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

Category making things

It Works

November 27, 2005


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Well, the damn thing works. I got the connector wired properly, closed it up, and tested it with a 12v supply from the car. The iPod charges, and if it is playing and the power is disconnected, the iPod pauses. Tomorrow I’ll go get the stuffs to enclose the power filter and end-of-iPod-cable junction in a box. I’ll also stick a pair of RCA jacks on the outside of the box so that I can get audio out of it all.

I should have left the DIN5 on the far end of the cable for the time being so that it could have simply been plugged into the project box, but that’s okay.

The end result of this should be a temporary single cable iPod hookup which I can use until I get the car’s wiring figured out, connectors ordered, etc.

Earlier while working on this I became pretty frustrated with myself because after screwing up the first connector I made a second. Everything was going absolutely great until I realized that I’d wired it backwards, mixing up pins 1 and 30. And it was going so well, too. Ah well, at least it’s set for the time being. I’ve already got the RCA panel connectors, so I just need a project box. That shouldn’t be too hard to come across, I hope.

Now, I just wish I was tired. I thought the coffee I grabbed on the way home from ‘s place was a bad idea. It was. I’m nicely awake.

UPDATE: I forgot to mention what a pain it is to solder inside of these connectors. They are 0.6mm pins spaced 0.6mm apart. To make it a bit easier I took to removing unneeded pins from the last connector used, the one that was properly done.

See? Top · Bottom

An easier way to think of it is in regards to mechanical pencil lead. Most mechanical pencils that people use are either 0.5mm or 0.7mm. Most rollerball pens that people use make a 0.7mm wide line. That should give you an idea of what I was working with. Soldering one (or sometimes two wires) to something that small is a bit interesting.

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Gur!

November 26, 2005

Guh! Two solder points away from being complete and I screwed this up. I guess I’ll be redoing it another day.

Do you have any idea how hard it is to solder .6mm connections? to wires, a resistor, and a few other components?

Uggh. I’m mad at myself for this.

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Make:

October 21, 2005

Odd. It seems that my article isn’t going to be in Volume: 04 of Make: either. I’ve been paid the full rate for an accepted article, so I’m wondering when it’ll actually get published?

Ah well. Maybe Make:’s getting better and better articles and the iSight Tripod Adapters just don’t fit the bill any more.

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;)

October 19, 2005


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Nothing like an evening of laying pipe to make one feel like they’ve accomplished something. ;)

Unfortunately it’s not done. Well, not quite…

See, for some reason around 9pm I decided to start poking at running the water line in the wall. Well, a little over two hours later and it’s almost done. I’ve got the full length of water line hooked up, into the wall, into the little box, and everything is pressurized. All leaks are corrected, and I’m letting it go until tomorrow before I mount things for good. This means cutting the pipe to length, fastening the box together (read: gluing / epoxying, since I modified it all to be like a sort-of old work box), doing a final routing on the pipe, and cleaning up. I also need to pick up some of the little metal straps used for nailing such pipe to the joists.

I must say, I think it’ll be pretty nice… Instead of a wee stub of pipe poking up through the tile or out of the wall and hooking on to things, there will be a plastic box mounted in the wall about twelve inches above the floor recessed into the wall behind where the fridge goes with a valve inside of it. Then a flexible jumper hose (I got a six foot stainless steel braided one which won’t get pinched) connects from there to the fridge. Yes, it’s more joints and one more valve, but it really seems like the most elegant solution.

The only thing that I’ve got left to figure out is how to stick the trim ring for the box on to the box itself. I’m thinking I’ll use hot melt glue, because it should hold solidly, shouldn’t soften, works well on plastic, and can (generally) be removed should the need arise. All that is needed to hold the box is the trim ring, because it’ll fall into the wall if pushed, so the ring will hold it nicely. I’m just afraid of leaks so I’m not putting it together yet… Oh, the reason I had to mount it this way as opposed to something easier, is all the ice maker supply boxes seem designed for new construction. I ended up with this one here, the I2K from Oatey and I had to modify it a good bit so that it fit my needs. It should work out well, though.

But anyway, click the picture above and you can see some of the images I grabbed while installing the water line.

Goodnight. :)

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iSight Tripod Adapters For Sale

September 19, 2005

 iSight Tripod Adapters For Sale
US$30 Shipped †

As I’ve posted about here in the past, I’ve been manufacturing some adapters which allow one to mount an Apple iSight on a normal camera tripod. Well, they are finally finished and available for sale.

A few months ago I was desperately looking for a way to mount my iSight on a camera tripod so that I could take stop motion video out my window. Well, there seemed to be no commercial options available beyond a simple, and quite expensive, plastic clip which required one to provide their own Firewire cable. In order to resolve this need, I went into my workshop and built something better. Becuase of the interest in the adapters after I showed them off around here, I decided to make some for sale.

