Category: hardware

Project Debian

IMG 3302

A short while back, while I was working on my KiCAD project; I had to create a Debian VM to finish up work on the PCB. Why did I pick Debian? Well, I have several Raspberry Pi’s around the house and so I have used it and am comfortable with it. 

Sidebar: While a Macintosh user since 1985, I have always had a curious spot for UN*X. It started at university. While they had PC labs setup, they were often full or busted. And they hadn’t installed the Mac lab as of then. The Sun workstation lab always seemed to have at least once seat open. From there it just seemed to grow, my interest in UN*X. I longed to have a NeXT Cube (which I do now). I did install Apple’s version of UN*X. Oye Vey, that was a monster and I forget how many floppies I loaded onto that Mac IIfx. I was amazed when Linus came out with Linux. The first version I installed was on some tossed aside 386 and it took a small stack of floppies. When Steve brought NeXT to the Mac that was the cat’s meow!! I have been pretty happy every since with my BSD based Macintosh. 

So why this, why now? The original goal is to have a permanent Minecraft server believe it or not. I have been trying to use one of the Pi’s for the server, but it keeps getting roped into a project, experiment, or something. I stumbled upon an old, used AMD box. Since I don’t need much in the way of horsepower; we won’t be gaming or doing any serious work with it, I thought it would work out just fine. I didn’t want it to be so old that it wouldn’t really be useful. I have tried using an older iMac and Mini, both core2Duo and neither worked out very well and were abandoned for other projects and sold on eBay. 

The old PC I am starting off with is the:

IMG 3301

Lenovo Thinkcentre 

• Phenom II X2 B53 (2.80 GHz) – Kept
• 2 GB DDR3 – added to
• 320 GB HDD – kept, upgrading
• Windows 7 Professional 32-bit – SO GONE
• ATI Radeon 3000 – kept, tired to upgrade

The computer didn’t come with wireless and my router is too far away to tether it. I found an old Asus USB wireless adapter. It worked right out of the box with Debian, which was really nice to see. I was expecting to be tracking down drivers and troubleshooting the installation. The throughput isn’t the greatest, but for setup right now it is doing its job. 

2GB of RAM got me through the installation, but it was a little doggy when setting it up. I was able to find 2x2GB sticks of extra RAM so I added it for a total of 6. It seems quite happy now. Update 15 Aug: While digging around my Studio I found 2 2GB sticks of RAM from when I upgraded my Mac Pro. Woo-Hoo, now it has a total of 8GB and should be good for the future!!

The drive is old, and to be honest that 5400rpm shows when booting up. I am looking around for a bargain SSD drive to replace it with. Car repairs come first, so instead of a shiny new SSD, I found an old, new stock, still sealed, Apple 250GB Server SATA drive. It will work much better for now. 

Windows was ditched right away. I didn’t know the password to the system, so I just popped in the Debian 9 (Stretch) minimal install disc and went from there.

OOoo – shiny penny moment. . . 

I found a Radeon 6350 card in a box. Hey, not much of a card, but a little step from the 3000 on the box now. I installed it quick to see if it would just work or if I would have to play around. I had to play around with it just to get it to fit in the chassis. LOL.

 

SP Card

It worked, just not at a decent resolution. I found a couple of sites with drives and installation suggestions, but I decided to just take it out and keep on going. In the end this will be a headless box sitting someplace quite. If I need to get to it there will be the VNC. It would have been nice, but I will leave the distraction for another day. 

IMG 3325

 

I have been taking some notes during my installation. I started with the Debian Minimal setup, so I have been going through updating and installing the software I will need for my endeavors.

Here is one of the well, done guides I found in my research for setting up this box. Here is a second one. About the one place I deviated from both installs is that I just installed everything on one partition. I understand the reason behind it, but I just toss it all on one. I may learn a Linux lesson the hardware down the road, that will be ok. 

Before I go too much further I need to make a snapshot, or quick clone of the drive. I am hoping it will be as easy as Super Duper or CCC on the Mac. To date, I am quite please at how easy all of it has been to setup to date.

