Quoting: shadow1w2Cute but seems nore cost effective to get one of the bigger ones.
Great for anyone just starting out perhaps.

Now if they could just offer some more replacement parts for the deck like the pCBs for the shoulder buttons or trackpads.
I guess those need special calibration?

They're an official replacement part seller for the steam deck, which probably means that they're bound to only sell official parts.
SteamOS is pretty linux based.
I wouldn't be surprised if you could just buy a fitting trackpad from a third party seller, connect it and maybe install the relevant linux driver(I wouldn't put it beyond VALVE to remove all irrelevant drivers from the SteamOS kernel).

View this comment - View article - View full comments

Quoting: BlackBloodRum

Quoting: LoudTechie

Quoting: Purple Library GuyNever knew guitar picks were so important for electronics repair.

They're usefull for unclipping clips.
You put them inbetween the parts you want to separate and just slide them through the wedge wipping up any clip you encounter.
Can also been done with nails, but is more likely to do damage to the device.

Also they're quite subtle tools and can thus be used for glue prying.

I almost had a heart attack thinking you meant using nails as in nails:

To protect your privacy, external media requires approval to load.

Source: image.made-in-china.com

View cookie preferences.
Accept & Show Accept All & Don't show this again   Direct Link

For prying things on circuit boards, etc. Then I realised... nah he probably means finger nails.... I hope. :unsure:

Good news: I indeed meant finger nails.
Bad news: I seem to remember using those for the exact same purpose, also a large screwdriver, a butter-knife, an actuallysharp knife(much better than a butter-knife).

Fancy kits are for fancy people and/or people with hard to repair stuff.
I don't fall under any of them.
I use what is available.

View this comment - View article - View full comments

Quoting: Purple Library GuyNever knew guitar picks were so important for electronics repair.

They're usefull for unclipping clips.
You put them inbetween the parts you want to separate and just slide them through the wedge wipping up any clip you encounter.
Can also been done with nails, but is more likely to do damage to the device.

Also they're quite subtle tools and can thus be used for glue prying.

View this comment - View article - View full comments

Quoting: Purple Library Guy

Quoting: F.Ultra

Quoting: LoudTechie

On the one hand it surprises me that Linux isn't as popular in China as in, say, Germany, Brazil or India. But it also makes a lot of sense: https://www.gamingonlinux.com/steam-tracker/

If you look at the "Linux market share on Steam, another way to look at it" section, you can see the Linux (English only) share madly distances itself from Linux Overall share soon after the Steam Deck releases. Which is still not available in China, as far as I know.

Still handily beating macOS.

Warning here I'm probably a conspiracy theorist.
I can't help it.
If you don't want to read my conspiracy hypothesis(I don't have enough proof to rightfully call it a theory) about how Microsoft and the NSA are actively keeping China on Microsoft products don't click on the spoiler tag.

Spoiler, click me

The story behind Windows being popular in China smells like politics to me, but I can't prove anything directly.
Microsoft has widely encouraged Windows piracy explicitly in that market to get them reliant on their products, we've got Gates' word on this.
It's not in the consumer space alone either WannaCry wrecked Chinese servers left and right, because they all ran pirated xp to the point that China pressured Microsoft in updating XP out of release.
Microsoft is deeply embedded in the prism program [External Link].
China has done a lot of attempts to launch their "own" operating system(android and ubuntu forks) for "independence from western ecosystems", all these attempts failed miserably for all the expected reasons(reliant on proprietary shit that doesn't run on Linux).
Microsoft still barely makes a dime of all this pirated Windows in China.
I think the NSA pas them good money to make China reliant on their product and include espionage software on demand.

This is not a conspiracy, not only do we have actual proof, Microsoft is doing it in full public: Free Windows 10 upgrade for China pirates [External Link]. While this particular news item is for Windows 10 they have done this in the past as well.

Makes me wonder . . . so, recently you've got Adobe going to a revolting subscription model for all their stuff. MS Office seems to be trying to do a Google Docs thing where they're emphasizing their cloud-based version, which . . . is that a paid subscription too? Is this a widespread trend?
If it is, that subscription/cloud stuff's hard to pirate. Bunch of Chinese people might find themselves having to pay for, not Windows itself, but increasing amounts of the software they run on it. Chinese users don't care about open source, but they certainly seem to care about cheap. I can imagine a move towards Linux just for the free-as-in-beer software ecosystem. Be ironic 'cause in the past, it was Linux's software ecosystem that held it back.

You're deeply underestimating the power of piracy and nation states.
A. Subscription doesn't mean cloud, it means drm, which is much easier to crack especially in the case of resource intense stuff like Photoshop.
B. Cloud cracking still happens, such as with the Adobe AI and storage features, just less.

View this comment - View article - View full comments

Quoting: F.Ultra

Quoting: LoudTechie

On the one hand it surprises me that Linux isn't as popular in China as in, say, Germany, Brazil or India. But it also makes a lot of sense: https://www.gamingonlinux.com/steam-tracker/

If you look at the "Linux market share on Steam, another way to look at it" section, you can see the Linux (English only) share madly distances itself from Linux Overall share soon after the Steam Deck releases. Which is still not available in China, as far as I know.

