I’m just getting into the automated lights/computer controlled thing, and it’s been a bit of work to get started. I started about this time last year, ordering circuit boards, electronic parts, and getting . . . → Read More: Is it Christmas already?!]]> I’ve been working on my Christmas display already. It’s going to be pretty lame I think, but it’s still a lot of work.

I’m just getting into the automated lights/computer controlled thing, and it’s been a bit of work to get started. I started about this time last year, ordering circuit boards, electronic parts, and getting educated about what effects I can do.

I ended up going with an open source software package called VixenLights. It allows you to sync music with blinky-flashy lights, there’s a lot of devices it can drive, and I went with a really simple parallel port controller called the Grinch. The Grinch just does on/off for 64 channels, no dimming… and it runs off of a parallel port… tough to find those on computers these days. Lucky for me, and rather ironically, all my computers are old junkers so I was good to go.

Once I got the Grinch working, I decided to add in the dimming by building up a Renard Converter (Ren-c). It runs off of a serial port, but it’s a bit more complex as it involved PIC micro-controllers and some programming… I’ve done a bunch of PIC programming in the past, so I had a programmer, and new what I was getting into.

So, with the setup I have this year, I’ll be maxing out at 64 separate channels of blinky-flashy; Pretty lame by the standards some displays are running at.

I’ve just completed the 10 Mid-sized trees I was working on, each one is a 4′ tomato cage, wrapped in chicken wire, with 100 white and 100 multi coloured LEDs on separate channels. (at $20/string, that’s a fair bit of cash. Hence my display will be lame… too much $$ for year one)

Anyhoo, I’ve got my 10 Mids and I’ll be starting on the Minis soon. They will be the same chicken wire wrapped tomato cages, but half the size. 20 of them, each with 50 red and 50 green on separate channels. Should be able to do some nice effects with them. I’ve also got about 10 strings of 100 multis for the house, and some icicle lights to round out the year.

All in, it’s going to be about 5500 lights (all LED except for the icicles) and only using about 1200 watts…. 10Amps max. Since the power cost here is about $0.10/Kilowatt hour, it’s only going to cost me a bit over 10 cents / hour if I had all the lights on at one time… not too bad. But, I’ll be maxing out the 64 channels, so I will prolly only have 16 or 18 minis. Depends on how I set up the house. (Since each Mid/Mini is 2 channels, and I’ll have 30 total trees, that’s 60 of my 64 channels… I’m thinking I’ll need 8 channels for the house… so I have some decisions to make )

Below is a short vid of the hardware and my Mids… and some links to where more information is (click on the title of the video below to open it up in a new window, you’ll see the links in the comments on youtube.)

My last scope was an old 2 channel 20MHz scope made by Brunnel Instruments. Not sure when . . . → Read More: New Oscilloscope]]> I bought a new oscilloscope off of eBay the other day. I’ve always had good luck with eBay and this purchase was no different. I ended up with a Tektronix 2246A; It’s a 100MHz analog scope from the late 80s.

My last scope was an old 2 channel 20MHz scope made by Brunnel Instruments. Not sure when it was made, but it’s old. It works just fine though. Actually, It works really well. So why do I need a new scope? Well, need doesn’t wander into my vocab very often, it’s more about want

The 2246A has 4 channels, it’s 100MHz, and just look at all those buttons! Had to have it But the added complexity of this machine means that I have no idea how to use it. Well, the ‘standard’ ops I can figure out… a scope is a scope when it comes to basics. But this one has menus, and soft keys, and all sorts of things that require a manual.

Since this scope was only in production for 1 year, and was end-of-life in 1999, Tektronix does not support it, repair it, or have any manuals for it. But the very helpful lady at the Tektronix help center recommended a number of places to find/buy manuals for it. EBay topped the list, but they were selling for $50… She also recommended the Boat Anchor Manual Archive (BAMA)… apparently it’s a place for people to dump scans of old docs and it’s all free… Cool, but no luck finding my scope’s manual. My scope didn’t get a lot of sales apparenlty and was not one of the most popular products. So not a lot of people out there who have a manual for it.