The Agenda for tonight:

  1. Snapshot debian install to date
  2. Install git
  3. Install sudo
  4. Install 
  5. Install Java
  6. Install Spigot
  7. Setup Spigot
  8. Testing 

Near-term

  • Firewall     
  • VNC server, tigervnc
  • ?

Adventures with KiCAD

I have been threatening to learn KiCAD over the past months. I finally sat down for a week and went through the Contextual Concepts tutorials. They are very well done. I also referenced these other web sites. 

Getting to Blinky 4 from Contextual Electronics. This one really goes through all of the KiCAD processes. They also have a newer, down and dirty, how to create a PCB with KiCAD. This one is called Shine On You Crazy KiCAD. 

KiCAD Like A Pro from Tech Explorations was also a great reference when I needed to find a quick command or how to do something. 

Wayne and Layne – It is for older versions, but the basics for PCB building are there. 

 

I have a couple of projects coming up using the ATTiny series of micro controllers. Having tired of fussing with wires and a breadboard, I decided to dedicate an UNO for programming. And at the same time design and have fabricated a programming shield. 

Atty shield 3d

The schematic is simple for the first version. I have all of the programming pins in place, an LED for testing, and all of the pins broken out so something more complex than a LED can be tested, such as a sensor. 

Att sheild schematic

During the process of running the traces on in PCB I ran into an issue with the Mac trackpad where the cursor would go off with a mind of its own. I tried with just a mouse and had the same issue. I read up on the issue and saw where others have had the same thing. Having worked in tech for 30 years now, I know when to find an easier path to my problem. I already Debian Linux from having Raspberry Pi’s around the house, so I just downloaded version 9.x, and created a VM in Parallels, and loaded up KiCAD 4.x. To date it has been running fine and was able to finish up the project using my KiCAD VM. 

Att shield pcb

 

I completed my first PCB of my own design and effort. I generated the gerber files for production. In my research I also found a good site to use, https://gerblook.com. You can upload your gerber files and they will generate an image of what it will look like. And as in my case, find out if there are any error before you send them off. I forgot to turn on a layer when I generated them, and it barked about it. I went back and fixed the error and tried again with success. Then I sent them off to OSHpark.com already. I received an email that they are off to manufacturing and they should arrive in about a week and a half. I will be sure and update on how they turn out. 

This is just version one of this project. I am already working on some improvements and modifications for it coming up here in the near future. And since practice makes prefect I also have two more Christmas projects. I figure if I start now I should be able to finish them up just about the Christmas season is upon me. LOL.

New Wireless!!! Linksys Velop Review

Home Wireless Upgrade to the Linksys Velop

A confluence of circumstances recently had me upgrade my home wireless. It has been on my plate the past few months as my connection in the basement is up and down like The Beast, there is no connection at the other end of the house, and standing outside; forget about it!

I have been doing my homework while waiting for the right time. In one of my careers as a Network Engineer, I spent a lot of time supporting wireless; enterprise wireless. 2 controllers and over 900 access points, thousands of devices per day, yet at home it was the dark ages. I tried a couple of remedies such as wireless extenders (worthless) and playing with OpenWRT to see if I could tweak the settings to pull out a little more life from the aged Netgear 600. 

I knew from my quick survey out of iStumbler that the airwaves were getting a little crowded.  

OldNetworkPeek

 

Once iStumbler confirmed what I already knew, I brought out Chanalyzer to take a closer look. Yikes, that is some dirty air out there and 2.4GHz is a wasteland. I already knew from my experience that 5GHz was a necessity!! All of my major devices are Apple and ready for 5GHz. Having AC on board the access point would be a nice addition as it is the up and coming next standard. The 5GHz range is looking quite nice in my area right about now, so it is a great time to move in. 

HomeWiFI Analyzer

Knowing I have to cover my whole house and I also want it to bleed outside by the pool and porch, multiple access points would serve my purpose. Part of the enterprise setup I had my hands in also used a series of access points that didn’t use a main controller per say. There was one that acted as the controller for all the others, creating a MESH network. It was pretty cool and kept the cost down for our remote sites; but the price was still out of range for home. Then last fall I started to read about MESH networks for the home. Now this is something I can get on the band wagon about. 