Still handily beating macOS.

Warning here I'm probably a conspiracy theorist.
I can't help it.
If you don't want to read my conspiracy hypothesis(I don't have enough proof to rightfully call it a theory) about how Microsoft and the NSA are actively keeping China on Microsoft products don't click on the spoiler tag.

Spoiler, click me

The story behind Windows being popular in China smells like politics to me, but I can't prove anything directly.
Microsoft has widely encouraged Windows piracy explicitly in that market to get them reliant on their products, we've got Gates' word on this.
It's not in the consumer space alone either WannaCry wrecked Chinese servers left and right, because they all ran pirated xp to the point that China pressured Microsoft in updating XP out of release.
Microsoft is deeply embedded in the prism program [External Link].
China has done a lot of attempts to launch their "own" operating system(android and ubuntu forks) for "independence from western ecosystems", all these attempts failed miserably for all the expected reasons(reliant on proprietary shit that doesn't run on Linux).
Microsoft still barely makes a dime of all this pirated Windows in China.
I think the NSA pas them good money to make China reliant on their product and include espionage software on demand.

This is not a conspiracy, not only do we have actual proof, Microsoft is doing it in full public: Free Windows 10 upgrade for China pirates [External Link]. While this particular news item is for Windows 10 they have done this in the past as well.

The conspiratory part is that I'm arguing that the NSA paid them for it.
The hypothetical part about it was that the NSA paid them for it.
Your argument upgrades my hypothesis to a theory, but it leaves the conspiratory part.

To be a conspiracy people have to work together in secret to harm someone [External Link], which is literally what I argued: NSA+Microsoft harm China.
To be a theory effects originating from the hypothesis have to show up: "active support for pirated software".

View this comment - View article - View full comments

Quoting: Zlopez

Quoting: Vortex_Acherontic

Quoting: ZlopezIt looks like an interesting tool I would like to try, but I'm waiting till the Decky Loader plugin is ready as the Decky Loader is nice tool as well.

Same, currently I use Junk Store for Epic and Gog on Deck. For the GOG support however you need to be a Trier 2 Patreon supporter as of now. Which is fair as these kind of things are a lot of work to get running.

Do you happen to have a link for their patreon? As my main interest is the GOG launcher.

https://www.patreon.com/junkstore/collections [External Link]?

View this comment - View article - View full comments

On the one hand it surprises me that Linux isn't as popular in China as in, say, Germany, Brazil or India. But it also makes a lot of sense: https://www.gamingonlinux.com/steam-tracker/

If you look at the "Linux market share on Steam, another way to look at it" section, you can see the Linux (English only) share madly distances itself from Linux Overall share soon after the Steam Deck releases. Which is still not available in China, as far as I know.

Still handily beating macOS.

Warning here I'm probably a conspiracy theorist.
I can't help it.
If you don't want to read my conspiracy hypothesis(I don't have enough proof to rightfully call it a theory) about how Microsoft and the NSA are actively keeping China on Microsoft products don't click on the spoiler tag.

Spoiler, click me

The story behind Windows being popular in China smells like politics to me, but I can't prove anything directly.
Microsoft has widely encouraged Windows piracy explicitly in that market to get them reliant on their products, we've got Gates' word on this.
It's not in the consumer space alone either WannaCry wrecked Chinese servers left and right, because they all ran pirated xp to the point that China pressured Microsoft in updating XP out of release.
Microsoft is deeply embedded in the prism program [External Link].
China has done a lot of attempts to launch their "own" operating system(android and ubuntu forks) for "independence from western ecosystems", all these attempts failed miserably for all the expected reasons(reliant on proprietary shit that doesn't run on Linux).
Microsoft still barely makes a dime of all this pirated Windows in China.
I think the NSA pas them good money to make China reliant on their product and include espionage software on demand.

View this comment - View article - View full comments

Quoting: chr

Quoting: LoudTechie

Quoting: chr

Quoting: JustinWoodand as mentioned above, if they're going to use regular potentiometer sticks, it's just not worth it in my opinion. No matter the build quality, no matter the feature set, no matter the price, there's more than enough e-waste in the world, I don't want to support the use of sticks that are designed to fail at some point.

Sorry, I didn't understand - could you please explain further? I understand a potentiometer is some kind of electronic component. What are regular potentiometer sticks and what is the alternative? What do Steam Controllers use?

I will try to explain them, but I learned these things at school, so they can get somewhat complex and since I don't know how much you know about electronics I'll try to be as simple as I can.
I'm aware this'll affect the quality of the explanation feel free to offer tips.

Lay explanation:
Potentiometer stick is a fancy word for "thumb stick category 4b".
Regular means "Our programmers had to do less work and you still get a functioning product."