In the end, I found a site called qservice… it’s a very sketchy and old skool site. Actually they own a number of domains and one of them plays an awesome techo dance beat as when you hit the front page. lol. So my ‘run away’ spidey senses are in full alert, but I _need_ (yes need) the manual and they have it. They have an instant download for pdf feature and had the operation, service, and quick reference manual for about $12… sweet. Unfortunately, their unencrypted order page requires my full address, phone, and credit card info.. NOT going to happen… so I use my thow away email, and obviously fake home address, and select they PayPal payment option. Gotta love Paypal.

So I hit purchase, and paypal the guy $12, and wait for my download instructions. Turns out someone actually uploads the files to a server, and sets a unique username/password to a directory on the server. Wow… but, it works and I get my files. I also get a reply thru paypal from the site owner chiding me for giving a fake email/personal info. (How can he email me the download info if the email is fake he says, props to him for sending the info via paypal though, as he would have known I would have to have a real email address for that.)

I email him back, and we ended up having a bit of a discussion about how unsecured his site is, and that the email I gave him was real, and that it wasn’t him I didn’t trust, just his web site is very hackable… and I’m not about to put it all out there for someone to get. I also told him I got the files, and they looked awesome (and they are really good scans), and that if I needed any others I would buy from him again.

If you are looking for old manuals, it’s the place to go… just don’t use a credit card, and don’t give out any personal information. (I’d even suggest getting a throw away email) … the site is not to be trusted.

So, now I’ve got some great pdf manuals for my scope. It’s just going to take some time to read and learn all the advanced features and functions.

Their ordering interface is crap. I spent many frustrating hours setting up order lists only to be confronted with the inability to combine them. Searching for parts is difficult, and all in all just a bad experience. But, they have a deal with Canada . . . → Read More: More Parts]]> I got another shipment of electronic components from Digikey.ca the other day.

Their ordering interface is crap. I spent many frustrating hours setting up order lists only to be confronted with the inability to combine them. Searching for parts is difficult, and all in all just a bad experience. But, they have a deal with Canada Customs, and shipping (including any customs charges) is $8 for UPS. I usually get the parts in 2 days. That is why I continue to use them.

Conversely, Mouser has an awesome UI. Save projects, share them, searching is quick and easy… it’s all very easy and almost fun to use. BUT the big downside is that the shipping is slower, and they don’t have a deal with customs, so the last order I had to pay $20 COD for those costs on top of their shipping charge (which was also only about $8 but for slower USPS)

Now that I’m familiar with Digikey’s new BOM manager, it’s major limitations, and how to work around them, it will be easier to reorder more parts as required. I’ll keep using Digikey because of the order fulfilment side of the process. I just hope they ’2.0′ their site some day soon.

With this last shipment, I have all the parts to build the remaining SSRs and the Ren-C for my display. Those links go to ChristmasInShirley’s wiki for all things automated display… it’s the best site I’ve found… tons of maintained info. So now I just need to wait for the remaining boards to arrive, and I’ll be able to finish up the electronics side of things.

The Ren-C is a board that allows my Grinch controller to work over the serial port rather than the parallel port, and adds dimming capabilities. It’s run by a PICMicro chip that needs to be programmed. It’s all out there (source files, howtos, etc) but I need to have the hardware and software to program the PIC chip.

Luckily, I was into PIC programming before… I used the PIC16F84s for a few things, so I am familiar with what needs to happen for programming the chips. Unfortunately, that was many years ago and my memory, and chip programmer did not stand the test of time. So, off to Microchip’s site to grab MPLap, and then find WinPic to program the chips, and I needed to build a new programmer.

This would have been quite a daunting task but since I’ve got all the equipment it’s relatively easy to build a board. I’m no electrical engineer, but there are a lot of schematics for simple PIC programmers out there… I found PICPROGv5 by illumicon. Unfortunately, he’s out of stock, and not building any more or I would have just ordered the board… so I used his schematic and parts list to design my own board.

I grabbed ExpressPCB and started building a design… a few hours later, I had a workable single sided solution… I’m sure the EEs out there will point out many problems with it, but I’ve built it and it works… Here’s the pcb file (myPicProg5v2) but be warned, that I have only tested it once, and not sure that’s it’s 100% right… also, it’s built off the PICPROGv5… so it’s their hard work that went into my crappy ‘redesign’. Note: the top layer traces are just jumpers… it’s a single sided board. Also, not all the values are correct/entered, so take a look at the original PICPROG site for the schematic and component values. Component IDs are the same.

