that when I was first learning.”

He shook his head. “I thought meditation was just sit down, close your eyes, and try not to think of anything. But I’m always thinking of something, and it’s hard to just shut that down.”

“Well, let’s try it. Close your eyes.” He did so. “Now, are you comfortable?”

“I guess?”

“Don’t guess. Know. Think of your feet first. Are your feet tense at all?”

“You gonna rub ‘em for me if I say they’re not?”

“Lance.”

“Sorry. Force of habit.” He cleared his throat and wiggled his toes. “I think they’re as relaxed as feet can get.”

“Move up your body, one muscle group at a time. Relax your legs, your core, your arms and shoulders.” She watched parts of his body twitch and resettle as he thought about them. “Relax your hands, your neck. Good.

“Now, think about your breathing. Don’t try to change it, just… notice it. Notice how it feels moving in and out through your nose. Just focus on your breathing.” She was quiet for a moment, letting him do that. “Whenever you’re having trouble, come back to your breath and just focus on that.”

She spoke to him calmly, in a gentle, even tone. She spoke first of the bond with the lions, a feeling she couldn’t have described before but had something of an inkling of now. “Feel that intimacy, that warmth and surety. It’s not just with your lion, is it? It’s with the other paladins as well. Reach out through the bond towards the Red Lion and Keith.” She watched a small smile spread across Lance’s face.

“Know that no matter where Keith is or what you two are doing, you can never be farther away from him than this. Know it, and sit with that knowledge.” She fell quiet and watched him sit and be silent, still smiling faintly. “Feel how it warms you. Enjoy the feeling. It’s not something that has to be rushed. It can be savored. It’s not going to run away on you; you don’t need to chase it. Just sit still and let the warmth of that bond fill you.”

Slowly, she brought him back to his breathing, to the touch of his body on the floor, and then told him to open his eyes. “There, see? You did fine.”

“Well, yeah, you talked me through all of that.” But he seemed pleased with himself.

“Try it on your own a couple of times, remembering what I said about focusing on your breathing when you get distracted. And if you’re still having trouble, let me know, and we’ll walk through it again with whatever it is you want to meditate on.”

“Thanks,” he said, pushing himself up. He offered her a hand up, and she was happy to accept it. “Don’t be surprised if I’m bugging you like every other day for help.”

She laughed. “I don’t know that it’ll be that often, but I’m glad to be of assistance. And Shiro’s right: meditation can only strengthen your bond with your lion and the other paladins, not just Keith. Don’t forget about them.”

“Hunk and I are BFFs,” he told her, before admitting, “Though I might need to work on bonding with Pidge a bit, I guess.”

She smiled. “You’ll do fine.”

--- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- ---

It was absolutely no surprise to her that Keith wanted to fight. “Shiro was going to use his hand though,” he pointed out. “Partly to get used to it and partly so I could practice some hand-to-hand fighting.”

“You mean he was going to actually have it active?” she asked, aghast.

“Well, I was going to ask him to, anyway.”

She frowned. “I doubt he would’ve agreed to that. But if you want to practice hand-to-hand combat, I don’t have a problem with that.”

“I might,” he said, folding his arms.

“Keith.”

“I don’t want to hurt you.”

She arched an eyebrow at him. “What if I assure you that you won’t?”

“You’re not that good,” he said.

“How would you know?” she pointed out. “We haven’t sparred before.” An idea occurred to her. “In fact, how about this: we’ll each paint one of our hands. If the hand touches you, it’ll get paint on you. It’d be the same as if you’d been cut or injured in some way. The more paint, the more devastating the injury. And the paint can be cleaned off in the laundry later.”

“Yeah, that… that could work. But…”

“But nothing. I’ll go get some paint.”

It took her a bit to hunt up some red and black paint (she might’ve preferred a nice pink or purple but she wanted something with more of a difference to the red). Once she found some, she brought it back to the training deck so she and Keith could dip their hands in their chosen colors. She squared off with him and watched.

He wasn’t going to attack first, she realized, because he was still too busy thinking of her as either “the princess” or, more likely, as “Shiro’s lover.” You’re going to start thinking of me as an opponent, she promised him in her mind, and one to be reckoned with. She attacked.

Keith dodged and blocked mostly at first; effective, but annoying. He was still refusing to attack, so she upped the ante: she feinted with her hands and then kicked his legs out from under him. “HEY!” he protested from the ground.

“I never said we could only use our hands,” she pointed out with a grin. And then she drove her hand, flat as a blade, down towards his throat.

He rolled out of the way, got back to his feet, and charged her. FINALLY.

Once the battle was well and truly joined, she got to appreciate just how skillful Keith really was. He wasn’t a true match for her – he wound up with at least three swipes of black paint to every one he was able to inflict on her – but he kept her on her toes. She’d sparred with Shiro before, of course, but Keith was a new and different opponent – lighter, faster, more agile. She had to think faster, predict quicker. She could do it, but she’d been growing complacent in fighting Shiro. I should spar with all of them more often.

Eventually, he yielded, but only because, “I don’t want to mark you up too badly,” he claimed.

“Very considerate of you,” she replied with a smirk, because he was practically covered in paint. She let him hide behind his excuse.

“You’re a hell of a fighter, princess.”

“Thank you. You are as well. It was good to have a different sparring partner.”

“Yeah, it was.” He smiled. “So thanks for that.”

“You’re quite welcome. I’m going to go wash paint off. Would you mind putting the paint away for me? Coran knows where it goes.”

