MAME Cabinet
January 4, 2007
So… My MAME cabinet is working great again. It’s at the point where I just have to finish the physical clean-up, resoldering of some connections in the control panel, and photography. As
Category making things
iSight Car Mount
January 2, 2007
I know this is old news, but I finally banged together a page about my iSight Car Mount.
There are embedded videos of the tests I did, both driving around a bit and a stop-motion video of my drive to work.
And yes, this is related to the silly Flash question I had earlier. I was able to find a newer version of the player which has a click-to-play button available, so that should a noisy video be clicked on my the user, it doesn’t immediately deafen them.
I think there is still a lot to do with Gallery and it’s video support, and I need to figure out a better way to transcode files consistently and add hinting needed for lighttpd’s flv streaming support.
But, for now, it works. :)
110 Slide / 35mm Negative Scanning & Custom Cables
December 20, 2006
Well, I finally started something and finished it! Earlier today I began writing up a overview of how I’ve been handling scanning my 110 slides and 35mm negatives. It’s still in a sort-of rough draft state, but all the photos are there and such. So, if you are interested in how I’ve been handling the scanning, along with enough info to do it yourself in a similar way, go ahead and give this article a read:
I also spent a bit of time putting together info about the materials and such which I use for making custom audio and video cables. It currently only covers component video cables, iPod connectors, and subwoofer cables. More info will come later. The article can be found here:
It’s nice to feel as if I’ve finally managed to get something done.
UPDATE: Also, please digg this story.
Presto Chango
December 8, 2006
Yay! The RS232 to TTL level shifters from Spark Fun arrived today. That means I can build what I hope will be a PC-based sniffer for the Honda Music Link.
But first? Dinner.
Lock Picking
November 29, 2006
Ah, I finally ordered a lock picking set. Southern Ordinance’s Outlet has blemished 14-piece (MPXS-14-O) set for just over US$30 after shipping.
Now I can stop screwing with bent paperclips, T-pins, and screwdrivers when playing with lock picking.
Pioneer TS-G1341R Speakers vs. 2006 Honda Civic EX
November 20, 2006
Pioneer TS-G1341R Speakers fitted into gutted 2006 Honda Civic EX Rear Deck Speakers
Tonight’s project-cum-technical disappointment was what you see above. That is, my fitting some aftermarket Pioneer TS-G1341R 5¼” into the shells of Honda OEM speakers from the rear deck of my car.
See, ever since installing the Bass System Kit (photo gallery retired) a year ago, I just haven’t been wholly satisfied with the sound in my vehicle. The bass was improved over the factory bass, but it still sounded rather warbly and distorted even with ‘normal’-ish bass, such as the guitar in some pieces. Much electronic stuff was just right out.
Earlier today I decided that I’d pick up a cheaper, but likely decent set of speakers as replacements for the ones which shipped with the bass system kit. So, poking around, I came across the Pioneer TS-G1341Rs which are fairly widely available. So, at lunch I swung by Best Buy and grabbed a pair for just under US$50.
By gutting the leftover original speakers and some ¼” MDF I was able to nicely fit the new speakers in, and even wire them up to use the original Honda connectors. This is good because I can easily swap my new speakers in and out for the ones from the Bass System Kit.
Why would I want to swap them? Because the new speakers sound like crap. They sound worse than the ones with the Bass System Kit. In fact, they are more in line with the very original OEM speakers.
So, I don’t know what I’m going to do right now. Probably return them, and possibly acquire some (better 6½” speakers and an aftermarket mounting bracket. Or… something. I don’t know.
Bah. At least it only took a few hours.
Sequentix P3 Wooden End Cheeks
November 15, 2006
My Sequentix P3 with the wooden end cheeks installed.
(Click for more…)
Yay! My Sequentix P3 is finally complete! This afternoon I was surprised to find one of the typically labeled packages from Sequentix waiting in the mailbox. I’d been waiting for the wooden end cheeks for the P3 I’d finished a few months ago and they are finally here. I’m really, really happy with them, too.
As you can see above, they make the sequencer look really finished. This project can also now be considered totally, completely finished. Yay!
Scanning
November 12, 2006
<wipes brow>
I just finished raw scans of five trays of 110 slides. Wow. Now to get them cropped / adjusted.
110 Slides
November 3, 2006
The downside to a nice scanner is that I can see precisely how the Kodak Pocket Carousel slide projector grabs the slides. Top-center, leaving a couple small scratches on almost every frame.
On second thought, it may be from the processing. There’s no marring of the carrier at that point, and it seems to go under the carrier. Hmm.
What’s that sound…
October 19, 2006
Continuing with photos of things in my basement, I give you this: a photo of one of the speakers now hanging next to my workbench.
I’ve had these speakers hanging around in a closet for a few years now after acquiring them during a quantity purchase from ABC Warehouse where they were being sold for cheap. They were briefly used in my office back in my apartment, but were put away when I moved here.
In the end I only had to spend around US$4 to get everything hung, and all of that was spent on eye hooks and some 20 gauge steel wire at Lowes. Partially because I was too cheap to buy ~100′ of zip cord (and partially because I knew it would work) I cabled them up with a single run of CAT5, one pair for each terminal. Suspension was done via eye hooks and some measured, cut, and bent wire. It seems to have worked out well. As expected, the hardest part was the cable run across the basement. During this I was reminded something I already knew: construction people are lazy.
As I was being lazy myself, I decided to just run the speaker wire parallel to the mains power, through the same holes in the joists. Since the speakers aren’t that great to begin with, I shouldn’t notice any interference. Well, in running this I found that (as expected) all the holes drilled by my dad and I were nice and clean, parallel with the floor. All the holes drilled by the original electricians were sloppy, mostly pointing upwards with the original Romex simply rammed through.
Anyway, it’s done, and now I can listen to music at my workbench without having to turn the home theater stuff at the other end of the basement up. I’ve been somewhat worried about bothering my neighbors, so I figure that this is a good way to cut down on such noise.
Now to get a good night sleep, something I haven’t done in all too many days.