Life, The Universe and ... Everything!

So there I was minding my own business in a McCafe when I realised that my Tab S 10.5 tablet was not quite sitting flat on the table. Tapping on the sides of the screens would make the tablet spin. Feeling around the back of the tablet I discovered there was a slight bulge on the rear of casing ... ... which is a sign that I have a battery that is about to die. Woah! Maybe it is time to get a new tablet? How about the newly launched Tab S4: To be honest I was quite ready to upgrade out of ...

The road leading to my apartment was resurfaced a few months ago. One of the speedbumps along it however, did not have its markings redrawn, and as a result, was simply a dangerous hump on the road. Someone tried spray-painting some stripes across it, but it was hardly effective. I've forgotten about it enough to have had to brake at the last minute so many times, that I decided to do something about it. But how do you go about getting lines painted on a road? The roads in my area fall un...

I attached a Raspberry Pi Zero W running CNCJS software to my 3018 "Woodpecker" CNC machine. CNCJS is a web-based gcode feeder than can be used to control the CNC hardware. Being web-based, I can now control the CNC wirelessly from anywhere on my home network, using my desktop pc, tablet or phone. Here are my build notes. Setting Up The Raspberry Pi Zero W I started by installing the 2018-06-27 version of Raspbian Stretch Lite onto a MicroSD card using Etcher. Next, I powered up the Pi ...

In its original design, the 3018 "Woodpecker" CNC Router, a cheap entry-level unit found on eBay and AliExpress, will happily tell the stepper motors to keep moving along the axis, even if the work bed or spindle carrier is bumping against the end of its range of movement. This is because the router doesn't actually have any absolute measurement of where it's current position on the axis is. It assumes it is at the "home" position (machine coordinates 0,0) whenever it is powered on, and will ...

So There I was Browsing The Internet ... ... when I came across this mini CNC router going for cheap on AliExpress . It's a "3018" model, which means the work area is 300mm by 180mm, and is large enough to handle the parts for my 737 overhead panel. And the best part is the price, it is USD115 + USD50 (Fedex International Economy) shipping. The same design is sold under many different names, and it is also known as a "woodpecker", "linksprite" and "beautystar". The frame is made from 2020...

My locking toggle switches have arrived! Up till now I've been using mini toggle switches (where you flip the lever to change their state), purchased on eBay. They're cheap and you can get them in all the different configurations needed to build a 737 Overhead Panel (On-On, On-Off-On, (On)-(On), On-Off-(On), where (x) means the lever will not stay in that position but spring back to the center when released). On the real 737 Overhead Panel however, some of these switches are "locking" sw...

I was quite glad when it was announce that Cytron was the non-industrial-use local distributor for the Raspberry Pi series ... and they carried the PI Zero and Pi Zero W. These are the low cost models announced at USD5/MYR20 (Pi Zero) and USD10/MYR40 (Pi Zero W -- W stands for WiFi-capable) respectively. With the dip in the Malaysian Ringgit's value recently, they are even cheaper here than in t=the US and UK. Due to production shortages, however, their sales were limited to one per custome...

My 737 I/O Controller PCB has arrived!Well to be honest, this is not the first time it has "arrived". But this is the first time that a version of the PCB has arrived which is usable, due to some earlier bugs! 8-) As i noted in my earlier post, here are the specifications: 192 digital switch inputs (expandable to 256) 128 constant current LED outputs, up to 60 mA per channel (expandable to 224)48 digits of 7-segment numeric displays8 characters of 14-segment alphanumeric displays16 servo out...

A few months back I started organizing my shelves. I standardised on IKEA TJENA boxes to keep my stuff in, and filled up a few shelves with them. IKEA touts the smaller TJENA boxes as being able to fit inside a BILLY book case, because they are 26cm deep, and you can stack up to three of them on a shelf, assuming you divide the shelves evenly within the cabinet. Which is true ... however, their widths mean that there is often a lot of wasted space. Here are the small TJENA boxes in a regular...

I've not been happy with the keycaps on my 737 FMC. I've tried a few methods of printing them: printing the letters recessed on black filament, and then using a fine tipped paintbrush, filling in the recessed parts with white acrylic paint. This method was ok for single letters, but for keys with multiple characters such as "EXEC", my hand painting skills were not up to the task.Printing a blank keycap with white filament, and then printing the label on 2 layers of transparency sheets. This i...