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

My Office

May 16, 2007

(Cross posted from YakYak…)


Here’s my desk / office at home taken with an 8mm fisheye lens. You can just barely see the door and G5, which are in opposite corners of a 12′ x 12′ room.

That’s exactly how it is now, except I’ve opened the just-received-before-photo box from Advanced Circuits. (They are the prototype PCBs for a project I’m working on.)

Click on the image to make it full size…

(And please ignore all the wacky flare. It is a fisheye with a 47W diffused daylight CF near the edge.)

around the houseelectronicsmoved from livejournal

FibraMent

May 16, 2007

I just ordered a FibraMent baking stone to replace mine which was broken on Friday while extracting a pizza from the oven.

I purchased the 13 3/8″ x 17 1/2″ version, which is US$50 shipped. It should fit nicely inside the oven and provide a (hopefully better than before) platform for baking of bread and pizzas. The stone I had before was around 3/8″ thick, and this one is 3/4″.

acquired thingsfoodmoved from livejournal

Electronics Help: Current Loop

May 14, 2007

Staying late at work today I set about turning this PCB into this schematic. (I also replaced the MC1488 / MC1489 combo with a MAX232, eliminating the need for a bunch of diodes and feeding the board +/-15VDC.)

It supposedly turns RS232 into current loop, where amperage is used to signal 0 or 1 instead of voltage. This makes the signal more robust in noisy environments or with long wire runs.

The thing is, when I look at this, I can’t quite see it as being anything more than a device which takes RS232 serial and converts it to be 0V or 30V (for low or high), and optically isolates data going back to the PC. I don’t see any way it actually varies the amperage while keeping the voltage steady.

Can someone correct me, or confirm what I’m seeing? The schematic, as made from the board, is here.

(Also, I need to remove the 7486 part. Each currently grounded leg of the gate was originally set to a jumper to select if it should be high or low, but the needs of this board are fine having them all grounded. As it’s XOR on all of them, and one leg is always pulled low, the output will always be whatever the input is. So, I think I can eliminate the 7486. I believe the jumpers serve to invert the signal, should it be needed. But it’s not. And I didn’t remove the 7486 while removing the jumpers because I wasn’t certain of it was used for anothing else. But now I know. And knowing is half the battle.)

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Oak-y!

May 11, 2007

French (Toasted) Oak Chips Soaking in George Dickel

As part of making the Simcoak (which I hope comes out good) I’m soaking around 4.75 ounces of toasted French oak chips in a pint glass of George Dickel bourbon. Sure, that’s almost $10 of bourbon, but I’m hoping that it’ll sanitize the chips, contribute to the flavor of the beer, and leave me with some still-good, drinkable, extra-oaky bourbon afterwards.

Also, Danielle and I made pizzas tonight. Below the cut is a picture of the better looking of the two pizzas.

Continue reading: Click for pizza picture!

beerfoodmoved from livejournal

Dr. Bronner’s Peppermint Pure Castile Liquid Soap

May 10, 2007

(Click for full size image…)

Oh, I also (finally) replaced the Dial-branded pump soap dispensers which I’ve had in the bathrooms since I bought this place with something nicer. The old dispensers weren’t dirty or worn out, but I was fairly tired of the smell and anti-bacterial-ness of Dial soap. The cheap, prone-to-toppling dispensers were a bit of a bother too.

Stopping at Trader Joes on the way home I picked up a bottle of Dr. Bronner’s Liqiud Soap, in Peppermint. At US$8.99 for one quart it’s not very cheap, but it is very nice soap.

Also, don’t forget to read about E. H. Bronner‘s colorful, driven personality.

acquired thingsaround the housemoved from livejournal

2007 Flowers (Plants)

May 10, 2007

Rosemary
(Click for more photos of the 2007 Flowers around my house (photo gallery retired)…)

Arriving home a bit early from training at the Microsoft facility in Southfield I decided to head over to Deneweth’s Greenhouses, which is just down 22 Mile Road from my house, and grab some flowers.

Well, instead of following the trend from previous years and planting just flowers I decided to pick up some pretty herbs and chilis as well. The four things planted are Rosemary (Rosmarinus officinalis – as seen above), Caribbean Red Habernaro, Obsession with Blue Eye Verbena, and Victoria Blue Salvia Farinacea. I’m quite happy with how they all look spaced out around my front porch and such. With the salvia growing to 12″ – 20″ it should be nicely, imposingly friendly. Hopefully the chilis will be good, and the rosemary gets as bushy as I’d like. Ideally I could regularly bake bread using the rosemary. Mmm!

around the housemoved from livejournal

x0xb0x

May 9, 2007

It seems that I’m now able to order another x0xb0x kit. So, I shall. This one is more of an investment, though… Something easy / fun to build which I can slap my remaining piece of custom artwork on and sell on eBay. Or something. :)

It’ll be about $360 total, but I think it’ll be worth it…

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HMLiberator v1.0 PCBs Ordered

May 7, 2007

HMLiberator PCB v1.0HMLiberator PCB v1.0
(Click for 600dpi version.)

Well, it’s done. I’ve ordered the first run of PCBs for the HMLiberator. While they are technically a prototype, these v1.0 PCBs should be also be usable as the final part. The circuit is pretty simple, and I’ve checked things over a number of times, and it all seems right. Now I just need to finish the software.

Thanks to Advanced Circuit’s $500 Free Promotion I was able to get a $500 credit towards one or two orders, making this entire order free. I’ve heard excellent things about Advanced Circuits, and due to the small tolerances on these boards I wanted to be sure they’d be done right. Also, should I go production on this item, 250 boards will only cost $1.94 each.

For now I ordered 12 boards, as any quantity from 5 to 12 were the same total price (price per board * quantity). With any luck I’ll have them by the weekend, or maybe early next week. Until then I can just finish polishing the software.

If you are interested, the schematic is available in black and white or color. I’ve also uploaded another file containing the Gerbers and CADsoft EAGLE files, should anyone be interested in them.

Now, to get back to normal work, and possibly update the online documentation for the project a bit later. I also should make a post about Saturday, which was a really nice day of beer brewing, friends, and beer in the evening. (Although I think a bit too much beer… or maybe too much Mt. Gay afterwards at ‘s place.)

electronicsmaking thingsmoved from livejournal