iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

axt @axt.bsky.social · 02/10/2026

A simple, quad channel DDR3 based clock for the lab.

Big wooden, steel-frame table with wheels. On top of it, an old ASRock Z97 motherboard with an i7-4790K. Four old GTX 1080 cards side by side in the slots, held by a wire. A dark mechanical keyboard, power supply, and two more graphics cards lying around the motherboard. A tiny mobile display shows the time – from about 24 hours ago, because I spent the rest of the time typing alt text on my iPhone without glasses.

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axt @axt.bsky.social · 28/09/2026

End of garden season asters. And a bee or hundreds. 🌱

Big bunch of tall pink asters in the garden.

A closer look at four of them - and a bee.

An even closer look at one of the aster and the bee. The bee dips its head into the pistils. Sips.

An yet even closer macro look at the aster and its pistils.

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axt @axt.bsky.social · 10/09/2026

Totally inconspicuous travel companion.

A modem PCB and antenna taped to an old Nokia phone with blue tape.

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axt @axt.bsky.social · 15/08/2026

Also, Sekundenkleber oder Löschflugzeuge, da sieht Reul rot. Hat auch wörtlich „das Klima können wir nicht ändern“ gesagt. CDU in a nutshell.

Screenshot Online Zeitung. Foto von Reul mit albernem Golfkäppi, wild herumgestikulierend.
Text: „Mit Verärgerung reagierte Reul auf Kritik an der Organisation der Maßnahmen und die Forderung nach Löschflugzeugen. "Diese Mäkeleien - ich habe keine Lust mehr darauf", wetterte der Minister. "Bitte Nörgeln nachher. Ende, aus. Die Leute interessiert, ob wir deren Häusern sichern können. Das andere ist denen vollkommen wurscht. Und die Frage von Flugzeugen, das hab' ich schon zehnmal diskutiert. Das ist nicht so einfach in unserem Bundesland, da wir keine großen Flächen haben, wo getankt werden kann. Das ist so blauäugig wie noch was." „

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axt @axt.bsky.social · 08/08/2026

Professional home automation.

Flush-mounted box blinds control dangling from the wall. Attached to it, also dangling, a big multimeter, reading ~930mA AC.

Six blinds controls and (set) switches dangling from the wall. Pulled out of the flush-mounted boxes.

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axt @axt.bsky.social · 20/07/2026

Sailing the seven bird baths. 🪶

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axt @axt.bsky.social · 19/07/2026

At least they stayed for the whole set.

POV playing guitar outside. A plastic box filled with mealworms on the floor.

A closer view of the mealworms. They‘re for the (black-) birds. 🪶

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axt @axt.bsky.social · 11/07/2026

Choreades marginata robberfly. Not cooperative enough for a side view, darn. #insects #macro

Close up of the robberfly on a green leaf. Big faceted eyes golden hair on its legs, black translucent wings and a wasp-like yellow/black tail.

Same, but closer and a bit more from the side. 1:30 o’clock :)

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axt @axt.bsky.social · 11/07/2026

The Photovoltaic Grid Power Multiplier. Hehe.

Workbench. Small 2kW inverter fed by a lab power supply in the bg. Some soldering stations and oscilloscopes also in the bg.

View of the power supply display. Appr. 83W into the inverter.

Screenshot of the mains power plug. 92W into the grid. Lol.

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axt @axt.bsky.social · 07/07/2026

Workin‘ at the Blackbird Wash 🎵 🎶🪶

Three young blackbirds in the bird bath.

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axt @axt.bsky.social · 05/07/2026

The macro photography subject is not very cooperative today.

A tiny green grasshopper on the light ring of a red compact macro camera.

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axt @axt.bsky.social · 27/06/2026

Provisional until the heat death of the universe. 🌱

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axt @axt.bsky.social · 27/06/2026

Great design decisions not dot com. Who on earth puts the output jack in this position?

Lower body end of a 7 string fanfret guitar. In a sitting position, you can only use a 90° plug. Otherwise you‘ll need to drill a hole through your thigh. Örgs.

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axt @axt.bsky.social · 16/06/2026

Sounds better with a Maxon OD before it. Otherwise it’s just a far too scratchy 5150. Took it home for further investigations. Current “HW only” setup (except for some reverb routed in via the MOTU/RME setup): \m/

Desk at night. A 19” RME and smaller MOTU interface in the back, mouse and pad. The UAFX Anti pedal in the front, complemented by a TC Electronic “Fangs”, a Boss MT-2w and a Boss Poly Shifter pedal in the foreground.

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axt @axt.bsky.social · 15/06/2026

Marchantia polymorpha. [Moss of the year 2013 in Austria and Germany (DE Brunnenlebermoos).]

Macro photo of the moss. Plant like, 9 tiny

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axt @axt.bsky.social · 11/06/2026

Quite a price tag for this UAFX pedal. Curious how much 5150 it can deliver \m/

Big red UAFX “Anti 1992” guitar effect panel. It shall model the legendary Peavey 5150 amp. A bit embarrassing though. The amp was originally created as signature model for Eddie Van Halen. That’s why I never had one. Pop music. ~pukes~

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axt @axt.bsky.social · 24/04/2026

The violet pest is in full bloom. 🌱

Photo of a wisteria in full bloom. Big light violet blooms in front of the green leaves. A tiny bit of dark red leaves on the lower right from a

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axt @axt.bsky.social · 18/04/2026

Lol. eBay now gets flooded with the vulnerable TP-Link routers. And it’s absolutely outrageous that TP-Link dropped firmware support for some hardware versions after just two years.

eBay listing of one of the vulnerable LTE Router models, MR-6400. And there are hundreds more.