Alternatives could've been "irregular poly switch stick"(thumb stick category "our programmers had to do everything themselves"), "capicative stick"(thumb stick with too much fancy tech) and "ldr stick"(We needed a really good excuse for leds around a thumbstick).
Valve also used a potentiometer stick(and soldered it to the main board). Whether or not it's regular I don't know, but for mass production reasons I think so.

Technical explanation:

Basics:
Electronic resistance is measure of how hard it's for electricity to get through it.
Analog measurement methods in electronics often work this way:
Put a predictable amount of power at one side, put a resistor between the power source and your processing unit whose resistance is reliant on the thing you want to measure.

What's happening here specifically
A potentiometer is essentially an electronic resistor of which you can set the amount of resistance with a slider.
If you put two of them in a triangle and connect the sliders to the same stick you can track its stance with math.

What's regular:
regular means in this case that the amount of resistance provided by the potentiometers can be accurately described with R(esistance) = ax+b
where a is the distance removed from one of the sides, x is a constant and b is a constant.

Thank you! And so I understand that it was said initially that regular potentiometer thumbsticks are kinda crap because they inevitably fail eventually and need to be replaced. Is the desirable alternative thumbstick here based on an irregular potentiometer or capacitive or ldr?

As I understand it the primary issue is with the "stick" part, while playing people put too much force on the stick and accidentally destroy it.
Armoring the stick won't work, because then they destroy the sensor, which is harder to replace.
My solution would actually be a really sensitive irregular potentiometer stick, but this time the irregularities wouldn't come from the sensor, but from the stick.
The more the stick goes from the center the more push one would have to give.

An easier, but less user friendly solution would be to make a middle hinged regular potentiometer stick.
Build the stick in such a way that when too much side force is applied to it clicks over.
Stopping the damage and the play session.

Edit:
According to @Pengling stick destruction isn't the issue, but sensor drift.
Usage makes them less accurate, by wearing out the slider.
Hall effect sensors work very well against that.
Ldr could work, but it's actually a technique I pulled out of my butt, so I don't think it will be really good.
An industrial thumbstick would probably combine measure the stance of the stick thrice to software wise correct for drift.

According to wikipedia Pengling is fully in the right and my ldr based technique is also not enough of an improvement to compete.

View this comment - View article - View full comments

Quoting: chr

Quoting: JustinWoodand as mentioned above, if they're going to use regular potentiometer sticks, it's just not worth it in my opinion. No matter the build quality, no matter the feature set, no matter the price, there's more than enough e-waste in the world, I don't want to support the use of sticks that are designed to fail at some point.

Sorry, I didn't understand - could you please explain further? I understand a potentiometer is some kind of electronic component. What are regular potentiometer sticks and what is the alternative? What do Steam Controllers use?

I will try to explain them, but I learned these things at school, so they can get somewhat complex and since I don't know how much you know about electronics I'll try to be as simple as I can.
I'm aware this'll affect the quality of the explanation feel free to offer tips.

Lay explanation:
Potentiometer stick is a fancy word for "thumb stick category 4b".
Regular means "Our programmers had to do less work and you still get a functioning product."

Alternatives could've been "irregular poly switch stick"(thumb stick category "our programmers had to do everything themselves"), "capicative stick"(thumb stick with too much fancy tech) and "ldr stick"(We needed a really good excuse for leds around a thumbstick).
Valve also used a potentiometer stick(and soldered it to the main board). Whether or not it's regular I don't know, but for mass production reasons I think so.

Technical explanation:

Basics:
Electronic resistance is measure of how hard it's for electricity to get through it.
Analog measurement methods in electronics often work this way:
Put a predictable amount of power at one side, put a resistor between the power source and your processing unit whose resistance is reliant on the thing you want to measure.

What's happening here specifically
A potentiometer is essentially an electronic resistor of which you can set the amount of resistance with a slider.
If you put two of them in a triangle and connect the sliders to the same stick you can track its stance with math.

What's regular:
regular means in this case that the amount of resistance provided by the potentiometers can be accurately described with R(esistance) = ax+b
where a is the distance removed from one of the sides, x is a constant and b is a constant.

View this comment - View article - View full comments

Quoting: emphyVery interesting.

How does one permanently disable this creepy tracking?

Rated by required skill level

1.
According to the forums switching to "offline mode" works. [External Link]

2.
I've yet to find a good list of steam tracking domains, but you can at least block a substantial list of tracking domains without any further research. [External Link]

3.
Filter this mythical blocklist, so you don't block the entirety of steam. [External Link]

4.
You can try to use wireshark and the etc/host.deny file, but that requires quite some technical skill, time and access to a functioning steam account.

5.
install a custom root certificate and start doing deep package inspection.

6.
Modding and reverse engineering the games and steam client:dizzy:

For everything past option 2 I would appreciate it if you would be nice enough to publish the things you type for it under a gpl compatible license, so others can use it too, because there is surprisingly little material available on the topic.
If you're looking for a hoster for the material www.Codeberg.org does it for free as long the material is under an open source license license, you can also try to publish it on GNU Savanna, but that's harder and you can publish it on github, but that's owned by microsoft and tracks its users.

View this comment - View article - View full comments