As these were hand made by me in my workshop, they are limited to a quantity of 39 pieces for sale. At this point I have no plans to make additional pieces beyond this first run.

Anyway, I’ve personally hand-made these adapters to meet my needs, and they include the following features:

· 15′ Firewire Cable
· 1/4-20 Threaded Base (Standard Tripod Mount)
· Solid construction from impact-resistant plastic

All of these adapters have been tested and are assured to work. So buy one, fire up your favorite iSight-compatible software (iChat AV, QuickTime Pro, EvoCam, etc), point the camera at whatever you’d like to record, and (thanks to the 15′ cable) leave your Mac a safe distance away.

Be it watching the world out the window, keeping an eye on the pets, seeing who is coming in the door, or anything more personal, these iSight Tripod Adapters finally allow you to point your iSight wherever you want!

Along the right side are photos of the adapter in a few positions. Click those images for larger copies, or click on here (photo gallery retired) for a bunch of pictures of these adapters. Please note that the tripod and tripod bracket are pictured for illustrative purposes only. This sale is for one adapter with integrated cable. The additional hardware is pictured because I want to show how the adapter can be used with a standard tripod.

So, if you’d like one, go ahead and click the button down below to send payment (US$30) and I’ll get your new iSight Tripod Adapter shipped out to you right away.

If the button is missing, I have sold out of the adapters. Sorry!




† US addresses, PO Boxes, and Military Addresses Only. Please contact me for international shipping rates before sending payment.
 

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Duct Tape!

September 15, 2005


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Well, I thought making a duct tape dress form was surreal. Nope… Kneeling beneath said form as it sits on a stand, stuffing it and attempting to establish a posture and appropriate body lumps is surreal.

That said, the dress form is done, and I’m glad… I’m really, really tired, and I think it’s time for a wee bit of dinner.

There are a few more pictures of the dress form:

· Detail of the base of the stand. Yes, it’s a modified Christmas tree stand.
· The PVC tee which supports the form from the shoulders.
· My bathrobe on the form to show that it can hold some weight. It had no problem with this fairly heavy piece of clothing.

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iSight Tripod Adapters

September 9, 2005


Click for huuuuge…

Yeah, production work sucks, but once things are done it’s pretty damn gratifying.

Well, I’m not completely done, but I have finished assembly of all fourty iSight Tripod Adapters. Yep, that’s what’s in the picture above… All fourty, plus the original one I made for the writeup / Make article / prototype / my use / whatever.

Tomorrow (or whenever) I have to figure out the best method for packaging them. I picked up forty zip-top plastic bags today, and I think that bundled up they will fit nicely in the US Postal Service’s smallest Priority Mail box of which I ordered 50 (they are delivered free!) pieces, along with 50 labels and 50 delivery confirmation tags.

Also, before packaging them, I need to photograph one of them and write some text which will hopefully entice people to buy them. They all also need a quick wipe-down with isopropyl alcohol in order to remove fingerprints, any dirt that may have gotten on them, and any wee threads of glue.

Oh, and they also all need to be tested. :\ That’ll be a bit of a chore.

Anyway, they are done. And I am sleepy. There is another photo of the stack of finished adapters here if you’d like to see that one as well. < shrug >

Blah. Yeah, I’m sleepy. And a bit lonely feeling. And the dishes in the kitchen are kinda stinky, but I’m too lazy to do them tonight. Goodnight for now.

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Food and such…

September 8, 2005

So, yeah. Me again. Guess what? A post full of photos… Imaagine that…

First, the thai food pictured above. After being inspired by the people over in #llamasoft I decided to get some thai food for dinner and take pictures of it. It is a quite tasty and very spicy Gang Dang from Bangkok Cuisine Express over on Garfield in Clinton Township, MI. If you’d like to see the photos, either click here for the whole album, or on the following highlight photos:

· See how much food one gets?
· A tasty Bell’s Third Coast Old Ale accompanied the meal.
· There it is, all the food I ate tonight.
· There is always a lot of food left over. Enough for two meals, in fact.

After eating dinner I started working on the iSight Tripod Adapter project some more. I sat at my workbench for a bit, filled some more of the adapter bodies with hot melt, and set aside the finished ones. There are still quite a few more to finish, though.

Oh, one last interesting shot. It seems that I somehow left the cap to my PVC cement opened slightly and it dried out. Well, I decided to pull the applicator out, and what came out with it? All the dried cement from the bottom of the can, with a wonderful POP as the air rushed past the glue and allowed the bottom of the can to return to shape. There’s a shot of the nifty dried glue here.

So, yeah. That’s it for now.

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