Author Archives: Jim

Repairing Melnor Time-a-matic

Posted on May 28, 2012 by Jim

Against the common recommendations, I leave the hoses (and the high side of the manifolds feeding various watering systems) in my yard under pressure all the time.  While it’s convenient to pick up the hose and spray, if a hose … Continue reading →

Posted in Home Repair | 10 Comments

Prius nav DVD replacement

Posted on May 22, 2012 by Jim

The GPS in the Prius pretty much stopped working recently with an error message about not being able to read the DVD.  I replaced the DVD with another I found in my collection and it seems to work again.  Since … Continue reading →

Posted in Miscellaneous | 1 Comment

Oops – bad mulch

Posted on May 20, 2012 by Jim

I just learned a little lesson about mulching. I’d finally gotten around to seeding the ugly 6′ circle of dirt and wood chips where the stump was ground out after a tree was removed from the front yard last fall.  … Continue reading →

Posted in Home Repair, Miscellaneous | Leave a comment

Tiny85 fuse resetter

Posted on May 13, 2012 by Jim

The AT Tiny85 is a great, cheap ($1.29 qty 1 at  Digikey!) little processor.  At 8 pins, little is the operative word.  Assuming you don’t need an external crystal (a good assumption for 99% of the hobbyist use cases of … Continue reading →

Posted in Tiny 85 stuff | 3 Comments

Notes on DSL problem

Posted on May 9, 2012 by Jim

My DSL internet connectivity via SBC/Yahoo/AT&T has been pretty good.  I’ve finally got some intelligence in the script that pings my ISP so it can power cycle the modem and router when it detects loss of connection, and I think … Continue reading →

Posted in Home Automation, Home Repair | Leave a comment

Chasing recording preamp distortion

Posted on May 8, 2012 by Jim

I’m dragging my feet on making up the final boards for the ‘production’ Sansa recording devices.  Much of it is that I don’t really trust the new ones.  I think I heard some distortion in some of the Sansa recordings … Continue reading →

Posted in Recording preamp/limiter | Leave a comment

RG LED breakout quickie

Posted on May 7, 2012 by Jim

I wanted to use an SMT red-green LED for a demo board for the Tiny85 class, but for initial development I needed something breadboard friendly.  Quicker than laying out and etching a real PCB for something this simple, I just … Continue reading →

Posted in Tiny 85 stuff | Leave a comment

Trickle current limiter for B&D charger

Posted on May 5, 2012 by Jim

I’ve worried for years that at least some of the NiCd chargers’ trickle charge regimen was cooking my batteries into oblivion.  They say you can charge sub-C NiCds at 100mA forever without problem, but for stuff that’s charging for months … Continue reading →

Posted in Battery Charging | Leave a comment

Possible Glass Curtain Gallery presentation

Posted on April 18, 2012 by Jim

I got kind of excited by the prospect of giving a talk at Glass Curtain Gallery about how artists and hackers could work together, and demo some of the sensors and outputs we could show them how to control with … Continue reading →

Posted in Artist / hacker synergy, Workshop 88 Stuff | 2 Comments

Little electret mic preamp

Posted on April 9, 2012 by Jim

Russ said he had trouble using a bare electret mic as an input device in his Arduino 201 sensors class.  I hope to help by making up a couple of simple mic preamp boards.  There was an initial prototype, and … Continue reading →

Posted in Miscellaneous, Workshop 88 Stuff | 5 Comments