nuxx.net – Page 122 – Making, baking, and (un-)breaking things in Southeast Michigan.

Door #24

Published December 24, 2008

The door on the advent calendar marked 24 has always meant that Christmas is tomorrow, but that Christmas Eve — the most exciting day of all — was here. When I was growing up our immediate family Christmas stuff always happened on Christmas Eve, including what seemed to be a rather nifty way of Santa arriving with presents.

At some point in the evening, usually after dinner and my parents pointing out a blinking red light in the sky which was (clearly!) Rudolph’s nose, the doorbell would ring and IT WAS SANTA. My sister, one of my parents (usually my Dad), and I would all hurry upstairs and hide in one of the bedrooms singing Christmas carols while we heard Santa be let in the house. Santa would be stomping around the house, Ho! Ho! Ho!-ing, and five or seven minutes (an eternity!) would elapse while we sang as hard as we could.

Suddenly the front door would close and it would get quiet, and whichever parent wasn’t with us (usually my Mom) would come upstairs and tell us that she thinks he’s gone. We’d then hurry downstairs and were always two piles of things, one for my sister and one for me. Cookies and milk that had been left out would be partially eaten, and the little bowl of sugar left for the reindeer would have marks in it from the reindeer tongues.

After my sister and I spent time looking through, opening, and somewhat playing with our new stuff it was then time for us to exchange things that we got for each other.

Thinking back I don’t ever remember us having particularly extravagant Christmases, but we were never disappointed. Over the years I remember (lots of) Lego, Transformers, tools, a new robe, fun Nerf stuff, a Game Boy, NES games (my dad had even picked out such amazing games as Snake Rattle ‘n’ Roll and Bionic Commando for me), my own CD player / stereo for my bedroom, and just lots of really thoughtful gifts and really nice holidays. Much of this has shaped who I am today in many ways

I also seem to recall that if we ever looked outside after Santa had arrived there would also be marks from the runners on Santa’s sleigh, small marks from reindeer hooves, and footprints from Santa all around and leading up to the front door.

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Danielle’s Bath Bombs

Published December 24, 2008

One of the first bath bombs Danielle made, a citrus scent.

After the x0xb0x failed to produce audio and my giving up on it for tonight (admittedly without much troubleshooting) I decided to take a bath and read more of In Defense Of Food while taking a bath. During the time I spent nearing the end of the book I was soaking in hot water scented and softened by a bath bomb made by Danielle, just like the one above.

It had a moderate citrus scent, which went surprisingly well with the Founders’ Red’s Rye I was drinking while soaking in the tub. The water was made almost an opaque off-white (2″ or so visibility) and somewhat oily, but not overly so. I felt no need to shower afterwards, and now my (at least where it was in the water) skin feels comfortably soft. I’m really looking forward to trying out the other version here, which is modeled after Lush‘s Black Pearl.

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Attributor Corporation

Published December 23, 2008

Do any of you who run blogs ever notice occasional rashes of indexing from 64.41.128.xxx? I’ve noticed this every few days when poking around in the copy of StatPress Reloaded which is running here to monitor pageviews and such.

It turns out that these queries are from Attributor Corporation, who regularly indexes blogs and such to look for copyright violations, duplications of text / image / video content, etc.

Attributor’s FAQ states that…

Attributor is the world’s first web-wide content tracking and analysis platform that enables publishers to build value with their content wherever it appears on the Internet.

With Attributor, publishers can now program when, how and where their content is presented across the web and social networks. Advanced fingerprinting algorithms, a large scale crawling infrastructure and detailed contextual analysis provide publishers with web-wide visibility of their articles, images or videos. Using the Attributor platform, customers can monitor licensed uses, identify new sales leads and revenue-sharing opportunities, and derive more links and better search engine placement.

The FAQ then goes on to talk about how they don’t want to immediately send out DMCA notices for such things, but instead enhance monetization by sending requests to those copying content asking for appropriate links back, attributions, etc. They also claim that their tool (Dashboard) can take Creative Commons licenses into account and help ensure that the license is being followed accordingly.

I don’t really mind, since all this content is fairly original and put out for everyone to see and read, but it is interesting to see the scanning actually happening.

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No Audio

Published December 23, 2008

x0xb0x #888 after assembly is complete. While it runs, no sound comes out of the headphone or line out.

Tonight I finished assembling x0xb0x #888, but on first power up no audio is heard. The sequencer runs and I know the VCO works, but beyond that I’m not sure where the problem lies. Time to dig through the schematic while sitting in front of it with a scope.

Fun.

(I just hope I don’t have a blown BA6110 like some folks have had…)

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x0xb0x Artwork from AbleIdeas

Published December 22, 2008

A few days back I released my x0xb0x artwork into Creative Commons, but I didn’t mention what it was that got me thinking about the artwork and its license, prompting me to do this. It turns out that James Irwin was wanting to print more copies of this artwork up to sell via his shop AbleIdeas. Wanting the art available for others I licensed the art as I did, giving him permission to print and sell copies, and he agreed to send me one piece.

I received this piece of x0xb0x art today, and I must say that it looks pretty good. The texture of the plastic on the top layer is a bit more matte than my original pieces from Maverick Label, but the print quality and the cutting looks great. Lining one of his pieces up with mine showed them to be practically identical. The adhesive backing is the slightly thicker 3M 468 MP, which is 5 mil as opposed to the 2 mil 467 MP I’d selected from Maverick. This will adhere better to rough surfaces, but supposedly doesn’t help with the bond on smooth surfaces. I’ve been told that this adhesive will change to the 467 MP in future runs.