So after building the board, I went for the tried and true toner transfer method of getting the design on the board… In a nutshell, you print the traces using a laser printer on a glossy magazine cover(the toner doesn’t stick to glossy as well and transfers better than if you used regular paper), then place that on a very clean copper clad board, iron it down then soak in water and peel away the paper. I had good luck with very thin paper rather than super glossy paper… pages from my Mouser catalogue work great If you want more detail, there is a myriad of sites out there that have full instructions… check YouTube as well.

Since coper oxidizes quite rapidly, I decided to spray paint the bottom of the board to protect it… lol.

So the programmer is built and tested with a simple flashing LED program for the old 16F84s I had laying around. Haven’t tried it on the PIC I’ll be using for the Ren-C… Perhaps this weekend I’ll try to bang something together. Now it’s just waiting on the boards to finish this all up. I’ve got plenty of work to do around the house to keep me busy, oh… and a bunch of mini and mid trees to build

Being that it’s the end of June, it’s time for me to . . . → Read More: No boot device…]]> Opened up the laptop this evening and that’s what I was greeted with. No boot device… nice. A reboot, and all appears well, but that’s not what I want with a new lappy. Hope it was an isolated incident and will not be happening again.

Being that it’s the end of June, it’s time for me to start thinking about Christmas. I know, I know… it’s nuts… but I’ve got a lot of work ahead of me. This weekend started out with me building up the boards I got last winter. I have 7 SSR (Solid State Relay) boards, and enough parts to build up 6 of them… My supplier sent me an extra one because a shipment got lost in the mail and I had to wait for a while.

I started a little assembly line, one group of components at a time for all boards… I hooked up a fan in some silver flex duct line (think it’s for a dryer) to keep the noxious flux fumes out of my face… it worked pretty good and I was done in no time.

Here’s the days work… still missing a few parts so not all are done, but I’ve got a lot of components on the way, so I should be back at it for the weekend.

I’m still waiting for another 9 SSR boards and all the components to fill ‘em up… I’ve also ordered the parts to add dimming capabilities to the display. Currently I can only turn the lights off and on, so it will be nice to be able to dim rather than shut off abruptly. So, 10 more boards, and 300 components to solder in… that’s why I’m starting in June

And that doesn’t even count the display parts… I’m running all LED lights, so I’m not too worried about power requirements, but giving the history of wiring I’ve fixed in this house, I’m not taking any chances… I wired up 2 20amp, GFCI protected circuits, dedicated for the lights. That should be more than enough for my ‘year one’ display.

I picked up another 26 tomato cages from the Despot today… 6 4′ cages to round out the 4 mid-trees I already have. I wanted 10 total so I can do a pyramid setup of the mid-trees. Pretty standard stuff as far as displays go, so it’s an easy one to start with.

The other 20 cages will be mini-trees. They’re 3′ but I’m cutting the bottom ring off, and they will end up being 2′ tall. I’ll prolly ring the flower bed or run them down the drive. Not 100% sure yet.

So, I’ve got 10 mid-trees (4 already built) and 20 mini-trees, and the house lights. Gonna add icicle lights this year to have some lighting options and variety. I’ve got the capability for 64 channels, and I think I’m going to have about 40 channels this year, if everything goes as planned… and if I can get enough strings of lights. If all goes well, I’ll be adding a mega-tree next year… I’ve got another 24 channels before I need to buy/build more controller gear so that’s almost enough for a mega-tree… or perhaps I’ll do a ‘star of David’… we’ll see

Oh, and I have to program the sequences to make the lights dance… That’s prolly going to take more time than building the trees. I’m not planning any musical display (no FM transmitter), and I think that’s going to be a bit of a reach for the amount of work I need to get done in the time I have… between renos

Speaking of renos, here’s some ‘done for now’ shots of the bar.

… and no, the taps are not hooked up.

I really don’t want to be . . . → Read More: More renos]]> I got fired up about doing some more work on the basement, so I thought I would start on the bar area. We are trying to save a bit of cash, so we’re going to reuse the existing bar, and paint out the bead-board, or wainscoting, or whatever it’s called.

