I'm trying to achieve variable speed control on two brushed DC motors powered by a 3s or 4s LiPo battery (~12V or 15V). This is for a nerf blaster I'm modifying, which is why I'm not using a pre-made speed control ie I want control over the shape/layout. I'd like to vary projectile speed with a thumb knob.

I just finished watching ElectricMonkeyBrain's YouTube video on the TL494 PWM chip.

I was initially planning to vary the duty cycle with a potentiometer on the chip's control pin, to get a PWM signal and feed that into a MOSFET. But in the video he mentions that the chip has an integrated over current protection function. Ie the chip will

monitor the voltage across a sense resistor in series with the load 

and will

kill the output if the sensed voltage/current goes above a reference voltage

It occured to me that I could actually adjust the reference voltage as a way to control the motor speed.

Would this be a better way to achieve speed control and protect my motors/battery? Or is it a terrible idea altogether.

I met a Ukrainian today. He is my age. I met him at school drop off, our sons are in the same kindergarten class.

They recently arrived here from overseas. I welcome them, but I wish we had done more to help Ukraine.

There are numerous places in the world where people are being displaced by state violence, but I don't think there's anywhere that it's being done by a global power so directly. It's similar to Gaza/Palestine & Israel, but Russia can end the war by simply going home.

If we had been meeting our NATO obligations for the last 30 years, would this family have been driven out of their home? I don't know. (I actually know almost nothing about their personal circumstances)

I just feel like we should have done more, and that it's not too late.

I have recently rewatched the movies Inside Out and Home Alone, having previously seen them while childless (I.O. as a young adult, H.A. many times at various ages).

The parental behavior draws a lot more of my attention, and it really changes the movie for me.

The parental panic when they don't know where their kid is, or if they're safe, just hits so much harder. Like, it's not that I didn't understand the movie before, I guess I just have a new appreciation for the parents emotions.

Are there any other movies that you appreciate differently now that you have different experiences?

I know this isn't build a pc, but everything over there is so gaming oriented I thought I might get better advice here.

I'm a noob that wants a home media server for sharing photos of my kids with my family (across the country), video library sharing to some family members, and streaming my music collection to my phone (and maybe my dad's).

But I'm considering ripping my father in laws extensive bluray collection (well seeing it up so he can rip them into my library) so I reckon a full tower is required for HDDs.

I'm imagining unraid, with a big pile of used drives. What I like about that approach is that I can economically add storage as the video library grows as I/we rip. Or are used HDDs a false economy.

I think the only processing intensive thing in the use case list is ripping and video library sharing. I have no concept of what sort of processing is required. Should I get a graphics card?

There's a Lenovo TS-140 (E3-1226 V3) available available used for $80 Canadian. Is that a good place to start?

I

The cyclist was riding on the sidewalk, and ran a red light (a bit more justified to flag him down). He fled, eventually ditching the bike and fleeing by foot.

I hope the police didn't screw up by performing an unjustified search.

My friend John mentioned that he has been feeling depressed lately. There have been some bad things in his logs that would make anyone sad but the things that normally bring him happiness aren't doing anything for him lately. It's something he has struggled with in the past. He has a counselor and has been prescribed anti-depressants. I'm not worried about him harming himself.

My understanding is that part of being a friend to someone facing depression is reaching out to spend time with them.

How much should I reach out? I don't want to harass him, and he has a wife and other friends (that are emotionally closer than me). His wife for sure knows what's going on, but I'm not sure about his other friends (our kids go to the same school so I actually see him more then most of his friends).

I understand that sometimes depressed people neglect chores in their life, should I ask his wife if there's anything I could help him/them with?

The bake off one:

Sister in laws:

I glove you.

My neighbour (40/m) ("N") confided that his recently retired father (70/m) ("G") has started going to the casino twice a day (all day but he comes home for dinner).

G's losses affect the food they eat (multi generational household).

N doesn't really know what to do. I'm not so concerned for N, moreso his mother/G's wife.

It's not my business but, when I was a kid my boyscout leader committed suicide after gambling away his house so I'm pretty sensitive to this sort of thing. I'd like to help if I can.

Any advice?

This goose has adopted my parents, and is attempting to establish residency in their cabin. We suspect it is domestic and escaped from its coop. It's a seasonal cabin and they're planning to close up soon. What should they do? Central Ontario. Near Bracebridge.

UPDATE: A neighbor of theirs is set up for chickens, so could accommodate a goose. And shortly after making that arrangement an ad appeared in the community message board. So the goose is going home.

I'm having trouble wrapping my head around the scale of the problem of nuclear waste. If we took all the nuclear waste produced in a year and evenly blended it into all gasoline burned in a year would the radiation be deadly? Dangerous? Detectable?

It's easiest to get numbers for the US.

2 000 000 kg of waste per year

510 000 000 000 Liters of gasoline

Obviously this isn't a real proposal, although I think it would reduce carbon emissions...

Wikipedia says

A superhero or superheroine is a stock character that typically possesses superpowers, abilities beyond those of ordinary people, and fits the role of the hero, typically using their powers to help the world become a better place, or dedicating themselves to protecting the public and fighting crime.

So yes, he is definitely dedicated to protecting the public, but it feels wrong to call him a super hero. What do you think?