Reading over the specs for all of them I believe that the Linksys Velop it on top of the stack right now. At least for my wireless upgrade it does. It has 2.4/5GHz (some other brands only work with 2.4, yikes) b/g/n/ac. The setup really is, almost as easy as they claim. 

I am still reading up on how the do their backhaul between the APs. My understanding so far is that 2 of the channels are bonded for speeds to the clients and there is a single 5GHz channel for talking between the two. And after seeing my iStumbler chart from above, I have some other questions as well. 

After unboxing them, I placed the new one, right where the old one sat; right next to the cable modem. I wiped out my phone. side note. at work i actually bothered to download the manual and read it. yes it was the simple users guide, but i was able to make sure i was doing everything right to get it working, i can dink later. oh and i also installed the app so i was ready to go. I fired up the Velop app and just like the screen said it took a couple of minutes for it to find the access point and link up. Once I had the first one up I wandered around the house to see how it was. WOW, I was impressed already and there was only one AP up. I had signal in the kitchen and some outside! A small victory. 

Now to place the second one. I already had a place in mind for it. Velop has other plans and they are kind of hit and miss in my opinion. I first started with the AP in one room over, up on a shelf. So it was going through 2 2×4 drywalled walls, about 40-45 feet away. Nope it complain that I need to try closer. It was during this time, setting up the second one that was most frustrating. The progress bar is honest when it says it will be a few minutes. And it also took out my iPhone a couple of times. By 1:30am I gave up on the second one. It was late and I was frustrated. 

The next day I gave it another try after and fresh cup of joe. This time, the last time, I place it with one wall and about 30 feet between the two. Shazam! The two started talking and doing their thing. 

IMG 2053

Wireless, I am now King of the Hill on my end of the street. The drops in the basement are gone. I can surf from the car, through the house, and out to the pool. The speeds are very nice between devices, especially for backups. After having it up and working now for a little over a week, the whole family is very pleased with the results. 

HomeWiFiPeek

My Valentine’s Dead Bug

*** This was a quick copy and paste. I will be back to edit it soon!

 

This was one of those projects were I had a good idea in hand, but by the end it turned out quite different; and I am quite pleased how it turned out.

I wanted to make my Wife something nice this year for putting up with my various projects. Those on the “list”, those in planning, those in progress, those finished, and some abandon.

I love it when a project comes together.

My original idea was to cut a heart out of wood, mount the 8×8 matrix in a hole in the middle, and mount the ATTiny on a PCB somewhere. I couldn’t make up my mind in front or back. While those ideas where being pondering and experimented with, I started on the hard part of the project.

I looked in my stock as I had both the ATTiny85 and 8×8 matrix handy. Wow, that seemed like a first, I didn’t have to order anything. I hadn’t really used the matrix before so I downloaded the Adafruit libraries and hooked it up to my Uno clone and started to play around. I used both the Adafruit_LEDbackpack and Adafruit_GFX. The animations are pretty straight forward. You have to create your image with 0 & 1’s, then call each of them as you need them. 

Here is an example from my code that shows part of the heart being drawn, it is the center square.

<span style="box-sizing: border-box;"> heart2_bmp[] = </span><span style="box-sizing: border-box;"> { </span>
<span style="box-sizing: border-box;"><span class="hljs-keyword" style="box-sizing: border-box; color: #f92672; margin-bottom: 0px;">B00000000, </span></span>
<span style="box-sizing: border-box;"><span class="hljs-keyword" style="box-sizing: border-box; color: #f92672; margin-bottom: 0px;">B00000000, </span></span>
<span style="box-sizing: border-box;"><span class="hljs-keyword" style="box-sizing: border-box; color: #f92672; margin-bottom: 0px;">B00000000, </span></span>
<span style="box-sizing: border-box;"><span class="hljs-keyword" style="box-sizing: border-box; color: #f92672; margin-bottom: 0px;">B00011000, </span></span>
<span style="box-sizing: border-box;"><span class="hljs-keyword" style="box-sizing: border-box; color: #f92672; margin-bottom: 0px;">B00011000, </span></span>
<span style="box-sizing: border-box;"><span class="hljs-keyword" style="box-sizing: border-box; color: #f92672; margin-bottom: 0px;">B00000000, </span></span>
<span style="box-sizing: border-box;"><span class="hljs-keyword" style="box-sizing: border-box; color: #f92672; margin-bottom: 0px;">B00000000, </span></span>
<span style="box-sizing: border-box; margin-bottom: 0px;"><span class="hljs-keyword" style="box-sizing: border-box; color: #f92672; margin-bottom: 0px;">B00000000, </span>}, </span>