Oh, and (possibly) best of all? The Thailand Post (ไปรษณีย์ไทย) envelope the artwork came in was exceedingly cute (front · back). It could have used some backing board to ensure the artwork didn’t get bent (as the slight wrinkles visible here on the backing paper allude to), but the plastic looked just fine. I’ve mentioned this to James and he’s made note of it.

So, if you’re wanting some of my artwork printed up for your x0xb0x and don’t want to order in quantity from Maverick Label, definitely check out AbleIdeas x0xb0x store.

In x0xb0x #888 building news, tonight I sanded down the front panel to remove the epoxy lettering, cut a hole in the rear panel for the power switch, fashioned an impromptu indoor painting area, then began painting the rear panel. Hopefully I’m only a few days away from applying this artwork and finishing off another x0xb0x. I do still have to order some knobs and pushbuttons from Digi-Key, but those are essentially only finishing touches. Those can be changed after the case is closed.

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x0xb0x #888 Mainboard Complete

Published December 21, 2008

Top of the finished mainboard PCB for x0xb0x #888, showing the mode and bank selector switches, red LEDs, and tactile switches.

After sleeping in a bit, most of today was spent on the mainboard for x0xb0x #888. Everything went quite well, the board cleaned up great, and it’s ready to hook up in the case. I even made a particular point of soldering all sealed components before washing, then doing electro-mechanical parts afterward with no-clean flux. I haven’t always been this particular in the past, and having to occasionally avoid a switch or button while scrubbing the flux off was a hassle.

Tomorrow I’m hoping to start on painting the back panel, possibly adding a power switch, and assembling everything for its first full-system test and (hopefully) tuning. I’ve already confirmed functionality of the power supply and USB (which the FT232BM from yesterday handles), so that’s a good start.

Here’s two more photos from today’s work:

· Soldered connections for the tactile switches, showing the slight bit of residue from no-clean flux.
· Detail of the cleaned solder joints on the DAC, located between the mode and bank switches.
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Fiberccino

Published December 21, 2008

Scanned recipe for a Benefiber Fiberccuino. This recipe was received in a book of Benefiber recipes which someone placed in my front door handle.

Yesterday while washing dishes someone was walking around my neighborhood putting Benefiber recipe booklets in people’s front door handles. Living in an area with mostly older / retired people I must get roped into the demographic of those who buy fiber supplements.

While I like ensuring that my diet has sufficient amounts of fiber in it, I do so by eating things like porridge instead of bizarre concoctions like the Fiberccino shown above. Water (capitalized, for some reason) is the most natural thing in there, with refined sugar as the distant second.

Other recipes in this booklet include Upside-Down Pizza, Quick Sloppy Joes, Cajun Chicken Salad, Cheesecake Pie, Apple Dumplings, and Raspberry Sauce, all with Benefiber-brand wheat dextrin, because Benefiber^® Makes Taking Fiber ~~Easier~~ Perverse™.

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FT232BM in x0xb0x #888

Published December 20, 2008

Detail of the FT232BM USB to Serial adapter which is IC25 in the newer x0xb0x designs. It is used for updating firmware and remotely editing saved programs.

Either I’ve become a bit better at soldering, or things like the FT232BM in the x0xb0x are easier than I recall. I’ve finished the IO board so it’s time to wash and test it, then move on to the main PCB.

Here’s an amusing (to me) photo of solder dust from below the brass pad in the iron stand. Note the black cable tie at the top for scale.

Oh, also, this assembly is once again reminding me of my very dislike for cornrowed (upended) resistors. They take 3x as long to fit as normal, flat ones. Also, when there are 50 of one value of resistor right next to each other, maybe resistor networks would be a good idea?

UPDATE: Here’s the same chip, with most of the flux removed. There is still a very small residual amount of non-water-soluble flux left, which was removed after this picture was taken.

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Sunny Snow in the Microwave

Published December 20, 2008

The day after a foot of snow fell everything was nice and sunny. This photo taken via a reflection in the front of the microwave in the kitchen.

The morning after the giant storm which dropped almost a foot of snow here it’s nice and bright and sunny. Hopefully the roads are becoming clear and it’ll stay cold enough that this turns into a nice blanket of winter sitting over everything for the rest of the holidays.

Of course, then right after that it’ll turn into typically Michigan piles of gray and brown dirty snow piled at the sides of parking lots, mixed with shopping carts, Burger King bags, and broken pieces of parking blocks.

(This photo was taken in the reflection from the microwave in the kitchen.)

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Riding In Deep Snow

Published December 19, 2008

Snow-covered bike, fitted with fenders, after trying to go for a ride in the snow after the storm on 19-Dec-2008.

After the snowing stopped (about 3pm) I decided that I should try going for a bike ride. This was much more difficult than I expected, and I wasn’t able to ride more than about 100′. As soon as I’d get going the front wheel would slide and essentially turn into a ski, and I’d slow down enough that I’d have to stop.

It seems the only thing that this much snow is good for is holding up my bike while I take a picture of it fitted with its new fenders. The rear one is a little low, but that’s roughly how it’ll be adjusted.

This weather is making me wish I had access to a Pugsly, but I also don’t want to spend the $1500 or so it’ll take to build one up nicely. I think I’ll just wait until a bit of the snow goes away.

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