Sequentix P3 Auction Closed
September 11, 2007
$1805. Not bad. I hoped for more, but that’s not bad. A quick look in Quicken shows it costing about $1000 to build. eBay and PayPal fees will probably eat about $100 of that.
Category making things
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.
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.)
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.
Sequentix P3 for Auction
September 4, 2007
Starting at $1, my Sequentix P3 is up for auction. I hope it finds a good home… I simply didn’t use it enough to make it worth keeping around.
The auction itself can be found here: auction number 290157675079.
PlayStation as CD Player, etc…
September 1, 2007
SCPH-1001 with CD Player ControlsYesterday 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…
Tonight’s Goals: Accomplished
August 31, 2007
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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. :)
P3 MemX
August 30, 2007
Yay! The Sequentix P3 MemX board came in today. That means I can install it and then get the auction listed. Maybe I can get it listed Sunday on a 10-day for closing sometime the following week.
Tonight’s Goals
August 30, 2007
Yesterday I picked up another SCPH-1001, OEM controller, and two third-party controllers. Inside of one of the third party controllers is a larger-than-the-Sony IC for converting button presses to the Playstation controller protocol. (The other is completely potted.)
I’m going to document that board (it’s very simple and not all the pins on the chip are used) and hopefully lift the chip and place it on a new, smaller board which I’ll make up. On this board I can leave large enough pads to solder to so that I don’t have the problem I had last time. Well, the soldering problem… The root of the problem is because I documented the Sony controller at around midnight, then didn’t double-check that documentation yesterday. I had counted some pins wrong. :(
I also have to rip out the shiny cabling that I put in place the other day and replace it with… whatever the new stuff is. I might also use random salvaged flat cable to save headaches, or just some de-jacketed CAT5. I’m not sure about this yet.
Screwing up an SCPH-1080…
August 29, 2007
Cut Down SCPH-1080 PCB and Pushbuttons(Click for huuuuge image…)
Last night I spent a while cleaning the plastics on the SCPH-1001 that I was putting buttons in, reassembled the lid and closing mechanism, mounted the buttons and ground bus, wired up the signal lines, connected the signal lines to the pcb, and… screwed up. I’m not completely sure where I went wrong yet, but I *think* I miscounted the pins on the IC late last night when making up these notes, and possibly counted pins wrong. I still haven’t figured out what is wrong, but I think this is where things are off.
I confirmed that the connection to the rear of the controller jack is right, and things connect right to the PCB. I don’t see a short between any of the signal lines, and the Playstation does boot to the CD player screen without error. So, I’m kinda thinking I screwed up something with the PCB. I’m just a bit frustrated because I secured the wires to the board and then secured the PCB into the enclosure with hot melt glue. It’ll be a hassle to rip out, and I won’t be able to reuse the PCB. That means I’ll have to find another Playstation controller. Oh well. :(
And here I was quite happy over how it had all fit into the enclosure. I’ll just have to work on it a bit more, I guess.
