electronics

External mic jack mod for Lumix GX80 / GX85

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I love my Panasonic Lumix GX85 mirrorless camera, it can do 4K video, has IBIS and the 15mm Leica lens is awesome. Both the lens and camera are small making the whole setup super portable. There is one massive downside though, the camera is lacking the mic input making it a pain to get good audio. You have to use an external recorder and sync the audio and video in post.

This has been on my mind since I bought the camera a couple of years ago. I have searched the web and the external microphones have been mentioned by other people, but nobody actually shared a solution. For some time, I was hesitant to poke around inside the camera, but I’m glad that I eventually did.

It is now possible to use an external mic with the Panasonic Lumix GX80/85 by soldering a microphone jack to the three test pads on the main circuit board of the camera.

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Wacom Intuos Pro manufacturing fault leads to loss of touch.

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I love using my Wacom for work and carry it around on daily basis. Recently the touch stopped working.

As the tablet is 3 years old and out of warranty I decided to disassemble it and peek inside to see if I could mend it myself.

And here is the problem — the USB connector’s sharp edge rubs against the ribbon cable from the touch sensor and with time cuts through the traces on the ribbon cable.

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A closer look at the damaged trace with the protective tape removed:

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Attiny85 UFO Escape Keychain Game

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UPDATE: assembly instructions

I finally had some free time to make something fun and decided to write a new game for the Attiny85 ssd1306 keychain.  I reused the sleep, display and interrupts code from the “Breakout” game I created a while ago.

This time I wanted a more addictive game. The game had to be playable using just the two buttons. I thought a racing game might be a good choice but the landscape screen is more suitable for a side-scroller. So I settled for an obstacle avoiding side scroller. Similar games include the recent Flappy Bird, Nyan Cat and many variations of the Helicopter game.

The flying saucer is propelled with the left button while the right button is used to shoot through force fields. The game gets harder as you play:

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