Ah, what a great lunch… I’m having that bagel with a glass of Senorial Sangria soda.
I just wish I had the DOF right on this photo. Ah well. At least lunch is tasty.
Ah. It’s finally coming along. I’ve redrawn the schematic (image no longer available) and laid out the board. Now comes the few days of tweaking and polishing and validating that everything seems to be right. Then… The scary part. That is, the day when I plunk down $80 or so to have five of those boards made. And hopefully I’ll have done everything right and they’ll work.
So, yeah. It’s coming along well. I’ve also got all of the basic parts here for the front panel, so I can begin laying that out. That will take a slightly different approach, because I have to fit this LCD, a rotary encoder (or two buttons), six buttons, and two LEDs in the front panel of something about the size of an external hard drive enclosure. Oh, and build a simple board so it can all be connected with a few simple cables.
If you can’t tell, yes, I’m looking forward to it. I really like doing this kind of stuff.
So, here’s tonight’s dinner: Grilled Cheese w/ Grilled Tomatoes on Pesto Bread, Sliced Red and Yellow Peppers, Downey’s Potato Chips, Mint Sun Tea, and a Cameo Apple
I ended up forgoing the apple, as I was too full. Yes, that grilled cheese (muenster on pesto bread) was very filling, and the slices of bread are rather large.
And yes, I know the chips and peppers are out of focus. Oops. I was trying to hurry and eat more than anything.
I’m going to be moving my personal website from static HTML to MediaWiki, possibly with Turck MMCache.
This is because I’m tired of not regularly updating my page because of the problems of dealing with static HTML and templates. A locked down, CMS-style copy of MediaWiki seems to do just what I want.
Anyway, if you’d like to take a look at a preview of the site, it can be seen here.
In order to maintain the ability to have a bunch of other subdirectories full of stuff, I’ll probably have things redirect from / to /wiki or something. But we’ll see about that…
Oh, and if you have any comments about how I can make the site better (besides a new theme) please let me know.
Would anyone like my espresso maker? It is the one seen to the left of the stove in this photo. It’s a few years old Krups which hasn’t been used more than 5 times. It’s nice and clean, with maybe just a bit of dust on it. I simply don’t use it, and I’d rather not throw it out.
So, whoever wants it can have it.
Wow, I didn’t think I would get this finished tonight, but… Well… I have. This is the first draft of the PCB layout for the MIDIbox SID-LC v1.0-PROTO. That is, the first draft of the design for the prototype for the MIDIbox SID kit I’m hoping to produce and sell.
While it is true that I’ve already built a working SID-based synthesizer (photo gallery retired), I want something a bit more. So, I’ve come up with this… It’s a bunch of the MIDIbox modules all squished on to one board. Basically, this is everything one needs to build a MIDIbox SID Step A (Basic Control Surface) on one easy to assemble board.
I’m feeling pretty tired now, so I think I’ll head to bed. Well, as soon as I make a backup of all that work.
Suffice to say, I’m pretty happy that things have come this far… Now I just need to order a complete set of parts for it, confirm that they all fit the on-paper layout, then order a set of prototype boards.
If that all goes well, then I’ll start seriously looking into what it will take to assemble 50 or 100 kits and sell them.
Finally, I’ve acquired a new tripod to replace my rather flimsy (and undersized for a DSLR) Velbon S-4000 which I purchased back in 1992 or 1995 to use with my Nikon 5005.
After talking a lot with
All in all, I have to say that it seems like a really nice tripod. The head is still fairly greasy (this will wear off) and some things on it are still a bit snug (leg locks, especially), and I have to become used to it, but I think that it’ll be nice. I think the most difficult part for me to become accustomed to will be how it rotates the camera into portrait mode. This tripod flips the camera up differently than my previous one. That is, to the left instead of the right. It’ll just take some time. Manfrotto makes an interesting L-shaped adapter for one’s camera called an Elbow Bracket (#3288) which I may have to look into. It would make switching between portrait and landscape trivial and always an exact 90º. Well, maybe somewhere in the future.
Anyway, bed soon. Goodnight.
