Category: moved from livejournal

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June 22, 2004

Well, it seems that it’s time for liquid-related repairs. My car is currently over at Belle Tire at 23 Mile and VanDyke having it’s water pump replaced. See, this morning I went to go to lunch, and there was a good sized pool of DexCool beneath my car. I checked the coolant levels, but everything seemed all right, maybe a tad low. Went to lunch, came back, parked in a different spot. While driving, the temperature never got above normal, and there was no low coolant lamp lit.

After work, again, no apparent coolant leak. That’s good, so I headed home-ish, with a stop to get my oil changed and tires rotated. A few minutes after sitting down to read, the service guy told me there was coolant steadily flowing from the water pump.

Well, that was it. I guess the leak was my car… So, I called my parents and was able to procure a ride home from the shop. I’m also in the process of making arrangements to get over to the shop at noonish tomorrow, when the work is scheduled to be completed.

So, a bit of cash later, and I’ll have rotated tires, a new water pump, new coolant (for the second time within the supposed life of DexCool), and fresh synthetic oil. Should be about… Oh… $300 or so, when all is said and done.

Now it’s off to disassemble the outside faucet and retrieve the washer, so that I can pick up a new one tomorrow. Yay!

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June 20, 2004

So, Friday morning, or was it Thursday night, I received a bunch of information (two massive pieces of email, in fact) from Scott at PAiA about troubleshooting a FatMan. After running down voltages and checking to be sure I didn’t have any cold solder points, I decided to swap EPROMs with another FatMan I have here. (It’s a friends and I’m looking into fixing it up.) I had tried swapping the microprocessor earlier, because I had suspected that to be a problem, but it wasn’t. This time, on suggestion from Scott at PAiA, I did, and poof, the problem was gone. So it looks like either I have a blank, or at least misburned, EPROM.

I just sent off some email to PAiA asking for another EPROM. Hopefully this one will work fine… Thus far I’m finding them to have great customer support and nice kits that are easy to assemble, but a bit of a problem packing the orders. Missing parts, unburned EPROMs, etc. They seem good about replacing bits as needed, but it still shouldn’t happen in the first place.

So, as soon as I get the new EPROM, I can get the thing tuned up and ready for use. Whee!

electronics making things moved from livejournal

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June 20, 2004

So, exactly 900 miles of driving later, and with lots of walking, I have acquired this.

and I are back from the great Upper Peninsula…

· Lots of mosquitos. Lots. And lots. 100% DEET bug spray in a non-aerosol can is the best.
· Inadvertently started sinking in some quicksand. Have since learned that one will quickly sink into a sandbar when it is located partially across the mouth of a stream, next to a lake.
· Walking through the woods in the dark, with or without flashlights, even if one is on a wooden path, is scary.
· Taquamenon Falls are really nifty, especially in the dark, despite the path being very frightening. (See previous comment)
· Climbing to the top of a lighthouse is worth it.
· National forests are nifty. Lots of nice rural campsites, beaches to walk along, fish hatcheries to visit, lighthouses, empty roads, random trails, etc.
· Saw a fireworks store located on an Indian reservation. Should have stopped. :\
· Indian reservations also contain lots and lots of casinos.
· A GPS receiver that does moving maps, even if it doesn’t do driving directions, is great for traveling through random areas. Maps might have been enough, but not as convenient.
· 1970s tents suck. As do people at the next campsite who’s kids slam the door all morning.
· Not eating meat while up north is hard to do. Also, the waitresses seem offended if you decline all the soups because they are beef / chicken / pork based.
· THERE IS NO MAN KILLING CLAM AT SEA SHELL CITY. At least none that we could find… Lots of tchotchkies, though. Lots. (Is that spelled right?) The billboards lie.
· The showers / bathrooms at the state park are rather nice. They didn’t feel dirty or dingy at all, and the water was nice and hot. Very good for when you don’t have quite enough blankets.

I’m sure there’s more, but I’m just not remembering right now. It was a really good, very worthwhile weekend, though. So, that’s enough for now.

[UPDATE]

Also, I forgot to add…

· Chipmunks. Lots of them. Feeding them is fun.
· Abandoned military sites are pretty nifty. One in particular that we found had been converted into civilian housing, but it was still neat.
· Racoons are adept at climbing in and out of flapping-door style garbage cans.
· Again, lots of pasta and grilled cheese does not make for a healthy diet.
· It’s that time of year to see large groups of bikers (and I mean real bikers, not pricks on ‘choppers’) taking vacations en masse. I bet that’s fun.

moved from livejournal outdoors travel

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June 7, 2004

Today I feel defeated by…

…a synthesizer kit!

I’m trying to think of what to check, but it’s just. not. coming.

All ICs seem to be receiving appropriate voltages on the pins you’d expect power to be coming in on.

Something seems weird with the voltage regulator ICs, but I might be metering them wrong, I think.

< sigh >

Next is to ask the smart people at PAiA for help.

electronics making things moved from livejournal

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June 1, 2004

So I got the PAiA FatMan assembled… And it doesn’t work. The power LED lights, the MIDI LED blinks when a signal is sent, nothing smokes, but it just doesn’t work. Needless to say, I’m slightly disappointed. I’m going to email PAiA with a link to all the photos. Hopefully they’ll be able to help me out or something.

electronics making things moved from livejournal

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June 1, 2004

VisionTek sure uses some wacky terms to describe their video cards. Check this out…

With 8 pipelines, pushing through 3 BILLION pixels per second, and 4 parallel GEO-Metry engines, processing 380 million [T&L] polygons per second, this card gives GRATUITOUS, adult entertainment. The 9800XT supports 128-bit, 64-bit and 32-bit floating-point color formats. HI-RES 32-bit, 3D gaming up to 2048×1536 for head-shooting, flesh-ripping, ALARMING graphics power.

