nuxx.net

9090 Update

February 9, 2007

9090 PC001 Component Side — All Parts Fitted
(Click for solder side…)

9090 PC002 Component Side — All Parts Fitted except U38, C92, and C100
(Click for solder side…)

Wow, I can’t believe it’s come this far. Starting a few months ago with a pile of PCBs and a couple of ROMs and a microcontroller I got to work building Trevor Page’s 9090, a clone of the sound creating bits inside the Roland TR-909.

I’ve been working on it here and there, ordering all the resistors one day, a bunch of caps another, etc. Except for my screwing up and failing to acquire (in the course of three separate rounds of ordering) enough .47uF electrolytic capacitors and an IC (CA3080) which I’m waiting to receive in the mail, the PCBs are complete.

In addition to the two above, there is also a board with ten separate 1/4″ mono jacks which handles audio output for each of the ten separate instruments. The component side of that board can be seen here and the solder side here.

So, what’s left before it is done? Quite a bit, unfortunately. Let’s see…

· Get the missing three parts and fit them in place.
· Decide on an enclosure and design the front and rear panels so they fit the pots, knobs, LEDs, power switch, audio jacks, MIDI jacks, and mains connector.
· Order remaining parts.
· Design indicators / artwork and figure out the best way to apply / fit them.
· Cut the enclosure to fit all the externally-fitted components (pots, jacks, etc).
· Physically assemble the enclosure and mount the boards inside.
· Cable everything together.
· Test everything to be sure all instruments and switching jacks work as expected.
· Troubleshoot, if needed.

As you can see, there is quite a bit more to go, although I think this is a good stopping point for now.

bleep.com

February 9, 2007

Well, despite owning the actual thing, I finally got around to buying the Gescom Mini Disc from bleep.com in MP3 format. $9.99 for all 88 tracks in 320 kbps is rather nice. I must say, BLEEP sure does the online music buying / download thing right. And with a few dollars laying around in my PayPal account from someone buying something from me, it was even easier.

Hell, I think I’ll snag The Sounds Of Machines Our Parents Used next.

acquired things moved from livejournal music

Cranberry Granola Bars

February 8, 2007

Cranberry Granola Bar
(Click for high res image…)

Last night Danielle came by and her and I (in addition to eating some wonderful Thai food) made some cranberry granola bars based on the Good Eats Granola Bar recipe from the Power Trip episode.

What was done is the recipe above was used, with the following changes:

· Salted sunflower seeds were used, and the normal salt in the recipe was cut back slightly.
· Only cranberries were used, and they were chopped relatively finely.
· Toasted wheat germ, all that was available, was used.
· Due to my mistake a bit of extra honey (perhaps 8oz. was used).
· A 8″ x 8″ glass pan was used, as a 9″ x 9″ (as called for in the recipe) was unavailable.

Other than that, the recipe was made as described. Next time I’ll do a few things differently:

· Use hulled sunflower seeds. In-hull seeds contain more fiber, but don’t crisp up enough to be comfortable for all to eat.
· Line the dish with parchment, as it was difficult to remove the bars.
· Let the bars cool part-way after baking, then remove them from the dish, then cut.
· Possibly use a larger dish so that thinner bars can be made.

Also, a detailed photo of the texture of the bar can be seen here.

food moved from livejournal

Dedicated EOS Mount for MS PELENG 3.5/8A

February 7, 2007

Dedicated EOS Mount fitted to a MS PELENG 3.5/8A fisheye lens.
(Click for more…)

After acquiring the MS PELENG 3.5/8A fisheye lens a few weeks ago I went in search of a dedicated EOS mount for one. The ‘B’ variant of the lens comes with them, but at almost $100 more than the ‘A’ variant (which typically just comes with an M42 to EOS adapter) I didn’t think they were worth it. Still, I wanted to try the dedicated mount. After sending $30 off via PayPal to a seller in Canada, one was en route to me.

Remember my complaining about the set screw which wasn’t threaded along the whole body? It’s not a set screw, but a stop, which is part of the EOS mount. So, in attempting to screw it in and damaging it I actually damaged the mounting bits of the adapter. Whoops. I realized this when the dedicated mount had a similar screw, and then I looked at my 24-78 f/2.8L (photo gallery retired) and saw a similar one on there. Ah well.

Second, as you can see above, the dedicated EOS mount is the same size as the focus ring. With the M42 mount and adapter the focus ring stands out from the lens body and is easy to find by feel. When the dedicated EOS mount is used it no longer stands out and I found myself inadvertantly attempting to turn the body of the lens to change the focus. That said, because I normally set the focus without the camera to my eye, this isn’t a problem. And with the differing textures of the dedicated mount and focus ring, I don’t see this actually being a problem.

