Category Archives: Miscellaneous

Hot melt strain reliefs – next phase

I’ve used hot melt glue for strain reliefs on connectors – typically 0.1″ headers abused as connectors – for a long time.  Insulation is a secondary plus, but the primary goal was physical strengthening/protection of the quite small (and therefore … Continue reading

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Prius footrest

On road trips in the (new, 2015) blue Prius, my left foot is frequently unhappy.  It would like a comfy  place to rest – the way IT wants to sit.  While there is a nice left foot rest, it’s not … Continue reading

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Low tech garbage pickup indicator

Garbage day always brings the question “Has it been picked up yet?” as I look out the window at the cans.  Sometimes I hear the trucks rumbling down the street and watch the mechanical claw pick up the can, dump … Continue reading

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Project Notes hacked

I’ve had a problem over the past few months with someone hacking these Project Notes.  The symptom is a link with text “handjob santa” added very intermittently to the title block of the pages.  It has appeared immediately after “Jim’s … Continue reading

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Analog joystick

I found this nice-feeling joystick for $2 at Goodwill, and thought it might make a good controller for an early demo of the LED wall display at the Northside Mini Maker Faire.  I’d originally planned to use a drum pad, … Continue reading

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Bondic zipper repair

I’d never paid much attention to the implementation of the bottom part of a jacket zipper until my good jacket started to be hard to zip.  The “pin” side – that fits into the “box” on the other side – … Continue reading

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Cheap USBASP knockoff programmer

I’ve been using the Arduino ISP programmer sketch, an Arduino, and one of my mini shield cables as my AVR programmer for a couple of years now, and that’s been pretty satisfactory.  There’s always an Arduino around, it works, and … Continue reading

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Current sink and starter’s gun boost converter test

Background failures I’ve had some problems getting DC power for the audio amp for the starter’s gun project.  I needed maybe 15V to get the output I needed, but didn’t want a battery voltage that high, so looked at boost … Continue reading

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Car has music again!

It’s always nice when a little DIY work can save you $30,000. The 6 CD changer in the Prius wouldn’t play the other day.  I noticed a CD partially ejected and when I couldn’t get the unit to eject it, … Continue reading

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