Wow, we just got nailed with an absolutely amazing storm. I managed to get some pictures as the pea-sized hail was falling. At one point there was a crack of lightning which made me jump and left my ears ringing. Wow.
Yeah. So I get back to work and as
Well, I just emailed the Shelby Township Historical Committee to offer them some free webhosting. Currently they have their site hosted at Tripod, with the rather unprofessional URL http://shelbyhistory.tripod.com. The photos for the site are also hosted at an ImageStation URL which requires you to log in. Interestingly, the login they provide for you has rights to add/change/delete photos. Not good.
I just offered them some free hosting, a copy of Gallery, email, etc. You know, the normal.
I sort of hope they take me up on it, as it’d be neat to host something on that scale.
Does anyone who reads this have any experience with Jabber? I’m trying to get a third party client (for use on my home machine) to connect with the corporate servers here, and it’s just. not. working.
So, please? Anyone who can throw some ideas my way?
Thanks!
Well, it’s finally done. I got the PAiA FatMan finished. yay! It turns out that the problems with it were related to a bad EPROM, the bit that holds the program for the MIDI to CV conversion. I got a replacement chip, and everything was (eventually) good. There were only a few additional bumps, namely the replacement chip having it’s pins bent as hell. Fortunately it made it here, as the package it was in hadn’t been sealed. But, it’s here, assembled, and all is good. Take a look at just over a page of wonderful construction pictures here.
Or, there’s a few treats for you to listen to. Namely…
· PAiA FatMan Filter Jam (Just some random filter masturbation…)
· Eric playing the Super Mario Brothers 2 Theme Song
So, yeah. It’s done. I’m all happy about it and stuff. Now, as long as it gets good use and happy tunes are made with it, well, woo!
Also, it makes a surprising variety of sounds. You can tune it all different, have the two oscillators offset by all sorts of nifty amounts, all sorts of neat wacky filter goodness, etc.
Now, time for Luna! Woo!
Well, the FatMan works. I’m waiting on the replacement eprom, but in the mean time I decided to tune it up anyway. My friend Eric brought by his proper, hardware chromatic tuner so I wasn’t tuning the thing to another synth. After getting we got it all tuned, he played this:
Super Mario Brother 2 Theme Song on a PAiA FatMan
hehe…
I’ve already had it sounding all Boards of Canada-ish. This thing rocks.
Well, it seems that it’s time for liquid-related repairs. My car is currently over at Belle Tire at 23 Mile and VanDyke having it’s water pump replaced. See, this morning I went to go to lunch, and there was a good sized pool of DexCool beneath my car. I checked the coolant levels, but everything seemed all right, maybe a tad low. Went to lunch, came back, parked in a different spot. While driving, the temperature never got above normal, and there was no low coolant lamp lit.
After work, again, no apparent coolant leak. That’s good, so I headed home-ish, with a stop to get my oil changed and tires rotated. A few minutes after sitting down to read, the service guy told me there was coolant steadily flowing from the water pump.
Well, that was it. I guess the leak was my car… So, I called my parents and was able to procure a ride home from the shop. I’m also in the process of making arrangements to get over to the shop at noonish tomorrow, when the work is scheduled to be completed.
So, a bit of cash later, and I’ll have rotated tires, a new water pump, new coolant (for the second time within the supposed life of DexCool), and fresh synthetic oil. Should be about… Oh… $300 or so, when all is said and done.
Now it’s off to disassemble the outside faucet and retrieve the washer, so that I can pick up a new one tomorrow. Yay!
So, Friday morning, or was it Thursday night, I received a bunch of information (two massive pieces of email, in fact) from Scott at PAiA about troubleshooting a FatMan. After running down voltages and checking to be sure I didn’t have any cold solder points, I decided to swap EPROMs with another FatMan I have here. (It’s a friends and I’m looking into fixing it up.) I had tried swapping the microprocessor earlier, because I had suspected that to be a problem, but it wasn’t. This time, on suggestion from Scott at PAiA, I did, and poof, the problem was gone. So it looks like either I have a blank, or at least misburned, EPROM.
I just sent off some email to PAiA asking for another EPROM. Hopefully this one will work fine… Thus far I’m finding them to have great customer support and nice kits that are easy to assemble, but a bit of a problem packing the orders. Missing parts, unburned EPROMs, etc. They seem good about replacing bits as needed, but it still shouldn’t happen in the first place.
So, as soon as I get the new EPROM, I can get the thing tuned up and ready for use. Whee!
So, exactly 900 miles of driving later, and with lots of walking, I have acquired this.
· Lots of mosquitos. Lots. And lots. 100% DEET bug spray in a non-aerosol can is the best.
· Inadvertently started sinking in some quicksand. Have since learned that one will quickly sink into a sandbar when it is located partially across the mouth of a stream, next to a lake.
· Walking through the woods in the dark, with or without flashlights, even if one is on a wooden path, is scary.
· Taquamenon Falls are really nifty, especially in the dark, despite the path being very frightening. (See previous comment)
· Climbing to the top of a lighthouse is worth it.
· National forests are nifty. Lots of nice rural campsites, beaches to walk along, fish hatcheries to visit, lighthouses, empty roads, random trails, etc.
· Saw a fireworks store located on an Indian reservation. Should have stopped. :\
· Indian reservations also contain lots and lots of casinos.
· A GPS receiver that does moving maps, even if it doesn’t do driving directions, is great for traveling through random areas. Maps might have been enough, but not as convenient.
· 1970s tents suck. As do people at the next campsite who’s kids slam the door all morning.
· Not eating meat while up north is hard to do. Also, the waitresses seem offended if you decline all the soups because they are beef / chicken / pork based.
· THERE IS NO MAN KILLING CLAM AT SEA SHELL CITY. At least none that we could find… Lots of tchotchkies, though. Lots. (Is that spelled right?) The billboards lie.
· The showers / bathrooms at the state park are rather nice. They didn’t feel dirty or dingy at all, and the water was nice and hot. Very good for when you don’t have quite enough blankets.
I’m sure there’s more, but I’m just not remembering right now. It was a really good, very worthwhile weekend, though. So, that’s enough for now.
[UPDATE]
Also, I forgot to add…
· Chipmunks. Lots of them. Feeding them is fun.
· Abandoned military sites are pretty nifty. One in particular that we found had been converted into civilian housing, but it was still neat.
· Racoons are adept at climbing in and out of flapping-door style garbage cans.
· Again, lots of pasta and grilled cheese does not make for a healthy diet.
· It’s that time of year to see large groups of bikers (and I mean real bikers, not pricks on ‘choppers’) taking vacations en masse. I bet that’s fun.
Today I feel defeated by…
…a synthesizer kit!
I’m trying to think of what to check, but it’s just. not. coming.
All ICs seem to be receiving appropriate voltages on the pins you’d expect power to be coming in on.
Something seems weird with the voltage regulator ICs, but I might be metering them wrong, I think.
< sigh >
Next is to ask the smart people at PAiA for help.
