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Making, baking, and (un-)breaking things in Southeast Michigan.

Category making things

Maglite LED Upgrade Module

September 23, 2007

Incandescent vs. LED Lamp in Two D-cell Maglite

I’ve been wanting an LED flashlight for a while, and yesterday when Danielle and I were at REI I saw that Maglite offers LED upgrade modules for their existing flashlights. Years ago when I was in Civil Air Patrol I had acquired a two D-cell Maglite for various encampment / search and rescue / utility purposes. Despite its age (and wear, including being thrown at someone as they ducked into a fire escape) it still worked great, so I figured that a new LED bulb for it would work out great.

While out and about today we stopped by Home Depot and I picked up the Maglite LED Upgrade Module (Model SH32DCW6J, Part 108-000-701), which is advertised as being fitted with a three watt LED. A bit of research showed this to be a Luxeon 3W LED, presumably part number LXHL-PW09.

The lamp itself had no problems fitting into the flashlight just like the incandescent lamp. Once it was installed I shined it around the basement with the lights on and I wasn’t completely sure that it was brighter, but one look at the comparison photos taken in the dark showed that the LED is quite a bit brighter. (I tried to keep the focus as similar as possible on those two, and both were shot at ISO 100, f/11, with a one-second exposure. Locations for the tripod and flashlight were both marked with tape for consistency between shots.)

The part cost US$18.97, but I figure this is worthwhile. It should also help save on batteries. I’m not sure if the LED is being powered in a way which allows the LED to dissipate a full 3W (probably depends on the circuitry in the bulb housing, but it still seems pretty good. Hopefully this will come in handy while camping next weekend.

acquired thingsmaking thingsmoved from livejournal

Alien DAC: Built

September 13, 2007

Assembled Alien DAC w/USB Power (Top)
(Click for more photos…)

I decided that I’m going to build another one of those Millett Hybrid Maxed headphone amplifiers, except this time I want to build one using a bit more specialized parts, stick it in a case with wooden end panels, and fit both a USB audio adapter and input switch in the housing. As you can see here, the two PCBs will easily fit in the case. (The Elna RFS / Silmic II capacitors can also be seen there.)

Today the Alien DAC kit arrived from Glass Jar Audio, so I set to work putting it together. It really wasn’t too difficult, most of the parts were either through-hole or 1206 / 0805 SMT. The SOT-8 voltage regulators were real easy to solder as well, and I had very little trouble with the SSOP28 PCM2702E. The board is reasonably well laid out, but there are a couple of things I would have changed. I’m really not sure what the designer was thinking (I think he wanted to save space / make things more compact), as hand-soldering SMT IC legs to ground without thermals is a huge pain in the ass. Regardless, it worked out.

Oh, and the bottom of the board can be seen here.

electronicsmaking thingsmoved from livejournal

Fermenting Chilis?

September 9, 2007

Inspired by this article on lactic acid fermentation of chilis to make Hunan Salted Chilis I did something similar.

Instead of keeping the seeds and chopping up a single type of chili I instead took home-grown habaneros and some red globe chilis which Danielle brought to me and put them in a bunch of salt along with some garlic. I ended up removing the seeds from all the chilis, cutting the habanero flesh into thin strips, and the red chilis into thicker strips / chunks. The garlic was cut into ~5mm thick slices. This was all layered in the jar with salt, then more salt was added, it was stirred, then even more salt was added.

Hopefully it’ll come out good… It’s now sitting in the bottom of my pantry where it’ll stay for a couple of weeks before I’ll open it for a test. Right now there is a bit of liquid collecting in the bottom, which I can’t take as anything but a good sign.

I probably would have used more habaneros, but I was running out of not-partially-dried large size ones and my goggles were beginning to fog up. Despite wearing mostly sealed goggles, a respirator with VOC cartridges, and latex gloves I still eventually got tingly eyes and a runny nose. Whenever I walk through the kitchen it starts up again. I’m also afraid to touch my penis without even more hand washing.