Text scrolling is straightforward, but for those who are new, lets pick it apart a little bit and see what is going on.

<span style="box-sizing: border-box;"> <span class="hljs-keyword" style="box-sizing: border-box; color: #f92672; margin-bottom: 0px;">matrix</span>.setTextWrap(false); </span>
<span style="box-sizing: border-box;"><span class="hljs-keyword" style="box-sizing: border-box; color: #f92672;">matrix</span>.<span class="hljs-keyword" style="box-sizing: border-box; color: #f92672; margin-bottom: 0px;">clear</span>(); </span>
<span style="box-sizing: border-box;"><span class="hljs-keyword" style="box-sizing: border-box; color: #f92672;">for</span> (int8_t x=<span class="hljs-number" style="box-sizing: border-box; color: #ae81ff;">8</span>; x>=<span class="hljs-number" style="box-sizing: border-box; color: #ae81ff; margin-bottom: 0px;">-100</span>; x--){ </span>
<span style="box-sizing: border-box;"><span class="hljs-keyword" style="box-sizing: border-box; color: #f92672;">matrix</span>.<span class="hljs-keyword" style="box-sizing: border-box; color: #f92672; margin-bottom: 0px;">clear</span>(); </span>
<span style="box-sizing: border-box;"><span class="hljs-keyword" style="box-sizing: border-box; color: #f92672;">matrix</span>.setCursor(x - <span class="hljs-number" style="box-sizing: border-box; color: #ae81ff;">8</span>, <span class="hljs-number" style="box-sizing: border-box; color: #ae81ff; margin-bottom: 0px;">0</span>); </span>
<span style="box-sizing: border-box;"><span class="hljs-keyword" style="box-sizing: border-box; color: #f92672;">matrix</span>.<span class="hljs-keyword" style="box-sizing: border-box; color: #f92672;">print</span>(<span class="hljs-string" style="box-sizing: border-box; color: #e6db74; margin-bottom: 0px;">"1 short text"</span>); </span>
<span style="box-sizing: border-box;"><span class="hljs-keyword" style="box-sizing: border-box; color: #f92672; margin-bottom: 0px;">matrix</span>.writeDisplay(); </span><span style="box-sizing: border-box; margin-bottom: 0px;"> delay(<span class="hljs-number" style="box-sizing: border-box; color: #ae81ff; margin-bottom: 0px;">100</span>); </span>

To start, the text shouldn’t wrap as a message will be scrolling across the matrix. The first variable, x=8 is where the text will start to scroll across. This example starts on the right and moves towards the left. x>=-100 is allowing room for the characters. I took the total number of characters in my text message and multiple it by 9 and the text displayed correctly. If you miscalculate you might not see the whole message. This happened to me as the original message was about 4 characters and the value was 96. My message was much longer, but I hadn’t changed the 96. Once it was bumped higher all worked out well.

I was using my Uno clone to do the testing. It is just much quicker to make a change and upload it quickly. Everything was moving along great, but I noticed one thing, the message wasn’t oriented right, it was a bit upside down.

There is another command that comes in useful.

matrix.setRotation(<span class="hljs-number" style="box-sizing: border-box; color: #ae81ff;">1</span>)<span class="hljs-comment" style="box-sizing: border-box; color: #75715e; margin-bottom: 0px;">;</span>

With it you can rotate the screen in any of the four directions depending on where you need/want the pins to orient. Setting it to one put 0,0 in the upper, left-hand corner, with the pins pointing downward. Or as in one part of my code I use the rotation to spin the heart.