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axt @axt.bsky.social · 12/04/2026

Days since the wrong PCB drill file was loaded: 0

Milled PCB with a dust brush lying on it. The holes are in the wrong places, partly drilled through traces. Nothing too dramatic, but quite annoying after an hour or two of work.

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axt @axt.bsky.social · 12/04/2026

Unusually round and compact blackbird. It’s also less afraid than all the others, curious and picking worms beside you. The garden bird season is open. 🪶

Blackbird on top of a (sun bleached) green wire fence. Some green leaves in the background. It’s round and

020

axt @axt.bsky.social · 12/04/2026

Yo, another perfectly flat PCB =)

3D height diagram, cartesian coordinates, showing a height probe of a 80x70mm PCB. With 0.02mm/div for the z-axis, it looks like a mountain. Max height is about 0.14mm at (40,70).

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axt @axt.bsky.social · 11/04/2026

PCB actually stands for “Probing the Complete Board”.

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axt @axt.bsky.social · 30/03/2026

“In light of the recent events, we regret to inform you that seven points have been deducted from your pro-gardener balance. Thank you for your understanding.” 🌱

Plant taken out of the pot. Giant white roots bending in circles. The

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axt @axt.bsky.social · 28/03/2026

0.5mm pitch is okay for a milled PCB, but together with the large thermal pad, soldering is going to be quite challenging without a stencil. Örgs. Maybe I will mill a slot and solder it from the bottom then lol.

IC upside down on a wooden desk. 12 pin WSON package, 0.5mm pitch, with a big 3.0x2.6mm exposed thermal pad in the middle.

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axt @axt.bsky.social · 21/03/2026

Do not leave your garden tools unattended. 🌱

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axt @axt.bsky.social · 15/03/2026

Last year, for whatever reason, but most probably my not-so-green thumbs, was a bad year for chilis – on to a new one … 🌱

Two green seed trays on a metal kitchen sink, each with 12 chili babies planted. Two petri dishes with some more of them in the front.

Close up of the chili seedlings in zhe petri dish.

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axt @axt.bsky.social · 13/03/2026

I should be working (on other things besides playing Terraria with $CHILD2; but priorities and all that).

Desktop in the basement lab. Dark. Two large monitors and a small one below them. The left monitor displays a code editor with an oscilloscope app on top; the right shows a house we built in Terraria. Still in pre-hardmode.

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axt @axt.bsky.social · 23/02/2026

Maybe you‘re holding it wrong :)

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axt @axt.bsky.social · 23/02/2026

Can even touch it like this when it’s on.

Old Weller LR21 soldering iron. Touching the nut of the tip sleeve while it‘s on. Does not smell line chicken. It’s comd.

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axt @axt.bsky.social · 23/02/2026

The bee magnet is warming up. So many bees last year, that the postman refused to pass it. 🌱

Branches of a pussy willow. The white of the catnips is visible, but they’re not completely open yet.

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axt @axt.bsky.social · 21/02/2026

Finally weekend \o/ The weekend:

A defect washing maschine tilted on its side. View into the bottom opening. Pump removed.

Close up of the removed lye pump. Two copper coils and a lot of plastic.

The parts you usually shall not disassemble. The spindle removed from its (theoretically sealed and waterproof) housing. Nothing else but a cylindrical magnet on an axle. Impeller at the end.

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axt @axt.bsky.social · 19/02/2026

Snowdrops are opening the 2026 garden season. 🌱

Several bunches of snowdrops between light brown leaves. Nothing spectacular.

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axt @axt.bsky.social · 24/01/2026

The lesser Godin 🫢

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axt @axt.bsky.social · 21/01/2026

New office soldering rules in place. Double lol.

Workbench with some electronics, tools, soldering irons/tweezers. In the middle, two Weller desktop solder fume extractors on top of each other. Only one does nothing. They suck at sucking and filtering. Not recommended.

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axt @axt.bsky.social · 10/01/2026

Dear United States Secretary of Death and Undertaking Services, Lol. Best, Nina Warken

Post from Robert F. Kennedy: „Reports coming out of Germany show a government sidelining patient autonomy and limiting people's abilities to act on their own convictions when they face medical decisions.
That is why Friday, I sent a letter to Germany's Federal Minister of Health, Nina Workin.
In my letter, …“
Link to a video, talking bs for some minutes. Lol.

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axt @axt.bsky.social · 10/01/2026

One of the batteries immediately jumped to 75%. Tempted to start the inverter and achieve perpetual energy.

Screenshot of the mobile app, a rainbow colored circle and some numbers in the middle: 1.72 kWh, 77%.

Same setup a previous post, but now with a second, larger power supply under the first one. Also delivering 100W.

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axt @axt.bsky.social · 10/01/2026

That’s not the way it’s supposed to work, lol. Now emergency-charging four solar batteries to save them. Two limiters working against each other, but I found a setting that doesn’t freak out the power supply.