Author Archives: Jim

Supermate DC-6 charger “USB” port – NOT!

Posted on August 12, 2012 by Jim

As part of a plan to upgrade a couple of 18V NiCd powered devices to LiPo, I just got a Supermate DC-6 charger from HobbyPartz.  Pretty flexible, cheap, seems to work OK. On the box, on the label on the … Continue reading →

Posted in LiPo Conversions | Tagged , , , , , , , | 2 Comments

Making cupric chloride etchant – with 35% hydrogen peroxide!

Posted on July 22, 2012 by Jim

I scored some 35% “food grade” H2O2!  I tried a few local health food stores with no success, but finally found a link to places that sell it.  I called Life Spring Health Food in Chicago and they had it … Continue reading →

Posted in Cupric Chloride Etchant | Tagged , , , , , , , , | 5 Comments

Custom map via google maps

Posted on July 10, 2012 by Jim

When I had to make a custom map with locations of many local restaurants marked for a square dance weekend we’re hosting, I got my feet wet with the excellent My Places on Google maps.  It’s easy to use, quite … Continue reading →

Posted in Miscellaneous | Tagged | 1 Comment

Make image link to video in WordPress

Posted on July 9, 2012 by Jim

Sometimes I want a link to a small video clip, but the only way I’ve found directly in WordPress makes a text link to the clip.  I usually want a small image as the link – probably a frame from … Continue reading →

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Half-frame sunglasses for Prius

Posted on July 4, 2012 by Jim

I love polarized sunglasses for driving.  Cutting glare from  the road, the rear window of the car in front of you, bodies of water etc is a great thing.  Unfortunately, the instrument displays in my Prius are also polarized, and … Continue reading →

Posted in Miscellaneous | Tagged , , , | 3 Comments

Amber’s PylePro amp repair

Posted on June 30, 2012 by Jim

When Bobby told me the amp Amber uses for her dance classes was being flaky (often would cut out and needed a couple of whacks to get it playing again) I said I’d take a look at it. The PylePro … Continue reading →

Posted in Miscellaneous | 1 Comment

Du(h)ll mower blade

Posted on June 25, 2012 by Jim

This picture could be right out of a textbook showing grass cut with a dull blade.  But it isn’t – it’s my lawn.  And it’s the same all over. While I don’t know much about lawn care (or at least … Continue reading →

Posted in Home Repair | 3 Comments

Making cupric chloride etchant from scratch

Posted on June 15, 2012 by Jim

One of the goals of this project has been to come up with a recipe for making the etchant from scratch without need for tuning steps like titration or specific gravity measurement.  Just do these fairly painless steps and you’ll … Continue reading →

Posted in Cupric Chloride Etchant | 4 Comments

Boards ordered from Seeed for recording preamp!

Posted on June 12, 2012 by Jim

I’m getting really close to my goal of having a solid, standardized, manufacturable square dance recording device.  I just sent out the Gerber files to have the first run of circuit boards made!  The earliest notes I can find about … Continue reading →

Posted in PCB Etching, Recording preamp/limiter | 2 Comments

@#$%^& WordPress ate my post!

Posted on June 6, 2012 by Jim

I finally had a candidate board layout for sending to a board house to start production of my recording preamps.  There were quite a few changes, so to test the layout I etched one single sided, with a few minor … Continue reading →

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