Now is was time to program the ATTiny. I do like working with these little guys. They work quite well in a lot of my projects and can take up a lot less space than an Uno. There are some great guides out on the net on programming the ATTiny family of processors. The only hiccup I had was dealing with the Wire library.

While libraries might be compatible within the ATMel family of chips, there is the space consideration. And the ATTiny85 doesn’t have the room of its big brother. There is a Wire library that was made just for the ATTinys, it is also from Adafruit. WireTinyM. Once I updated that it worked much better. I left in both for when making changes and updates. Depending on which one I am using I can just comment out the other. 

My ATTiny programming rig

During all of this I am still pondering how to make the mount for all of my little bits. I start to look at the 8×8 and the Tiny and figure what the hay. There are only 4 pins that need hooked up. And this would probably look way cooler than protoboard as there is no time to get a PCB fabricated and delivered. It seemed to so simple, 4 pins to 4 pins. It took a couple of tries in trying to find what might look best and also work the best.

Some notes

Well, it struck me. It had earlier, but wasn’t too hip on the idea at first and then it just started to grow on me the more I thought about it. I got myself a length of electrical wiring. I had a length of 3-wire left over from a kitchen project. I pulled out the ground wire and bent it in the shape of a heart. I would then just be able to hang the matrix and Tiny from the top of it. Shazaam!

An out of focus picture as I start

Wired up!!

After that it was a matter of finding a base (a birch log part that was from a wedding center piece and some Lake Superior lake shore rocks).

Oh last but not least, I had to power it. I was going to use USB cable, but no, that would be just too much hassle. AA?? Naw, too many and won’t last too long. Hey, I have one of those lipos at 3.7, I wonder if it would work? I know the ATTiny will work at 3.3V and that data sheet states the lowest power the for the matrix is 2.7. What the heck. I wired up a JST battery connector and plugged it it – DONE!

My present to my Love. 

SCHEMATICS 

Img 1853 3hpmbc0wrk

Doh!

This was meant to be a one-off, lets just have some fun kind of project. I was once told if you don’t learn something new everyday it just wasn’t a day. And I did learn in my eagerness for some quick video gaming gratification. 

I had been trolling through my parts box and thinking of a fun project to work on. Then I remembered two things. First was the ATTiny85 video games. I always have ATTinys laying around so this would be great. I checked the BOM and I had everything save the PCB boards and they are available on OSHPark. I even had a spare OLED screen in my display box. COOL. And, and, a way back I had an online bump in with Drew of OSHPark and he had sent me a gift certificate for boards. Excellent. I quickly put in my order and it was under $4.00 so still plenty left on the coupon to get my first PCB designed board done. 

I placed the order and forgot about it for a while. After all of the slow boat from China orders I tend to forget about things once I order them, I can’t stand being obsessive over something that is just going to take its time. Anyhow, low and behold one day when I get home from work there is a little package from OSHPark. I quickly get into it and see the 3 pretty purple boards and my OSHPark sticker for the collection, just waiting for a quick trim with the Dremmel and then get populated. 

IMG 0922

When I wasn’t waiting for the boards I took the time to program a ATTiny85 and breadboard it up with the screen. I wanted to make sure the big parts were ready and working for when the boards showed up. I almost wired up buttons, but it was about 2:00am and it was time for some slumber. 

IMG 0994

I was giddy at work just itching to get home and put all of the parts together and play some Tetris. And to be honest it has been quite a while since I have played it. Alright already, all of the parts are laid out and the iron is hot. 

IMG 0991

IMG 0992

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

There I go. It took about an hour to get it all soldered up. I was trying to be extra nice, and neat. While my soldering skills are markedly better than they were a year ago, practice makes perfect and I am still working towards that goal. Once it is done the big moment, time to slide in the battery. I rummage in the battery drawer and pull out a CR2032 and pop it in. And nothing. 

Really, nothing. Take it out and make sure I have positive facing up, yup. One more try and nothing. I pulled out my multimeter and check the battery 2.1V. Doesn’t that figure and I wait another day as it is again about 1:30am’ish (I work second shift so tend to have late hours in the studio). 

