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

Category making things

Yay, Acetone!

August 26, 2005


Click for huuuuuge!

There are few things as gratifying as seeing a project starting to come together. In that picture above are two boxes containing two of the three major components which I had to fabricate for the iSight Tripod Adapters. The top containing 40 cut, cleaned, slotted, and prepped body tubes, and the bottom containing the 40 bottom end caps, drilled and fitted with 1/4-20 tee nuts for connecting to a camera tripod.

Please note that the slightly rough slots in the body tubes are okay. The only part which shows in the end is the top of the rounded hole at the end, so those are consistent and nice and smooth. For the rest of the cut I just made certain that it wouldn’t pinch the cable during assembly.

The third part which I have to make is the other end caps, which need to have a precise rectangular hole cut in them in order to accept the moulded vinyl end of the Firewire cables.

After that, I’ll just have to assemble everything, package the adapters, and they’ll be ready to sell! As of right now I’m thinking of US$29.95/ea, shipped to any US destination.

Oh, and did I mention that the only thing I can smell right now is acetone? It seems that acetone not only removes the blue lettering from PVC pipe, it also dissolves the surface slightly, removing any small scuff marks and generally cleaning the pipe. This allows me to make the bodies a pure dull white while leaving the endcaps a nice shiny pure white. I think the contrast, combined with the black Firewire cables, will look pretty nice.

It would have been nice to have white or grey cables, but for a small run I can’t be too picky.

acquired thingsmaking thingsmoved from livejournal

Icky Hands

August 23, 2005

Well, I finally got started on the actual production of the iSight Tripod Adapters. That is my hand after removing the labels and adhesive from about 30 of the 85 PVC end caps. At this point I had to run to Meijer and grab some more 99% isopropyl. Once I had three bottles here I was able to do a soaking tank type production line, so it went a lot faster.

Tomorrow I drill holes in 40 of them. Five holes per, in fact. Heh.

I think I deserve to stop for the night. My hand-based digits are kinda swollen and sore right now. (I would have worn latex gloves, but I wanted to be able to feel the surface of the PVC to ensure that it was smooth and free of gunk.)

making thingsmoved from livejournal

Peektures…

August 23, 2005

· The 40 IEEE1394a cables came today, so now I can begin making the iSight Tripod Adapters.
· Cost Plus is a great place to buy good beer for cheap. Their selection swings around, but they always tend to have something that is good. The Arcadia Whitsun was $7.49 for a six pack, and the Bell’s Third Coast Old Ale is underpriced at $8.49.
· Yay! The metadata service in OS X crashed while I was doing the massive sync from nuxx.net. I’m not so sure Tiger can deal with massive influxes of info.

beermaking thingsmoved from livejournal

Learning…

August 15, 2005

Tonight’s shiny happy lesson?

Denatured alcohol is not the same as isopropyl alcohol.

This because readily apparent when the $6 can of denatured alcohol that I just purchased failed to remove the label adhesive from some PVC pipe, yet the isopropyl did the job in seconds.

Doh.

making thingsmoved from livejournal

iSight Tripod Adapter

August 11, 2005

Well, I just sent off payment for 40 15′ long Firewire cables. On the way home from the dentist’s office tonight (I’m going by there to do some computer work) I’ll grab some more PVC pipe, some endcaps, some tee nuts, some paint, and get started on things. Hopefully within two weeks I’ll actually have them ready for sale…

electronicsmaking thingsmoved from livejournal

iSight Tripod Adapter

August 11, 2005

[Cross posted to and …]

So I’ve been thinking of manufacturing about 40 of those iSight tripod adapters and selling them. I’m thinking of making them a bit shorter than the one I have (there’s a lot of air space in there) and painting them black or so.

Price would be US$35 shipped within the US, slightly more to elsewhere.

I’m curious, do you all think this is a good idea? And, would you be interested in buying one?

Here is a shot of the device itself, similar to what would be for sale. Except the ones I sell will likely be painted black.

Right now I’m trying to get prices on Firewire cables, but I’m thinking I’d end up with 15′ cables, leaving about 14.5′ hanging out of the adapter. The extra length is there so that it’s possible to have the iSight mounted on the tripod, and the computer a goodly ways away.

So, interested? Your thoughts?

electronicsmaking thingsmoved from livejournal

rez.nuxx.net

July 23, 2005

(For some reason I’m not interested in posting the pictures themselves to LJ tonight.)

This is what I made to hopefully correct the problems with the new webserver, rez.nuxx.net. It allows me to mount a spare 2U power supply inside of a normal ATX power supply space in my mid-tower server case.

I don’t mean to brag, but I personally think it came out pretty damn good. After mounting everything, this is how it came out. In doing this I ended up moving the fan guard and mains power connector to the outside of the case. Personally, I think it came out pretty good.

As can be seen here, there is also a good bit of room now, plenty of space for the bundling of the cables. Additionally, here is the first shot of the inside of the case, parts installed. This may change around a bit before I install it in the colo facility, but it’s the exact hardware config I hope to use.

computersmaking thingsmoved from livejournal

El-Cheapo Water Filter

July 21, 2005

[Cross posted to and …]


Click for huuuuuge….

So today I was going to brew some beer, and I decided that the best way to dechlorinate my water would be to run it through an activated charcoal filter. Well, ~US$20 and a visit to Home Depot later, and I had what you see above. A 2000-gallon activated charcoal inline water filter for a fridge, garden hose connectors, and enough 1/4″ line to reach easily into the carboy / pot / whatever. It’s really easy to use, and I’d have to strongly suggest that anyone looking to filter their water before brewing do something similar. Or, if you just need a portable filter it works as well.

Now, off to keep this brew going! The water is just coming to a boil now…

beermaking thingsmoved from livejournal

Power… Control!

July 20, 2005

Rawr. So it looks like the new webserver is having power supply issues. I’ve got six disks in there, and I think the power supply isn’t hacking it. When attempting to sync over data to it, it keeps rebooting.

Time to go purchase something much larger.

I’d think it could maybe be something else, but the machine isn’t dumping core (no vmcore* files found on the box) and this is the first time it’s happened. It’s also nicely reproducable…

Blah.

UPDATE: Also, something seems to have happened when the box crashed, and I have an empty directory that I can’t delete. (It’s part of the set that was being sync’d over.) I need to get the box into single user mode, but I can’t really do that remotely. At least it’s at home…

Well, time to price out power supplies.

UPDATE2: I may have an appropriate power supply at home… So long as it’s not too physically long, and I can fit it inside the case, it’ll definitely power the machine. It’s just meant for a 2U/3U/Whatever case, so I’ll have to build a bracket to hold it. Ah well.

computersmaking thingsmoved from livejournal