Beyond X10

Posted in Electronics on August 05, 2003.

While X10 devices are completely self-sufficient (you can buy timer, etc to improve automation), in my mind the next level of home automation is to put it under intelligent computer control.  X10 (the company) offers several "ActiveHome" kits that are great to get started in this area.  The software that comes with ActiveHome leaves a few things to be desired, however (more on this later).  With a computer at the center, you can configure it to do intelligent things based on the time of day, whether it's light or raining outside, activity within the home, etc.  The possibilities are endless.

There are devices that you can connect only to a computer to improve flexibility and performance.  You can also extend the automation systems further with multi-I/O units that can interface with the world outside of X10, giving you control of doors, sprinklers, etc and allowing other types of sensor inputs (rain gauges, temperature, etc).

The Daytona: May 30, 2003

Posted in Automotive on May 30, 2003.

I got the rear brakes put back together, finally.  I originally took them apart to try to fix a squealing problem back there.  I believe it was due to a broken spring on one of the brake shoes.  I also wanted to bleed the brake system and flush it out with new fluid.  Even though the brakes and lines are suprisingly unrusty, the bleeder on the left side snapped off.  After breaking an extractor trying to get it out, I just replaced the cylinders on both sides (less than $10 each :).  Of course, the flare nuts were frozen to the brake lines (which weren't even rusty), but I was able to spin the cylinder off the nut.  On the right side, the grease around outer bearing was contaminated with water and grit and the spindle nut was even rusty.  The dust cap seems OK, so I just flushed out all the grease with gasoline and repacked the bearings.  The races looked fine, so I didn't bother replacing anything.  Some new brake hardware and grease seals later, it was all back together.

I always like to get into everything on a new (ha!) car to get a handle on where things are.  The shoes themselves seemed new and I know the front pads are new, so I should be good in the brake department.  Another thing that I thought was odd was that the emergency brake cables are NOT frozen! The car is an automatic, so I doubt they were ever used.  For whatever reason, these cables are plastic-coated.  All of the '87 Daytonas and Shadows I've seen were just steel and would rust within a year or two, while my '88 had the coating.  This car gets weirder and weirder.

The Daytona: May 27, 2003

Posted in Automotive on May 27, 2003.

I think I have decided what paints I am going to use.  In the interest of not having to worry about rusting under the primer, I will take the body down to metal, spray with POR-15 clear, POR-15 tie-coat primer, and PPG color and clear coats.  The underbody and fenders will get the POR-15 underbody treatment in semigloss black.  That should intomb the metal for all eternity.  I also need to think about how I am going to weld in the plates to patch up the underbody and straighten-out the front end.  At the moment, the driver's side door is partially stripped and the rear end is in the air so that I can investigate the squeaky brakes and bleed the lines.  As usual, the bleeders snapped off when I tried to remove them, so hopefully I will be able to extract them.  If not, new cylinders are only $15.

The Daytona: May 23, 2003

Posted in Automotive on May 23, 2003.

Haven't done much work to the car lately, but I have stopped driving it.  I went to take care of some rust that was forming just above the bumper strip on the passenger-side door.  What I uncovered was that the strip was attached to the door with silicone rubber and under it was all rust.  In a few places it did rust through, but since it is under the strip, I'm not concerned.  It appears that the door had been hit at some point, as there are holes drilled in random places, probably from a dent pull-out tool.  Whoever straightened the metal did a good job, but they didn't bother painting it! So, it looks like I am going to have to DA the whole door and repaint it.  The paint is cracking in several places anyway, probably due to rust forming.  I see the same thing happening on the passenger-side front fender as well as the hood, but nowhere else.  Hopefully I'll have a compressor soon, so I will be able to do a proper painting job.  This will be the practice I need to repaint the Shelby.

The CSX: May 23, 2003

Posted in Automotive on May 23, 2003.

I've been driving the Shelby daily now for several weeks while I addressed some issues with the Daytona.  All and all it has been reliable, though still has some cold startup issues, uses oil, and sounds like a Mack truck.  I may drop the old Shadow engine in if looks like the Daytona project is going to take a long time.  Eventually I put the Daytona wheels on because they actually have tread and they are also round.  There are various things that need fixing on the CSX as well, but much of the work is the body.  If all goes as planned, I will have a compressor fairly soon and will gain some experience at painting the Daytona.  Then I'll be able to repaint the Shelby, finally.  I may try to polish the rims next winter to have a nice, fresh Shelby by next summer.  Yeah right. :p

Debian on Motorola MCP750

Posted in Computing on May 05, 2003.

I actually did not do the work to create this, but I wanted to make it available to the free software community.  Special thanks to Eric Valette for all the hard work in putting it together.

Read more...

Why Tubes?

Posted in Electronics on February 01, 2003.

Why thermionic electron emission devices (valves to our friends in the UK)? Well, I grew up listening to my LPs, cassettes, and the radio through a 6V6GT push-pull instrument amplifier and eventually found that I really missed its sound.  I actually didn't know what it was I didn't like about my audio system until I fired up that old amp again.  The brash, gritty sound was gone.  See my Thomas 6V6GT PP amp for more about that.  I don't consider myself to be an audiophile, however the difference to me is noticeable.  For an excellent article with a bit of empirical evidence, take a look at Tubes Vs. Transistors by Russell O. Hamm.

The other part of the answer to this question is that I enjoy the challenge as much as (if not more than) the results of my efforts.  In terms of components in the signal path, electron tube amplifiers are about as simple as it can get.  Perhaps some of the healthy fear involved in working with lethal voltages has something to do with it as well. :) Finally, tubes are just damn cool.  They operate on such a macro scale that you can actually "see" the process take place inside them that is providing you with service that you took the time to design/modify.  They're also pretty to look at....

The Daytona: January 28, 2003

Posted in Automotive on January 28, 2003.

I found the damn electrical load that was draining the battery.  The battery wouldn't last sitting for more than about 2 days.  I measured about a 300mA drain, which is a lot! I isolated it to the power seat/power door lock circuit, which made so sense since I have no power seats and the power door lock motors draw many amps when they are on.  A quick glance at the wiring diagrams revealed the horn circuit also being fed from this circuit.  The horn doesn't work and I never looked as to why.  It appears that the steering column wiring for the horn switch is shorted and it was disabled at the horn itself.  Unfortunately, this left the horn relay on at all times and, apparently, and relay coil draws about 280mA.  Anyway, I yanked the relay and now everything is fine.  I still see about 22mA of drain, 4 of those are for the Dawes Devices A/F guage, which was tied right to the battery.  The rest must be the radio and clock, I guess.