I grab a two pack early the next morning and try it again. NOTHING! Well shit and shoved in it Wilbur I am getting a little annoyed by this time. I pull out my meter again and start checking continuity and don’t find any issues. I put the battery back in and start checking my voltages. All the pins have power and reading at the correct levels. WTH?

I sit down and start doing a little web surfing while keeping a picture of the Pocket Tetris on my screen. What could be wrong? Well it is a funny little story about CAREFULLY checking what pins go where and which pins you have there after staring at one’s problem for a good long while. There was a dope slap and a DOH! involved when I saw it. 

IMG 1064

Now this simple, fun, quickie project will have to wait a little while longer. That was my only spare screen and I don’t have a solder sucker (yet). So while another slow boat makes its way here with new screens, with the CORRECT pinouts, and a solder sucker I have other projects to move onto. New high scores will have to wait for another day. 

Bluetooth Speaker – Update

Bluetooth Speaker Project

We need a bluetooth speaker for the outside by the pool and I have also wanted one to use inside the house as well. This one is 90% complete and since I have two speakers I am sure another one will follow. I still need to find what I am going to use for front and back grills. I may settle for some black material on a frame for the front and some aluminum grill for the back. In the meantime at least it is ready to go!

IMG 9806

My bluetooth speaker

IMG 9665

cutting up the sides

I had a long scrap of wood from another project, so with the power miter saw I made quick work of the sides. 

IMG 9669

With the sides and square inner pieces cut it was time for some gluing. I used a couple of brads to help hold it together while the glue dried. 

IMG 9674

A little sanding to smooth things out. I also had to use a little putty to fill in a couple of small gaps. 

IMG 9711

I used my rotary cutter to make the hole for the speaker. It needed a little help to get the speaker ears to fit in just right. I have no idea what that PVC pipe is up there for, save the fact that I was working on the pool at the time. 

IMG 9731

Here I have things wired up. I didn’t have any barrel power connectors or even screw down terminals, but I didn’t have the parts from an old Apple Airport to get 12V power to the amp/USB board. As for the bluetooth/amp board there is no outstanding reason for picking it. I did some research on them as there are quite a few out there. I need something that would obviously deal with Bluetooth, again all of them were pretty much about the same, but I expected that. This board had the TI TPA3110D2 as the amp chip. I dug up the data sheet on it and it seemed to fit the bill for what I was looking for, a good amp chip and being able to deal with up to 20W for the speaker. 

IMG 9735

With a few brass standoffs, I mounted power plug and the board to the back of the speaker. The parts do face out the back of the speaker. In my thinking it makes it easy to replace anything if it were to burn out or I wanted to replace it. And I didn’t want the magnet to interfere with the board. 

Somewhere in here I stopped taking pictures, oops. In leu of pictures I will give you a quick wrap-up. I stained all of the parts with 2 coats. It didn’t come out as quite as dark as hoped, but it still looks good. Then I mounted the speaker on the front wood insert I made. I connected the wires to it and secured the back panel. 

It works well! It is not audiophile quality, but it has a nice sound all around. The Chinese lady’s voice they used to tell you it is on and connecting still makes me giggle a bit every time I use it. 

Bluetooth Speaker

Bluetooth Speaker Project

We need a bluetooth speaker for the outside by the pool and I have also wanted one to use inside the house as well. This one is 90% complete. I still need to find what I am going to use for front and back grills. I may settle for some black material on a frame for the front and some aluminum grill for the back. In the meantime at least it is ready to go!

IMG 9806

IMG 9665

IMG 9669

IMG 9674

IMG 9711

IMG 9731

IMG 9735

Raspberry Pi Arcade Project

Next on the project list is a Raspberry Pi arcade system. Once again we are starting small with as much stuff as we could from around the Studio. I already had a Pi 3, monitor, keyboard, no controllers (ordered those), and for kicks I got another of the Pi Zero Audio DACs for sound. I will have a speaker leftover from the pool-USB-Streaming-Audio project so it works out well. 

We loaded it up with RetroPie and I have to say I am quite impressed. The software works quite well and while it is easy to setup there are quite a few options to check out later on. Right now the most imperative thing to my son was getting it up and playing on the screen today. 

