Leaderboard

What The Hell Happened to Head-Case?!?!? TLDR version: The datacenter that the head-case server is located in sustained a power outage on April 4. When the backup generator kicked on it caught fire and that lead to the fire suppression system (a fucking water based one!) kicking on and causing water damage to equipment. The head-case server was in the 'more affected' area of the datacenter and as such was offline until early in the morning on April 24. For further details on the incident you can see here: https://webnx.com/outage-updates/ You may be wondering why during such a

Some more good progress. The amp is up and running I've got two issues on the board, but the amp, power supplies and USB-C PD / battery management are all working great. The wires going to the pot are temporary. There'll be a board for the analog/DAC inputs. The PD chips are small with lots of pins on them. I'm surprised I could solder them Lots of 0402 chips on the right side of the board... Here's the amp running with the battery (I need to have the input board done before I can put the batteries in the chassis). This is with the amp run

Milo and Otis, wow is all I can say. As for me, a gift for a disabled warrior to go with a wheelchair ramp for his house. Carving the handle was one thing but etching the trident was a nerve wracking endeavor. One shot with no do overs. Thanks Mark, you da man.

Helped a friend make it home safely: Remember kids, don’t try this at home, my first graduate student at EIU studied the atrazine and glyphosate dynamics in snapping turtles.

Making some good progress on the amp... I’ve got the USB-C PD all soldered on and ready for testing Here’s the face plate with the jack Here’s the amp assembled, but I still need to finish the power supply and amp sections of the main board

Got home from vacation very late last night/early this morning. Decided to enjoy the one nice day for the next several.

In other news, I just got back the analog input board and assembled the amp. The sandwich is 6.2mm thick + bottom components for a total of about 9mm thick. Batteries are about 10mm on top of the input board. Back plate on and plugged into USB-C (charging LED on) Why we did this... Portable music Just analog from my phone at the moment. DAC is up next PS The Weight is 12oz or 340g

As for me, Milo and I finished our kitchen remodel April 13th.

Finishing projects this weekend with drawer faces and pulls and BLO on the box joint box. I have also started hitting the online estate sales and getting some great deals on woodworking tools. I got the full set of Bow Clamps last night for $40, a 7x10 Wilton Wood Vice for $60 and a Leigh D4 Pro dovetail, finger joint tool for $120, all mint.

Last night I made Detroit style pizza and plan to do it again soon!

Here are the before and after shots from the Milo & Otis kitchen remodel.

A tall skinny cabinet. (with a closeup of the stand.)

I have been continuing to play with turntable motors. I have two projects, one a controller with platter speed feedback for 3-phase AC motor and another controller for DC motors, which is an ultra-compact version of the one in swt61’s turntable to drive the Maxon motor. Here are some photos, just got things soldered up and have a whole lot of very tedious testing and software writing to do in addition to the SAMD microcontroller, that cutout is org castellated pads will also fit the new Raspberry Pi 2040 chip, which I am hoping to play with a bit. I hope they work!

Got my new front brake pads put in. Much better; now if I brake hard, that motherfucker will stop in a hurry.

New backup process is in place and verified working. It's doing daily for now but may bump it up to every 4-6 hrs, we'll see.

Thanks Todd for undoing Brent's damage to the site.

Also, got my Fitzcraft SSiPod and cables just before the meltdown, but didn't post quick enough. So freakin' awesome!

Another one in blue this time,

Building the world’s least efficient hardwood cutoff storage cabinet. Really needed the drawers above it so instead of doing the typical, proper, vertical cabinet, I went half-assed and threw all the sticks in a big drawer with sheets goods held behind the cabinet against the wall. Oh Yeah, the reason for the uneven overhang is I am going to mount the Wilton Woodworking vice on the one side and needed all the clearance. Oh Yeah Part Two, I also FINALLY got around to hanging the small French cleat panel I made way back. The craftsmanship in these holders in embarrassing.

Done some soldering exercise today. This small board contains 100 x 0402 10K resistors. Hand soldered with a Weller station, XNT-H tip and 0.3 mm solder wire. A few of the resistors are not flat to the board but I think they are acceptable soldered. Looking at your board, Kerry, there seems to be some really nasty things. Any chance for part numbers? I have to convince myself that the best way is to pay for a prepopulated board…

Brisket was much more tender than it looks.

It is called z-channel molding and creates a uniform channel and shadow line around the windows and doors. It was Steve's idea to use this method rather than standard trim.

