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

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 I was able to find a newer version of the player which has a click-to-play button available, so that should a noisy video be clicked on my the user, it doesn’t immediately deafen them.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. :)

automotivemaking thingsmoved from livejournal

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:

· 110 Slide / 35mm Negative Scanning

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:

· Custom Cables

It’s nice to feel as if I’ve finally managed to get something done.

UPDATE: Also, please digg this story.

electronicsmaking thingsmoved from livejournal

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.

automotivemaking thingsmoved from livejournal

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!

electronicsmaking thingsmoved from livejournal

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.

making thingsmoved from livejournal

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.

around the housemaking thingsmoved from livejournal

Cypress PSoC

October 12, 2006


Cypress PSoC ExpressEval Kit (CY3210-PSoCExpEVK)
(Click for more photos…)

Thanks to LJ’s new AJAX-ness breaking and the built-in autosave stuff failing, I just lost what I wrote here. So, I’ll try again:

Upon arriving home from work today I found a small box on the porch. Upon opening it I remembered that last week I had ordered a eval kit for Cypress’ PSoC Express. I had figured that it would just be a CD or something, but it turned out to be a lot more. What I received is the package you see above, containing two CY3210-PSoCEVAL1 boards, a CY8C29446 PSoC, a CY8C27443 PSoC, a 9V battery, cables, jumpers, and everything else one could need for getting familiar with PSoCs.

Thus far I have to say that I’m pretty impressed with PSoC Express. It’s a bit clunky to work with, but in a few minutes I was able to bang together a blinking LED, the turning on/off of LEDs at various positions on a pot, latching an LED on or off with each button press, etc. It’s really quite nifty.

If you’re interested in seeing more photos of the eval kit, take a look here: Cypress PSoC ExpressEval Kit (photo gallery retired)

If you’d like one, they can be acquired from Cypress’ Get PSoC site.

electronicsmaking thingsmoved from livejournal