Now I think I’ll go check what parts I already have for the second Millett Hybrid Maxed I want to build. Hopefully this next one will have a different output stage and a USB DAC built into the enclosure. Oh, and I’ll take out the trash.

foodmaking thingsmoved from livejournal

De-Lighting a Sandisk Cruzer Micro

September 7, 2007

SanDisk Cruzer Micro 4.0 GB from Costco (SDCZ6-4096RB) disassembled into its four major parts.
(Click for more photos…)

A few weeks back I received a coupon in the mail from Costco for $10 off (amongst other things) a 4GB SanDisk Cruzer USB flash drive. Yesterday at lunch my coworker Brian and I went up there and I picked one up for a total of $32.39 after tax.

After getting back to work and running the U3 Uninstall stuffs (I have no need for such portable apps) I started to become annoyed with the light on it. See, where the drive best plugs into my laptop the bright amber LED in it was generally shining up towards me. This LED is illuminated whenever the drive is connected, so there was pretty much a constant amber beacon, brighter than my laptop’s display, fighting for my attention. This had to go.

So, I started looking at the drive and grabbed a thin razor blade to use as a pry bar and started figuring out how to release the plastic latches along the edge of the drive. Despite accidently nicking the case once and tearing out out a couple of the retaining holes along the edge of the case I didn’t have much of a problem getting it open.

Inside I found exactly what I expected: a fairly large (1206, I believe) surface mount LED. After getting home I simply desoldered the LED and put it back together. The result? no more ugly, bright, distracting amber LED. Yay!

(All of the photos of the LED removal from the SanDisk Cruzer Micro 4.0 GB (photo gallery retired) can be found here (photo gallery retired), including shots of the top and bottom of the PCB.)

acquired thingselectronicsmaking thingsmoved from livejournal

x0xb0x Artwork Rip-Off

September 6, 2007

Wow, I just read on Matrixsynth, the synthblogger who posts all he can, that someone is selling x0xb0x artwork based on my design. You can see it’s… unique stylings here.

There is one on eBay for £25 which strikes me as absurd, because more than what I was charging for the artwork, red keycap, and postage to the entire world. Also, they are printed vinyl which tends to delaminate over time.

I guess I don’t care that much, but maybe if I get bored tomorrow I’ll try faxing over the paperwork to eBay to get the auction pulled.

I just can’t get over how ugly / low budget rip-off it is… Wow.

electronicsmaking thingsmoved from livejournal

PlayStation as CD Player, etc…

September 1, 2007

SCPH-1001 with CD Player Controls

Yesterday I threw together a quick write-up on how I modified my SCPH-1001 PlayStation to have CD player controls. There are also a bunch of photos from the project here (photo gallery retired).

I think it sounds better than any CD player I currently have, but I’m not so sure it’s that great. I’ve heard from a couple people that it’s not particularly great, but even if that is the case, for the $39.14 I spent on the whole project, it’s not bad.

Also, I’m thinking that I should purchase a Tenori-on. It’s being released in the UK in a few days and will likely cost about US$1200. I’m wondering if I should get one, both as a toy and as an investment…

electronicsmaking thingsmoved from livejournalmusic

Tonight’s Goals: Accomplished

August 31, 2007

Well, the goals for tonight I posted earlier were completed. I got the SCPH-1001 properly fitted with top-panel buttons which act as Play/Pause, Stop, Prev Track, Next Track, Rewind, and Fast Forward. I once again ripped into a SCPH-1080 controller in order to do this, but this time I learned from the past mistake and did things right.

I’ll write more about that later, I just wanted to share that things actually got done.

I was also able to add the power consumption information to the Millett Hybrid Maxed write-up, which makes it pretty much complete. I might make another one of these with a slightly different case (silver, wood end panels), and a different output stage. I’m not sure yet, though… next is for me to get back on to the Honda Music Link firmware rewrite thing. (That’s going to be a huge project…)

Anyway, now it’s bed time. Maybe tomorrow I’ll write up a project page about the SCPH-1001 modifications. I don’t think I’ll include much info about how it sounds (beyond “pretty good”) because I’d like to see some objective tests done on it, and I don’t have the facilities for that.

Yes. Bed. Goodnight. :)

electronicsmaking thingsmoved from livejournal