Here's the final board I just sent out to get manufactured... I added some more optional parts that help stabilize the current sense circuitry. The board is now 10mm x 58.4mm x 1mm. Parts are ordered, so it's a race to see if Mouser can ship my order before the boards arrive.

Thanks for all the birthday wishes! I had a great day building the Lego Roller Coaster set and had a fabulous dinner at a new favorite restaurant, MAD (for Madrid)! https://www.madhouston.com Everything was amazing!

Last night I ate Detroit style pizza and plan to do it again soon.

I'm stuck inside working all day but at least I was able to arrange for the Chairman of the Board to come by and play a set.

Woo, looks like the CPU board is working! Currently set at 20.29 Hz for 33.33rpm output. Got the front panel also working and now just need to solve the issue of the reflective IR Sensor (or go back to a magnet) - which I think might take a shroud to try and reduce stray light. The second display will then read out the actual platter speed as measured by the tach. Then I can adjust the speed in a feedback loop (PID). Still smells like a busted cap though

Over in blighty, there has been a ridiculously successful re-introduction of the red kite. This 6 foot wingspan raptor was pretty much extinct here, but is now a familiar sight in our neck of the woods. There are now apparently nearly 5000 breeding pairs. We see them pretty much every day. They are social birds and will hunt and roost in groups. Because of food pressure (they eat mainly carrion, and odd large insect) they are now almost feral, and will apparently occasionally take a small mammal. Beware cats! I'm sure the red kite has been responsible for some small cat disappearance

Thanks. I think I'll pick one up. I've had the amp playing from 9:00 this morning (did I mention it really sounds great ) and batteries were down to 9.8V at 3:20PM. They are not perfectly balanced so one battery is at 3.1V which is below the minimum 3.3V recommended. So looks like I'm getting a little over six hours with these batteries (3x2000mAH). I can look for larger batteries and also play with some optimizations. I've also been running additional 5V and 3.3V supplies for the DAC that consume extra power. They're not needed for just the analog input. The balancer should h

That’s awesome, I plan on doing a large trident plaque that holds a full size flint lock in the near future. Got this baby up and running.

I love the part when Bugs makes flowers grow on Elmer Fudd's head.

Had a night at the opera last night... only instead of at the opera house it was a drive-up stage at the Marin Civic Center. They did Barber of Seville. It feels great to getting on the road back to live theater/music/opera.

Drilling and taping holes... amp boards now mounted to the sinks.

You’re hired 😄

Small brisket, pre-wrap.

Elizabeth Taylor, 1957, Kodachrome

When I was younger I had a job in a juice factory. But I got fired, because I couldn't concentrate.

Longish term modern DIY T2 reliability. I estimate its been used around 8+ hours (and more often than not 12 hours) a day almost every day since I built it. yesterday I took it apart for cleaning. I noticed all four 140K resistor strings connected to the voltage reference in the virtual batteries where somewhat discoloured.... hmmm... on further testing I found the D24 led on both channels did not light up at all not even dimly. :-(. but the amp seemed to work and sounded good. (on the left is a brand new resistor from the same pack as the 140Ks I removed from the virtual

That Fucker!

This never would've happened on postjack's forum.

Experienced a bit of normal today....met son Andrew and his girlfriend Amy at an outdoor-seating Bertucci's for lunch, and then visited the new (4,000+ sq ft) home of some family - niece on my wife's side, her husband and their slightly new baby. Was so wonderful to see everyone, and the new house is fucking amazing!

For those that don't know - https://www.datacenterdynamics.com/en/news/generator-fire-brings-down-webnx-data-center-in-utah/ Short version - power outage at the data center, backup generator kicks in and catches fire, fire suppression systemin triggered, lots of damage ensues. HC's server was amongst the most damaged and thankfully, in the end, was able to be repaired allowing for the site to be restored. Thanks to Todd for sticking with us for all these years.

I remember those little, lightweight, plastic headphones with the Yellow foam earpads that were so different than any other headphones out there in the 70's. You could actually listen for hours without your ears sweating. They were definitely innovators. End of an era, but change is a constant.

I've been super slow about everything lately. But I did just get a note this morning that the final piece I need shipped. So ask again on a week or so.

Cancel/refuse the shipment. Now that I have a 16” jointer I can whole heartedly recommend nothing less that a 20” jointer.

Accidental consumerism, you've upped your game, Jeff.

DIY AVA Ultimate 70.

I missed all of you mucho, and Brent a little bit, but he's down here ATM anyway.