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

Audio Input Switch

September 26, 2007

Yay! I just finished porting the software for my PIC-based audio input switch to the PIC16F630. Earlier this afternoon I got it feature-complete and worked out all the bugs I could find, then in the last half hour or so I got it running on the new chip.

Tonight I hope to get it working with internal pullups (should be trivial) and then I’ll give the power supply design some thought, along with initial parts selection for the PCB itself.

Since I haven’t mentioned it here before, it’s:

– 2-5 input audio selection switch (configurable via jumpers)
– Relays for switching audio
– Fail-safe design
– Switches balanced or unbalanced audio
– Next / Previous buttons
– Mute function
– Saves input to ROM so that last state is restored at power-on
– MIT-licensed software

I’ll post more info later. Now it’s time to go home and meet up with Danielle for dinner.

electronicsmaking thingsmoved from livejournal

Wax On…

September 25, 2007

My Tent In The Garage, Covered In Nikwax Tent & Gear Proof
(Click for larger…)

My garage and part of my house smell vaguely of white glue, which is what Nikwax Tent & Gear Proof smells like. Since Danielle and I are going camping at Tahquamenon Falls State Park this weekend, and there is the remote possibility of rain (there always is, eh?) I wanted to waterproof my tent. Most of the areas which needed waterproofing were the seams, but I made sure to spray the whole thing down. Also, after letting it sit for a bit and soak in I wiped the whole thing down with a damp cloth, which seemed to do a good job of helping the waterproofing further penetrate the fabric.

After the job was done I tried to wash my hands, but they just became sticky and the water beaded up on them. Neither acetone or denatured alcohol would remove the chemical from my hands, so I took to dry scrubbing them with sodium percarbonate (Oxyclean). This seemed to do a good job, and then soap was able to remove the remaining slick C2H6Na4O12 residue. My hands still feel like they have a bit of the waterproofing compound left in them. Hopefully it’ll come out in the shower tomorrow.

We had originally thought about taking Danielle’s larger tent (see them both here), but we only had one 500mL bottle of waterproofing and the rainfly on hers seems to have a greater surface area than my whole tent. I’m glad I didn’t try waterproofing hers…

Hopefully the weather will cooperate. We’ll have the air mattress to sleep on, sheets and blankets, and (with any luck) a dry weekend.

making thingsmoved from livejournaloutdoors

Maglite LED Upgrade Module

September 23, 2007

Incandescent vs. LED Lamp in Two D-cell Maglite

I’ve been wanting an LED flashlight for a while, and yesterday when Danielle and I were at REI I saw that Maglite offers LED upgrade modules for their existing flashlights. Years ago when I was in Civil Air Patrol I had acquired a two D-cell Maglite for various encampment / search and rescue / utility purposes. Despite its age (and wear, including being thrown at someone as they ducked into a fire escape) it still worked great, so I figured that a new LED bulb for it would work out great.

While out and about today we stopped by Home Depot and I picked up the Maglite LED Upgrade Module (Model SH32DCW6J, Part 108-000-701), which is advertised as being fitted with a three watt LED. A bit of research showed this to be a Luxeon 3W LED, presumably part number LXHL-PW09.

The lamp itself had no problems fitting into the flashlight just like the incandescent lamp. Once it was installed I shined it around the basement with the lights on and I wasn’t completely sure that it was brighter, but one look at the comparison photos taken in the dark showed that the LED is quite a bit brighter. (I tried to keep the focus as similar as possible on those two, and both were shot at ISO 100, f/11, with a one-second exposure. Locations for the tripod and flashlight were both marked with tape for consistency between shots.)

The part cost US$18.97, but I figure this is worthwhile. It should also help save on batteries. I’m not sure if the LED is being powered in a way which allows the LED to dissipate a full 3W (probably depends on the circuitry in the bulb housing, but it still seems pretty good. Hopefully this will come in handy while camping next weekend.

acquired thingsmaking thingsmoved from livejournal

Bodum Isis 5500-1

September 22, 2007

Bodum Isis 5500-1 Of Questionable Origin

While perusing Craigslist Detroit Danielle came across a “garage sale” of questionable origin. That is, a supposed garage sale taking place in one of the hangers of a private FBO located at Troy airport. (More info and photo of inside the hanger.) We swung by there this afternoon and while most of the things available were open box / missing item RTA furniture, there were a few interesting things. The only one we found worth purchasing was the Bodum electric kettle seen above. It was US$20, marked Salvage (on a yellow item number sticker on the top), but seemed to be unused. The kettle itself was in great shape, the box was just a bit beat up.

Usually when I heat water for tea or whatnot I use a metal kettle on the stove. This works, but it’s both a bit slow and inefficient. I’ve been wanting an electric kettle, but there only seem to be two varities available: cheap white plastic, non-detachable cord, and a top which can’t be opened much, if at all (<US$20) or expensive (>$50), stainless steel and plastic, and not much better made than the cheap ones.

This one is of the same heating element design, except the top opens up all the way to allow for easy cleaning, it was cheap, seems to have been unused, and almost all of the energy spent is actually put into the water. In the initial test it heated six cups of water to boiling in around three minutes. Not bad at all.