IMG 9644

Someone has donated some Xbox controllers for the system. We are still going to make some kind of case for it. At this point I am not sure if it will be an all-in-one or keep the console separate from the monitor. Once again I will have to let this one stew and see what comes of it. 

I want to start to put together a real arcade style box for the controls, joysticks and buttons for 2 players while keeping the USB controllers for other games. I doubt I will go the standup route, but I never know where projects take me after a while. My big must have for this phase of the project is a Tempest spinner controller. Tempest has to be one of my all time favorite games! And it really isn’t the same trying to play it with a keyboard or mouse, and most paddle are wheezy at best. I have started digging into them. 

So let me share with you the links and information I have found on making a spinner. I am looking forward to scrounging and finding the right pile of parts for this one. 

BREAKING NEWS – I just found this site today and it seems to have one great manual for making a spinner. 

There is one place I found where you can purchase one, theirs is called the SpinTrak, they are pricey. Maybe when I make my standalone Tempest game. 

I found this setup which is pretty cool. And making a controller was my original and still my preferred idea. 

Below are some of the other links I have found dealing with DIY spinners. 

Made from an old VCR head.

Another excellent example made from the what-the-lab-will-surrender category. 

A spinner made right inside the mouse. Pretty neat concept.

Divine Muse

I have been dragging around these chunks of cherry for more than I care to remember, but I have been keeping them for a project. I have bee stewing about a case for mi Pi Audio Streamer. 

I had the garage door open a few days ago and pulled these out and started to look at them. Huh, a cherry case would be nice, look classy, and with a custom volume knob and single power light. . . ideas started to flow. How thin to cut the sheets? Joint them? Glue them? 

Fullsizeoutput 99eFullsizeoutput 99f

 

 

 

 

 

I ended up grabbing the skinner of the two. It has some interesting grain to it. 

IMG 9542

I cut three sections from the good end of the chunk. I still have the rest as there is some solid wood hidden in there and it might come in handy yet. Sorry the color is a little off but it was getting to be later in the afternoon. 

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I have my sections of wood and I have the inside of it drawn out. My plan is to hollow out a section for the Pi and knob, I will get the drawing posted up here soon, but until then. . . 

Vintage computing strikes again

I was talking with my parents a while back and my mom mentioned my old Atari 400 (http://www.oldcomputers.net/atari400.html for the low down on the specs). That 6502 at 1.8Mhz, geeeeeeshe Louise! And 16k of RAM to boot!

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We both wondered if it was still around Or had gone by the way side. Guess what? The computer that started my computing journey!!!

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Well, heavens to Betsy if a package didn’t arrive yesterday. And yes, that is the way the box was found, open and the lid wouldn’t close, but I was surprised at that it all survived. It even had the fancy keyboard, not the that awful plastic sheet of plastic with bubble switch keys. My friend Phil had the Atari 800 with floppy drives. Well, la’ dee da’! Another friend Nick had an 800 with all the bells and whistles and ran a local BBS from his. Every Saturday morning there was a group that hung out at the local computer shop trading tips, tricks, and software. 

And with most people from this era, we could send hours busily typing in programs from whatever magazine you could buy, find, trade, or borrow. And the magic of trying to save it and retrieve it from tape. I think I lost as much as was saved in the end. 

I remember when I got it, it was for Christmas. Of course being the young, excited lad I was, one afternoon when my parents were out, I pulled it from the closet, ever so carefully pealed back the tape, unboxed it, set it up, and had fun for a couple of hours. They were surprised at how quick I had it setup. I didn’t let them in on the secret until on so many, many moons later. 

I am playing around with a new gallery plugin, so check out the pictures of the unveiling. Much like the NeXT Cube, I am going to see if I can get this one up and running as well. I was really hoping that Xaxon was going to be in the cassette player, but I wasn’t lucky on that note. I am going to have to track down some pieces and parts to get it displaying something once I get it put back together again. Westley was poking around the box and getting curious, so maybe I can get him to help me with this let-me-put-it-in-the-queue project list – LOL. 

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And there was a bonus!! All of the screws for the case were still in the box. They are laying inside the bottom of the case. 

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