software creative
Today the kids got dirty. They love playing in the dust, dirt, and digging holes. We dug out the base camp counter top clothes washer. This is the first time we’ve used this. Filled it with hot water, dirty kids clothes, high efficiency detergent and let it run.
This thing is noisy! The mechanical timer by itself is noisy. The agitator is noisy. Our kids clothing was so dirty, I gave up after rinsing three times. This makes me wonder how much water we use at home washing kids clothing.
We are expanding the battery bank to three strings of batteries. The primary reason for doing this is to decrease the cycle depth. The bank typically drops to 12.6v each night. My goal is to get this closer to 12.7v to 12.75v. Two more DC335-6 batteries will bring the capacity to ~1000ah at 20C discharge rate. A 20C discharge rate is 50amps per hour for 20 hours. I figure on average our consumption is 10 to 15 amps per hour.
There is a minimal number of parts necessary to enable the audio amp on this PCB.
Robert introduced me to Aeorobie’s Aeropress coffee maker. For $26 it is a great deal. I use it almost daily (and maybe sometimes twice).
It produces a strong espresso-like coffee. Heather likes it with Lavazza Super Crema Espresso. She mixes it soy and a flavoring. Personally, I use it to make Americano style coffee.
The Aeropress is simple to operate. My formula is to grind very fine coffee, add nearly boiling water, don’t stir. Wait twenty seconds, then press the plunger. The trick is that depending on the type of coffee you are making, you want to stir or not stir. I find not stirring provides less acidic and slightly more flavorful tasting coffee.
Within two weeks of placing my order with Seeed Studio, the boards arrived. They were shipped from a California address. If they are now manufacturing locally, then very cool. Mostly because it’s still cheap. Ten boards cost me $18 shipped. Friends may ask for one 🙂
Today’s Saturday project was to solder up ugly style a 20m RF amplifier that resided on my bench for like six months. It’s been nearly a decade since I did anything ugly or Manhattan style. This project was actually an excuse to design a RF low pass filter and test it with my Rigol spectrum analyzer. The screen shots below show that the first harmonic is suppressed by 26db. Mysteriously, there is a harmonic below the primary frequency. I used a 2N3866 power transistor. This are getting hard to find, but I’ve managed to get a supply from Aliexpress.
Edit 2014-12-25:
I used the low pass filter to test the miniVNA Pro. Here is what the loss response looks like:
Once or so a year LAPG has a grab bag. They price this at $9.99 and you get at least that amount of value, but usually more. I bought two. I paid for the suspense and surprise, but did not get anything of value. If you look at the real value of off-brand AA’s, then I probably got shorted.
The first draft of a modular LM380 “building block” is finished. The schematic and board layout are available on Upverter. The board fits within the 5cm by 5cm size that corresponds to Seeed Studio’s $9.99 fabrication service.
I designed this board with several features in mind:
Ever since I read about the Foveon sensor, I’ve wanted to own one. I have strange attraction to weird and off kilter gear (really of any kind). Finally won an auction for one on ebay (an original Sigma DP1). There is are more modern versions like the DP1 Merrill.
A few observations:
I like how the pictures look in black and white. Here is an example picture shot in RAW and processed in Perfect B&W.
This is a mild winter. We spent the weekend at the cabin. Temperatures were high 20’s at night and mid 50’s during the day. Wonderful weather. The kids played outside a lot. I worked on the slash pile and played with my new Sony NEX 3n camera.