I think tonight I’ll make some valerian root tea to celebrate, and also help take off the edge which the multiple cups of coffee throughout the afternoon have put on me. Whoops.

acquired thingsfoodmoved from livejournal

Birmingham, MI to Ann Arbor, MI via Train

September 21, 2007

Train Arriving at Birmingham Platform
(Click for more photos (photo gallery retired)…)

Back on July 7th Danielle and I decided to head to Ann Arbor for the evening. However, instead of driving there, we decided to take the train from Birmingham at around 5pm, then back at about Midnight. While the ticket cost was around $80 for the two round-trip first-class tickets and gas would have cost around $18, it was a nice diversion from the normal drive.

Along the hour-ish ride we passed through some rather interesting areas, seeing everything from a state trooper attempting to drive around the gates and TURTL graffiti to someone with a pickup slinking around an abandoned building (stealing copper?) and a giant chicken on KIDZ PLAYLAND. There was also the typical landfill, rail yard, and wetlands.

Once we arrived at Ann Arbor we walked up the stairs and road to Zingerman’s Deli and Next Door where we had dinner. I actually ate a rather substantial bacon-laden sandwich, Zingerman’s lovely Jen’s Pimento Parti.

After eating we wandered around the town a bit, eventually meeting up with and a very tired (and lost) . After a bit more wandering around, including back to the train station, waited until it arrived, then made our way back to the Birmingham station, where we arrived just after 1:30am.

By the way, the Birmingham platform is pretty crappy. It’s nothing but a track-level concrete platform located at the end of a road, and is fitted with a very uninformative information display and a “shelter” which does little but retain heat and stink of urine.

The train itself was decent, but nowhere as nice as UK trains. The ride was smooth, but slow. Staff was courteous, although not particularly friendly. The inside of the train feels like sparse 70s engineering. I’m not sure if I’ll take it to Ann Arbor again, but I’d definitely consider it for transit to Chicago. Without all the hassles of air travel (able to bring whatever you want on board, no security, etc) is rather nice, and the ticket cost is about the same as flying.

(Yes, I did just get these pictures uploaded this week. If you’d like to see all of them, please look here (photo gallery retired).)

foodmoved from livejournaltravel

Heritage Harvest Days

September 20, 2007

Water-cooled engine powering a reciprocating saw.
(Click for more images (photo gallery retired)…)

After hearing about it from Danielle and I headed up to Seven Ponds Nature Center in Dryden, MI (map) for Heritage Harvest Days. We were supposed to meet up with and , but due to some confusion we went on Saturday instead of Sunday and missed them.

Seven Ponds is a private, non-profit nature center, and Heritage Harvest Days is one of its fundraisers. The event consists of a number of people demonstrating their crafts, music, and a few people selling things. Admission is US$5, and it’s very worthwhile. There were lots of nifty things to look at, trails to wander, and it was just an all around good time.

Here are some highlight photos:

· Tractor-powered sawmill.
· Guys sitting on the tractors which are powering the sawmill.
· Studebaker Pickup Truck.
· Frustrated-looking magician after getting out of a straight jacket.
· Danielle in the herb garden.
· Hummingbird clearwing moth.
· A sheep named Piggy being sheared.
· Cute sheep!
· Goat with a cast on its leg! (It got caught in a fence…)
· Reciprocating saw powered by the engine pictured above.
· Corn on the cob being steamed in a barrel.
· Danielle eating corn on the cob.
· Lake, at the bottom of the hill behind the festival.
· Raccoon poop.
· Cute goat reaching under the fence for leaves.

Of course, the rest of the photos can be seen in the Heritage Harvest Days at Seven Ponds (photo gallery retired) album.

When looking through the gallery you might notice that things look a bit… better. In order to make the page look fuller and cut out some whitespace I set the thumbnails to fit within a bounding box of 300 x 300 (up from 150 x 150) and made the default resized images fit within an 800 x 800 box. Around 30% of visitors to the site are at 1024×768, and when tested on a monitor running IE at that resolution, things were still plenty usable. A little bit of scrolling to the right was required, but only maybe 20% of the screen wasn’t visible without scrolling. As almost all other users were using a resolution above 1024×768, this seems like a safe sizing.

moved from livejournaloutdoorstravel

Dinner: Pretzel Bread Sandwhich

September 18, 2007

Here is my dinner. Having too much salt throughout the last few days I figured I needed some fresh veggies to help sort me out. Yes, I know there is actually a reasonable amount of salt in this, but it sure seemed to help.

This is half of a piece of pretzel bread (a “walking stick”) from Nino Salvaggio with Dill Havarti, sliced Roma tomato, and cucumber on it. I also ate it along with some of the olives I picked up, as the olives are really tasty.

This was a very, very good dinner, and just the right size.

foodmoved from livejournal

Splitting Ground

September 17, 2007

Here’s a quick electronics question:

How can I couple two groundplanes together, but isolate noise between them?

The reason I ask is because I’ve got a really noisy USB connection coming from my work laptop, and while I can feed it’s data lines right into the DAC, the ground connection for it is the same as the one for the outputs. I’m trying to figure out how one can couple those two grounds together, but cut off noise between them.

Best I can tell that’s just done with a ferrite bead… Is that right?

electronicsmoved from livejournal

Sheepie Preview…

September 15, 2007

More photos coming later…

This is just a preview of the Heritage Harvest Festival in Dryden, MI.

Due to some confusion Danielle and I attended the festival today instead of with friends tomorrow, but that’s okay. It was really nifty. There was a good bit of farm equipment, sawmills, animals, steam-roasted corn on the cob, trails to wander on, and stuff like that.

Anyway, more later. For now you get a really cute, freshly shorn sheepie. (By a multi-generation shearer who seemed to really care for her animals and made things from their wool.)

moved from livejournaloutdoorstravel