projects
Video Arcade: Build Log
The video arcade is complete! To be fair, it was complete when I posted the introduction article on the 28th… Anyway.
There it stands, in all its glory.
Read on for the whole build story.
Ooh… that was clever.
Video Arcade: Intro
The youth entertainment business has always been a matter of evolution. They get bored easily, and what was fun last week is obsolete the next. But what about for the older crowd? Their attention spans are higher, and some of these obsolete, youth-targetted trends become timeless classics and passtimes; hobbies and business.
You’ve seen me post before about pinball machines, the collection, the reparation, of these machines that long ago lived in arcades, abused and unmaintained. When technology began to evolve, and interest declined, there was a successor that pushed the bounds of existing entertainment, that captivated the youth, helped children reach bankruptcy hundreds of times before the age of 16. This phenomenon, ladies and gentlemen, was the video arcade.
The Arcade
It’s been a while since I’ve posted anything about pinball, so I figured I’d share some photos of his arcade, the “Silver Ball Arcade”!
LCD Monitors
Recently, my “biggest” home project has been acquiring and repairing broken LCD monitors. Most of the time, LCD monitors stop working simply due to some blown capacitors inside, and for me, this is very easy to fix. Because this is a common problem, it has been easy for me to acquire screens like this. In fact, I now have a total of 3 monitors I’ve repaired myself, along with another display that the panel was physically damaged on the top, and another monitor I couldn’t locate the capacitor causing the problem, but that I plan to convert to LED.
The display on the left is a Norcent that was destined for the trash,
the right is a Philips with a band of damage along the top.
Electric Vehicles, Blog
Note: I’ll say this before I dig too deep into the content of the blog. This morning I logged in to find that my WordPress password had been changed (MD5 decryptor couldn’t decrypt it unfortunately), and once I manually reset my password in the database, different parts of the dashboard were broken. I doubt the blog broke itself. So, to whatever bot or being did this:
Every step you take, I’ll be watching you.
Every single day.
Every hack you make.
Every script you change,
Every code you break, I’ll be watching you.
Oops, got carried away.
During the last week or so I’ve been excessively interested in portable and quick “personal electric transportation”. Oh dear, I’ve gone an made an acronym in my first sentence… The idea is to use these small vehicles in areas with high pedestrian traffic, on trips where walking would take too long, and have a range that allowed for multiple such trips on a single charge. The most ideal form for such a vehicle that comes to mind is the scooter.
What have I been doing?
Well, last week I began my new summer job at the school I attend, Heritage College. I am an Electronics Technician, in a manner, in charge of preparing the electronics labs for next semesters students. I am setting up a computer systems class’ components, as well as a networking lab, and various other organization and preparation tasks. Cool!
It also means I have less time to work on certain projects and music, but it also means that my off-time will be better spent doing these things I enjoy. Today I went to Allan’s house, a former band mate, and we jammed all day, and his father, someone I would consider a seasoned musician, gave me motivation to get much more involved in my music again. As a result, I’ve got several new song ideas and projects I’m excited to work on. Expect new posts on that soon!
I also ordered and received a battery desulfator, which is designed to revive batteries that no longer hold a charge as a result of sulfation on the plates. I have many batteries I suspect of having this problem, and tonight I have just begun revival attempts. From what I understand, it can take several weeks to fully revive a battery, so I won’t know if it worked for another while, but naturally updates will follow!
DIY: UPS
March break has found me a project! Here is a little background. My friend’s dad gave me an old Uninterruptable Power Supply (UPS) he had at home, but that the battery was no good. I have plenty of batteries, so this was a non-issue. The UPS was a godsend because that same day I had gone shopping for one, but not found one suitable for the server.
When I took this used UPS home, and hooked up all the batteries in my arsenal, I discovered that it was too weak to power the server for more than 2 seconds. Bummer. Even for power flickers that was not suitable, as there is a 5 second delay after the power returns before it switches back to mains power. What to do, what to do…
Oh, I know. Make my own!
Update: My testing proceedures blocked me from finding one critical fault with the design. As you will notice, I am using a resistor in order to short the capacitor from the AC-DC adapter, in order to more quickly de-energize the relays. Unfortunately, it still isn’t fast enough. My testing involved simply unplugging the adapter, and checking for any flickering in the devices. However, this testing does not remove mains power. Thus, the slight lag time for switch over does not affect the device, as it is has power on both relay positions. However, in a real situation, the power fails, both on input power and the adapter, and I’ve tested that my switch over time in this case is too great for most devices.
Fix to come…
Home Device Repair
Hello again, it has been a little bit. College has picked up, and as I am moving in a little over a week, most of my projects have been packed. However, I’ve worked on a few things in the past little while.
Remember my half-repaired LCD monitor? Well recently I obtained yet another defective LCD monitor. Symptoms: no power, no lights, no noise. I may or may not post photos about this one, because I did all repairs without taking photos, and it was a pain to take it apart, and I wish not to do so again, hehe. Basically, the cause was 4 blown caps in on the circuit board, which I’ve replaced and it now functions fully, aside from a little squealing when in stand-by or turned off (I believe due to a capacitor that started blowing but that I measured to be within proper values.)
A few months ago, however, I did document a repair project I undertook. I have two home theatre amps at home that I’ve had problems with. At one point, both had stopped functioning properly. So, naturally, I decided to set to fixing them.
Pinball: Meet the Machines
A very basic photo post: all sorts of photos of my dad’s pinball collection. Awesome 😀
Left of garage
Right of garage
DIY Multimeter: Complete!
As mentioned in a previous posting, for Christmas, I received an Assemble-it-yourself Digital Multimeter Kit. Awesome. So, for the last week or two I’ve been building it, section at a time, till tonight, where I found myself in need of doing a calming activity. What is more calming then sitting down and soldering for 2 hours, while listening to Paramore’s discography using my DIY FM Transmitter to broadcast to my DIY AM/FM Radio?
Anyway… This is what it looks like, finished:
Sorry about the Mr. Blurrycam shot. Darn flash. I’ll have a clearer shot after the break, along with more details on the functions.