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James Smith

@loopj.com
386 followers 56 following 101 posts

British guy in the San Francisco Bay Area. Having fun with hardware, software and reverse engineering. Former co-founder of Bugsnag.

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James Smith @loopj.com · 08/09/2026
Shaping comes second, and is where the feel comes from. Inner and outer deadzones in axial or radial shapes, gamma response curves, and circular, square, or octagonal virtual gates, all in one struct you can change at runtime without recalibrating.
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James Smith @loopj.com · 08/09/2026
Calibration comes first. Pickaxes runs a calibration session on the firmware that captures rest position, min and max travel, and orientation. Release the stick, push it in each direction, rotate it around the rim. Drive it from a homebrew app or a button combo on the device.
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James Smith @loopj.com · 30/05/2026
Designed a little 1U 10" bench power supply based around the RK6012 for my Rack Nook desk shelf (github.com/loopj/rack-n...)
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James Smith @loopj.com · 14/05/2026
For the center rack module I installed a DeskPi 6.91-inch touch screen, and wrote a quick Flutter application for media control.
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James Smith @loopj.com · 14/05/2026
For my desk, I went with a 5ft wide butcher block shelf, using 10" rack components in a 2U:1U:1U:1U:2U configuration. This allows for a wide cubby in the middle for tucking away my keyboard and mouse.
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James Smith @loopj.com · 14/05/2026
I wanted a truly modular/customizable desk shelf, so I built one. Rack Nook is a desk shelf system, based around 10" or 19" rack components. It's open source, you can find everything you need to build your own here: github.com/loopj/rack-n...
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James Smith @loopj.com · 05/05/2026
Working on a DIY monitor riser system based around 10-inch "half rack" modules. It uses cheap Penn Elcom (or compatible) steel rack rails, hardware store lumber, and 3d-printed legs. I'm building this form factor for my desk - 5ft wide with a cubby for keyboard/laptop in the middle.
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James Smith @loopj.com · 30/01/2026
For the protocol nerds out there, I managed to get the target response time (time between message being received from a console, and us sending the reply) down to ~3us on the Pi Pico backend. This is *very* close to the ASIC's response time in OEM controllers.
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James Smith @loopj.com · 19/12/2025
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James Smith @loopj.com · 12/11/2025
Everybody knows all the best cube shaped consoles have a handle
A steam machine console with a GameCube style handle
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James Smith @loopj.com · 27/05/2025
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James Smith @loopj.com · 19/05/2025
Xenii over on BitBuilt has created an incredible open-source Wii handheld called the Xii-Boy Ultra. It is a fully functional Wii console in a Gameboy-style shell that is just 27mm thick! Check it out here bitbuilt.net/forums/index... or build your own github.com/Xenii1642/Xi...!
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James Smith @loopj.com · 30/04/2025
WavePhoenix64 - rendered in Ice Blue of course
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James Smith @loopj.com · 27/04/2025
Here’s a fun render from @weskmods.bsky.social of 4 WavePhoenix receivers in a Kawaii dock! I actually designed the case explicitly to fit in the Kawaii (bitbuilt.net/forums/index...)
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James Smith @loopj.com · 27/04/2025
Threw together a browser-based OTA firmware flasher for WavePhoenix today. web.wavephoenix.com
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James Smith @loopj.com · 26/04/2025
Here's a special edition of the WavePhoenix for everyone that told me it looked like an asthma inhaler
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James Smith @loopj.com · 26/04/2025
Soon!
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James Smith @loopj.com · 25/04/2025
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James Smith @loopj.com · 25/04/2025
WavePhoenix is 100% open source hardware and firmware, fully compatible with OEM WaveBird controllers, and can be built with less than $5 in parts.
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James Smith @loopj.com · 23/12/2024
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James Smith @loopj.com · 28/11/2024
Hey BBC in 1995, can you help me understand what multimedia is?
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James Smith @loopj.com · 11/11/2024
Excuse me, what
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James Smith @loopj.com · 25/10/2024
Seriously! These things are so handy, I have one on my (non workbench) desk and end up using it all the time
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James Smith @loopj.com · 25/10/2024
I thought this was going to be the saddam hussein meme for a second!
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