@electronic_eel has proposed a 300ma default current limit fuse instead of none.
I completely agree this makes sense. We have the hardware in place, and it’s a reasonably unobtrusive limit that can be overridden.
In previous firmware there was a y/n prompt to set a current limit fuse. At some point that was updated to enter for none.
The new proposal is enter for 300 (default) and 0 for none.
My concept for the UX is that the fuse was an “add on” that was unobtrusive if you don’t want it. Default the AI muck to off please… Also the default is similar to v3 bus pirates, which I thought would help smooth the transition.
The general vibes of the last week or so also make me worry some things are over complicated and not intuitive. V3 was intuitive, but it was also way less featurful.
Updating the docs has made me realize just how far we’ve pushed this project in the last year and a half. I don’t have a strong opinion, but I’d like to open this to discussion before implementing this change.
I think the BusPirate should be “safe” by default. And still allow you to fully take off the safety belts if you want to. You just have to say so.
So when you don’t explicitly think about a current limit, it should activate a common one that gives you basic protection against brownouts and damage, but doesn’t get in the way most of the time.
I picked 300mA because this will probably not get in the way of using most DUTs you power from Vout, but also keeps current draw from USB in check to not cause brownouts.