A plumbers version of a blown fuse?
While installing my DIY boiler I found I didn’t get all the water out of my heating hot water lines the first time around.
Advanced PCB Etching Tank Control
I’ve consistently had inconsistent results from etching PCBs. My best luck has been with PCB developing using a laser printer and transparency sheets. I was whiping up a batch of PCBs for my 6 meter amplifier when I decided I was really getting annoyed with figuring out how to keep the etchant hot, but not…
TAUTIC’s 20 Pin Development Kit
I am a sucker for development kits/boards; they are cheap and if you have the room in your project they shave tons of room off your development time. Semi-recently, I was looking for a 18 or 20 PIC development board to plug into a main board. There are tons of boards that have various relays…
GSM Remote Control and Monitoring
While building my homebrew home automation I wanted a way to monitor it remotely with my iPhone as cheap as possible. Well a land line was out, despite an extensive search I couldn’t find a way to make my iPhone 4 a dial-up modem for remote terminal access. I then went on to looking for…
Cap Exploded in an ATU
I got called from a small AM station to help them out with their power problem. Their “first-gen” solid state Nautel transmitter was outputting a wimpy 400w output as it had backed itself off on on high SWR. A quick look at the transmitter showed some gross neglect as everything caked in dirt the problem…
Homebrew / DIY Boiler
Warning: Boilers can explode and kill you. See: http://youtu.be/fCej2OQSKnY Making/using your own boiler may cause issues with your homeowners insurance, etc. Have I talked you out of this enough? I have build my own hydronic hot water heater for my “retreat”. In an attempt to have an option to run my farm house off…
PID Control Done in a Snap
A thought came to mind that when I need a PID controlled process or something on the side of industrial automation I just take an old “recycled” controller that was bound for the garbage heap and I make whenever I need. That’s great for me; my blog readers, not so much. I recently replied to…
Back to magnetic basics
I was picking through my pile of books which I want to get to sooner-than-later and read through a bit of Field and Wave Electromagnetics. I decided I shunned magnetics and inductors too much when I was in school and decided I needed to suck it up and become better versed. The last time I…
Soldering Large Connectors
When it comes to soldering large connectors on LMR400 or larger you owe it to yourself to have a large soldering iron. This ancient beauty has a lot of thermal mass and really gets the job done. I borrowed this from my good buddy Gary for some large work. You’ll likely need to visit eBay…
Raspberry Pi Give-Away
Fish Fry announced that they are giving away a Raspberry Pi B through Element 14. If you have the time there is a short interview about the Gertboard add-on or whatever you want to call it with Gert van Loo — More information can be found on google or my favourite place https://www.sparkfun.com/products/11773 Not an…
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