So, I’d say that if you have a MS PELENG 3.5/8A with the M42 to EOS adapter, just stick with that. It’s not really worth picking up the dedicated EOS mount. It’s not a bad addition, and it makes the lens look a bit more tailored to the camera, but it’s definitely not really needed.

acquired things moved from livejournal

1394B!

February 7, 2007

Macally PHR-100ACB

At the end of last week I ordered two 320GB hard disks and a Macally PHR-100AF FireWire 400 (1394a) disk enclosure so that I could handle all of my backups straight through my PowerMac G5. Well, today I received the parts and while the outer box had the right labeling on it, the inside was the PHR-100ACB, a combination USB 2.0 / FireWire 800 (1394b) enclosure, along with all appropriate cables. Seems like there was a mix-up somewhere. Whoops!

I don’t mind, I just hope that this doesn’t mean that there is a mixed up package elsewhere and someone else will inadvertently receive an enclosure which is a bit less than they had hoped for.

acquired things computers moved from livejournal

rowla.nuxx.net is moving!

February 6, 2007

rowla.nuxx.net Maintenance Notice!

To everyone who uses rowla.nuxx.net to some degree: This machine is going to be moved at some point within the next few weeks, hopefully within the next few days. The colocation provider I use is getting their new building / data center going, and I’m going to move in there sooner than later. Because of this I will have to switch to a new IP address and have the server down for a few hours while it is driven to the new building, but after that things should be fine. It should just come back up once turned on.

Email deliveries attempted while the server is off should be queued by the last-hop mail server and delivered after things come back online.

I’ll post more info (and more specific dates / times as I have them) here, but for now just know that it’ll be happening.

computers moved from livejournal nuxx.net

9090

February 5, 2007

9090 PCBs

If everything goes according to plan, I’ll have the 9090 PCBs done sometime around the end of the week. I ended up having to place two Mouser orders today (doh!), but all I’m waiting on is a few resistors, a few tantalum capacitors, and some spacers for stacking the PCBs. After that I’ll put it aside for a while, mostly until I feel like designing the enclosure, coming up with front panel artwork, and putting it all together.

After placing that last order I’m finishing up my final can of Old Speckled Hen, then I’m going to… probably watch more of The Mayfair Set one of the films by Adam Curtis, the same guy who did The Power of Nightmares. Both of these, thus far, are excellent political documentaries and very worth watching. The Power of Nightmares is a bit more applicable to the present, as it is about the rise of neoconservatism and radical Islam and how they play off of each other to ends a ways away from what each intends.

beer electronics moved from livejournal politics

Gas! Gas! Gas!

February 5, 2007

Woman with an overflowing vehicle at the 7-11 at Hamlin and Dequinder.
(Click for more moblog photos…)

So, this morning I was running a bit low on gas, so I decided to take the 22 Mile to Ryan to Hamlin route to work and stop at the 7-11 at Hamlin and Dequinder and purchase fuel. Right after I pulled into a pump I noticed that right next to where I’d stopped was a driverless SUV (not even anyone standing around it) with a fuel nozzle hanging out the side, pouring gas all over the ground.

As the SUV also appeared to be running, I let my desire not to be in a gas station fire override my desire to purchase fuel and pulled away, but not before taking a photo. Right as I was pulling my phone out the woman who owned the SUV ran out of the 7-11 and shut off the fuel flow, before running back inside.

My understanding is that there is a state law prohibiting one from leaving the fuel pump unattended while it is operating, but I’m having a really difficult time finding it. Can anyone help? www.legislature.mi.gov just isn’t being very helpful today.

automotive moved from livejournal

Beer / Cider Brewing Equipment

February 4, 2007

[Crossposted to and …]

So, there’s a very distinct possibility that I will need to rid myself of beer brewing equipment. This includes:

· Gas burner and two large pots. (Turkey fryer, turkey fryer pot, and other very large pot. Only ever used for beer.)
· Two 5 gallon carboys and one 6 gallon carboy.
· Two buckets, one with spout for bottling.
· Lever-style Bottle Capper.
· Various tubing, airlocks, siphon, bottling wand.
· A good number of clean, empty, label-less, matching bottles.
· A few various ingredients (corn sugar, rice hulls, irish moss, etc).
· Bottle tree large enough to hold enough bottles for five-gallon batch.

Are any of you interested? It’s available in Southeast Michigan, and I’d probably want about $200 for it all, although I’m willing to entertain other offers…

beer finances moved from livejournal

Glossy Laptop Screens

January 31, 2007

Do any of you have an opinion regarding glossy screens on laptops? My dad’s Dell has a glossy screen, while mine has the normal matte screen. I may be purchasing a laptop soon, and I’m still torn as to which I like more.

What about you? Which do you like? Why? What do you primarily use it for? (eg: Desktop Usage, Coding, Photo Work, Games, etc.)

acquired things computers moved from livejournal