The 9800XT fronts more than 18 BILLION (with a “B”) anti-aliasing samples per second for AWESOME performance up to 16 trilinear filtered texture samples per pixel. ATI’s programmable SMARTSHADERª 2.1 makes head-wounds and severed limbs look real with enhanced lighting and texture effects, while SMOOTHVISIONª 2.1 serves up full-scene anti-aliasing.

(taken from here)

Computers have gone to the ricers. :(

[UPDATE: I found a bit more…]

Here‘s the one I was originally thinking of when I went digging around VisionTek‘s site:

Freak’n KICK ASS performance
Xtasy 9500 Pro, powered by ATI’s RADEON™ 9500 PRO VPU with 128MB DDR memory WILL BLOW YOU… AWAY! ATI’s TRUFORM technology makes heaving orbs more ample and well-endowed, while HYPER Z™ II saves bandwidth for mo’ righteous performance in your more demanding sit-e’ations. ATI’s SMOOTHVISION, anti-aliasing, KICKS THE CRAP out of visual distortion, and sends that BI-A-TCH crying home to mama! That means better, smoother looking images. HI-RES 32-bit, 3D gaming up to 2048×1536 means that when ‘intense applications’ leaves his house, THE 9500 SLAPS THAT PIG DOWN, SAYS “GIMME MY MONEY BI-A-TCH!”

BITCH’N Visual Effects
SMARTSHADER 2.0 provides FREAK’N AWESOME lighting effects. The 9500 PRO supports DirectX® 9.0 and OpenGL® ATI’s CHARISMA ENGINE II fronts ‘Transformation and Lighting’ (T&L) at 62.5 million triangles per second. “62.5M per second?”YOU BET YO’ ASS 62.5M PER SECOND! PIXEL TAPESTRY II, 3D rendering engine, powers an AWESOME 2.4 gigatexels/second for fill ratesat 32-bit HI-RES.

Ever have TWO MONITORS at one time?
Throw in DVD support and you have yourself a threesome…

Heaving orbs? < sigh >

computers found things moved from livejournal

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May 26, 2004

Click for more…

So, the PAiA FatMan arrived today. Of course I had to start on tonight…

Well, after 176 solder points and a few hours of work cataloging parts, writing down what’s missing (this frustrates me to no end), cutting, bending, and soldering, this is where I’m at. All jumpers in place, all resistors (except the couple which I’m missing) in place, ready to start placing the caps tonight. Hopefully PAiA will come through right-quick with the replacement parts. I’m missing things like the socket for the CPU (for the MIDI bits), a set screw for one of the knobs, an op amp, etc.

Oh well, at least there’s parts of the kit to work on in the mean time. :D This is fun.

electronics making things moved from livejournal music

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May 25, 2004

I’m writing this so I can remember what went into today’s lunch. Well, the pot from which today’s lunch was served. I *think* it’s vegan, too.

[UPDATE: Yes, it is vegan. The only item in question was the Double Cream Stout, so I called the Kalamazoo Brewing Company, and the quality control lab assured me that there is no dairy in that beer.]

[UPDATE 2: Nope, not vegan. It would be if the Morningstar Farms meatless crumbles are replaced by something that doesn’t contain dairy. Checking Kellogs’ website, the Meatless Crumbles have a kosher status of Kosher Dairy. Oh well.]

Faboo Chili

· 2 Poblano Peppers (Diced)
· 5-6 Serrano Peppers (Chopped Finely)
· 3 Cooking Onions (Diced)
· 1 Green Pepper (Diced)
· 2/3 Bulb Garlic (Sliced into 1-2mm thick pieces)
· ~2/3 Large Bottle McCormick Chili Powder
· ~1-2 Tbsp Sea Salt
· ~1 Tbsp Ground Cumin
· 1 Bag Morningstar Farms Crumbly Bits of Not Meat TVP Goodness
· 1 Small Can Contidina Tomato Paste
· 1 Small Can Contidina Tomato Sauce
· 1 Bottle (minus one drink) Bell’s Double Cream Stout
· 1 Can Dark Red Kidney Beans
· 1 Can Red Kidney Beans
· 1 Can Corn
· 3 Tbsp Extra Virgin Olive Oil

Put the olive oil, onion, garlic, and serrano peppers in the bottom of a large pot. Sweat everything together until the onions are just starting to get clear.

Put in everything else.

On low, let the mixture come to a boil and then continue to simmer for ~30 minutes.

Turn off the heat and let the mixture cool to eating temperature.

Turn the heat back on and return the mixture to a simmer for another 30 minutes or so.

Turn off the heat and serve, allow the mixture to cool for packaging, place in the fridge, whatever.

It’s very, very good.

beer food moved from livejournal

To explode, of course.

May 21, 2004

Thanks to I heard about an excellent game called Every Extend. This game is *really* good. It’s free, but unfortunately for Windows only.

Basically, you pilot a bomb that must be detonated to create chains of explosions. There are some bonus bits you can pick up to increase your score, speed up the game, etc. It’s almost like a combination shooter / puzzle game. Absolutely wonderful.

Download it here, and be sure to download the replay files here (light mode) and here (heavy mode). There’s good play technique that can be learned from the demos (waiting for the pink / quicken blocks to speed up the game, etc).

Very, very good.

My highest score thus far, on heavy mode, is 1045960 points, 80 chain, and no spare bombs left.

games moved from livejournal

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May 21, 2004

Can anyone recommend a good brand/model of digital multimeter? I’ve got a decent Radio Shack-braded Fluke knock-off, but I’m having mild concerns about it’s accuracy. I don’t want to spend too much, but some nicer tools would be handy.

electronics making things moved from livejournal