“Yeah, I’ll do that after my shower. Somehow I wound up with all this black on me.”

She chuckled. “I wonder how that happened.”

--- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- ---

She washed up, changed back into her dress, and hoped Pidge wouldn’t need her to go back and change further. But Pidge was just sitting in the lounge area, typing on her laptop. “I’m sorry, princess, but I don’t think you can help me,” she said without looking up as Allura entered.

“Why not?” she asked, walking over to take a seat next to her.

“I wanted to talk with Shiro about the Kerberos mission. About what it was like before they got captured.” Pidge frowned down at her keyboard as she stopped typing. “I’m just feeling a little homesick, I guess. I miss my family.”

Allura put a hand on Pidge’s shoulder. “I’m sorry. You’re right that I can’t talk about that. And I miss my family, too. But we’ll find yours someday. I know we will.”

“Thanks,” Pidge said, not sounding very reassured.

“Since I’m going to meet them someday, would you mind telling me about them? I like to be prepared.”

Pidge snorted. “You don’t have to do that.”

“Well, I am curious,” she admitted. “But if you don’t want to, I won’t press.”

“No, it’s… it’s okay, I guess. I just don’t know where to begin.”

“Do you think I’d get along with your father and brother?” Allura prompted her.

“Oh, definitely. Especially Dad. He’d have the time of his life getting to meet an alien princess! No offense, but…”

“Oh, no, I understand. To him, I would be, after all.”

Pidge smiled, thinking back. “Dad always wanted to meet aliens. He just assumed they’d be friendly.” Her smile faded. “Mom always warned him that might not be the case, and I guess she was right.”

Allura acted quickly, before the reminder of their fate could set in. “We’ll find them and rescue them. And I’ll look forward to telling your family all about what a hero you’ve been.”

Pidge blushed faintly. “I wouldn’t say ‘hero’.”

“I would! If it weren’t for you, Sendak would’ve taken off with the Castle of Lions and Voltron!”

“I was just in the right place at the right time.”

“Sometimes that’s all being a hero is,” Allura told her. “And I’m proud to have you as the Green Paladin. I would love to tell your father and brother all about it.”

Pidge’s smile came back. “They’d like to hear it, too. I think Matt would be pretty jealous. And I know Dad would want to know all about Altea.”

“Is he interested in cultural learning?”

“Oh yeah, absolutely!” She laughed a little and added, “Don’t be surprised if he asks about your food. He was really interested in examining cultures through their dietary habits. He’s good at that sort of thing: taking something that seems super-uninteresting and teasing out the little details that are actually important.”

Allura’s eyebrows went up. “Really? That sounds fascinating! I’d love an in-depth comparison of your culture to mine.”

“Well, Dad would definitely be the one to give it to you,” Pidge said.

She went on about her father’s academic interests, about how Matt had gone for more of a hard science approach, and how he’d followed their father into the Garrison. She talked about family dinners and relived some memories that came up, and Allura was interested in hearing it all.

It made her miss her own family, of course, but learning about Pidge’s childhood and family was nice. It was fascinating to see this side of her. Pidge was so passionate about her family, which Allura had always understood, but getting details like this sharpened it for her.

Eventually, Pidge exhaled. “Sorry, I’ve just been rambling on…”

“Oh, no, don’t be sorry!”

Pidge smiled up at her gratefully. “It was good to talk about them again. I try not to, ‘cause it usually makes me sad, but it didn’t this time, so, thanks.”

Allura’s smile widened. “Thank you for sharing all of that with me. I look forward to meeting them.”

And Pidge didn’t try to brush it off this time. “I look forward to them meeting you, too.”

--- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- ---

Allura was coming out of her private shower in her nightgown and robe, braiding her hair, when she heard the door to her quarters open. She looked up and smiled at Shiro walking in. “You look better,” she said. “How do you feel?”

“Better,” he agreed. “I spent most of the day in the library working on reading Altean.”

She tsked. “You were supposed to be resting.”

“I was resting!” he protested. He walked around behind her and she dropped the braid, letting him pick it up and continue it for her. “I wanted to keep my mind occupied with something else. How did things go with the guys?”

“Fine. I enjoyed myself. It was nice, getting to know them all better.”

“They’re a good bunch,” he said. “Most of the time.”

She laughed. “Perhaps they behaved a bit better for me than they would have for you. But it was still a good day.”

He must’ve finished with her hair, because he smoothed his hands over her shoulders and down her sleeves before he wrapped his arms around her. “I’m glad,” he murmured quietly, pressing a quick kiss to her neck. “Thank you for today. For helping them and helping me.”

She smiled. “I was glad to do it.” She turned around in his arms and hugged him. “And maybe now you’ll learn that you can take a day off once in a while.”

He snorted. “Coming from you, that’s almost hypocrisy,” he warned.

She straightened up to glare at him indignantly. “It is not!”

“It is,” he insisted. “So maybe tomorrow you should take the day off?”

“That’s hardly necessary,” she huffed.

“Allura.”

“It’s…” She had to pause to yawn. “It’s not.”

He smiled softly. “C’mon. Let’s get to bed and get some shut-eye. I think we could both use the sleep.”

“Fine, but only because you said you’re going to sleep, too.”

“I’ll be right there next to you,” he promised.

Allura smiled at him. “Thank you.”

#Socks writes Voltron fanfic #Voltron #shallura #background klance #writing #fic

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