03.11.2011

I recently got an Arduino microcontroller to tinker with and just wrapped up my first project, which I am calling the AreGeeBee color mixer. It allows a user to adjust the color output of a LED by changing the color values as displayed on the screen. A knob is rotated to select which color to change, and then two buttons are used for increasing or decreasing the color’s value.

Check it out in action:

The source code is available here for anyone who is curious how it works or wants to replicate it.

02.24.2011

From the archives, these are all the things I have with me everyday. If you are curious of precisely what these items are, I had tagged them in a Flickr image.

02.15.2011

Recently my prized Sony radio stopped turning on. I had bought it about a year ago from a seller that said he had bought it new in the early 1970′s, and I had since really fallen in love with it. It was one of the first “boombox style” portable radios on the market, so it was pretty high-end at the time. I would always show it off to people who visited, regardless of how much they didn’t give a damn, so having it out of commission really bummed me out. I knew that just the power switch had broken, so I figured that I could crack it open and try and figure out what was wrong, and maybe even resurrect it.

Once I had disassembled the radio the best I could, I saw that the power switch and volume knob were a stacked combination of two audio potentiometers (to control each channel’s volume) and a clicky switch on the bottom that switched the power on and off when the knob was turned all the way to the left. You can see the knob on the left of the radio in the first picture. The clicky power switch on the bottom of the stack was what had broken, it no longer clicked.

There really wasn’t a way to repair the switch, and finding a similar part would be tough since I would have to replace the whole stack of dual potentiometers and switch, which was really specific. I decided to go the cheap route and just remove the power switch from the circuit, and just always have the radio always be powered on. I figured that I could just unplug the radio when I wanted it off, which is such a janky method that it would be sort of endearing. Everyone loves cobbled together old stuff.

I sliced off the red set and orange set of wires from the switch with one squeeze and then went to work soldering them together permanently. I didn’t actually know why there were two sets of wires in the switch but assumed one was for outlet power and one was for battery power. Regardless I figured what harm could there be in connecting two matching color wires, fate wouldn’t allow something bad to happen.

With the wires connected and bypassing the broken switch, I tested it out by plugging it in. I had thought about bringing the fire extinguisher upstairs before I tested it, but was riding the high of possibly having my radio back, so I just went with it. As expected, it started right up and I immediately ran through some stations. I was pretty giddy.

All that was left to do was to reassemble the radio and maybe clean it a little in the process, but I ended up not wanting to mess with it’s consumer electronics patina, plus I was feeling lazy. While wrapping up the assembly I noticed this warning on the back panel. I think they just put those on there so you feel even better when you fix it and don’t die.

After it was all back together I took a quick video of it in action, partially so others could experience that 1970′s sound, and partially because I like taking videos and putting them on vimeo. Guess who was on.

All and all I am pretty pleased with the results. This wasn’t the most thorough fix since now there is no way to turn the radio off, but I also didn’t spend any money or electrocute myself, so I’ll take that win. I also sort of like the character this adds to the radio as I think it gives it that rough and tumble appeal, which I think perfect for a device that is now over 40 years old.

BONUS CONTENT:
I was so enthralled with my newly working radio that I took ungodly amounts of pictures of it, it’s box, and it’s printed materials. Check them out if you want to see more of this thing or some 1970′s warranty cards. I liked that the original price tag was included when I bought it.

Gobs of pictures of radio and box on Flickr
Scans of all the radio’s documents on Flickr

02.06.2011

I love snowboarding and recently went on a day trip up to Wintergreen, VA. My friend Joe recorded my last run of the day in the terrain park, where I was riding three consecutive jumps to varied results.

01.30.2011

After using the same website design for four years, I decided I wanted to update it. I knew that I wanted to use WordPress software, so I started looking at what WordPress themes were available and how I could modify them to suit my needs. I wanted a very basic site and it seemed like it would be tough to strip down an existing theme so extensively, so I decided to make my own.

I had previously heard about this 1140 pixel wide, 12 column CSS grid framework and figured I would try and use it in my theme. It is extremely adaptable to all sorts of screen sizes, which is probably overkill for my purposes, but still neat. Try resizing your browser to see it in action.

I began by building a design in Photoshop using the grid template. For the design I stuck in a background based on a pattern I had seen on an old vase, and a header based on a logo I occasionally use. I then went to work figuring out how to create my design as a static page with dummy content. Once I had the static version created and the grid framework tested, I started replacing my dummy post titles and text with the equivalent WordPress PHP functions. It took some trial and error, but eventually I pieced together something that worked and looked close to the design.

Total the site took me about a month to complete since I would only work on it a little at a time, but I am happy to now have a place to post my projects.