I really don’t want to be spending a lot of time on this right now; It’s summer and I’ve got plenty of work to do outside, but I need to do something to get that space usable. We’ve decided just to get it working with plumbing, electrical, drywall done.

So I got all the rough ins done

(Yes, I know the sink is not properly vented, but I have to leave a surprise or two for the next owner don’t I? …mind you, I can fix that really easily with an AAV (Air Admittance Vent) or ‘cheater vent’)

and I got all the drywall up

But not before finding another present from the previous remodeller…

Seems it was too hard to run the power in the wall, so they just ran it along the baseboards. Awesome. I fixed as much as I can, but I am not ripping out the rest of that wall. I did remove another 2 feet of drywall, but there’s another 15 feet or so of wall I’m not touching. I wired it properly to a new plug that I placed in a better spot, and I’ll be building a bulkhead to cover in the HVAC and some more of the wire… from that point, I may be able to run the power through the sub-basement and fish it up to the rest of the outlets and fix it right. But for now, it’s staying as is. Oh, and they also walled in a clean-out for the plumbing stack. Nice.

We poured some floor leveller. $45 a bag… stuff is not cheap. I was surprised by how fast it went from really, really runny to not flowing at all… way sooner than I was expecting, and subsequently, I’m not totally happy with the results. Next time I’m adding more than the recommended amount of water. Sure, it will weaken the final product, but not sure by how much… I’ll let you know. Mind you, I was pouring a very thin layer, so perhaps that’s why it didn’t flow right. Any tips for next time would be appreciated!

Once I had the rough counter top in, I hooked up all the plumbing… was just planning to cut in the sink, but figured I better check if my poorly vented sink actually drained (it’s about 7′ away from the vented stack) … and it works pretty good… no backup/slowness at all.

I was going to get oak plywood, to match the rest of the oaky-ness of the bar, but at $80 a sheet, I thought it would be cheaper to go with rough 3/4 then get some veneer…. but adding up that cost (after the fact) it would actually be more expensive. lol nice. Soooo we are just going to sand down the rough plywood and stain/finish that… or put on tiles or something else… Apparently I’ll spend a dime to save a nickel… or however that saying goes.

Wifey got tired of hearing my bitch about not having a table saw, so she bought me one for my b-day! It’s awesome. The stand that it came with folds up into a wheeled cart, so it’s a breeze to set up, tear down, and move that saw around. All of the accessories (rip fence, blade guard, etc) have a spot to clip into and stow securely during transport. It’s got a port for dust collection, so I plugged the shop vac hose in the back of it, and there was almost no dust from the cuts. Awesome awesome.

So ‘part one’ of the bar is wrapping up… we’re just going to put a finish on the counter top, add some flooring, and move in the fridge. It’s a bit ‘out of sequence’ but I really don’t want to start mudding and taping now… especially since I don’t have the ceiling done, nor do I have the bulkheads done… and that is far more work than I’m willing to do now. We’ll use it as is, then once I can’t work outdoors anymore, I’ll get back into the drywalling and finish up the basement.

…and also why you should follow the recommended procedure for hooking up more than one baseboard heater to a single thermostat. Hint: this is the wrong way.

We’re doing major renos… we’ve added a furnace/AC and now I’m pulling all the electric heat out. I’m also . . . → Read More: Well, there’s your problem!]]> This is why you don’t bury junction boxes in walls and ceilings…

…and also why you should follow the recommended procedure for hooking up more than one baseboard heater to a single thermostat. Hint: this is the wrong way.

We’re doing major renos… we’ve added a furnace/AC and now I’m pulling all the electric heat out. I’m also ripping out the old wiring. You sure can tell where the homeowner (or a crappy, unlicensed contractor) tied into the original. I’ve found hidden junction boxes all over the place. This one was in the ceiling of the basement, right under one of the bedrooms. As we’ve got a gas insert fireplace down stairs, we’ve never really used the electric heat there… good thing too… looks like it wasn’t far from starting a fire in the joist space.

So many WTF moments in this place… the electrical is the worst. No; Actually all the spiral nails is the worst. I’ve never seen drywall attached with spiral nails before… and nailed every 3-4 inches. Brutal, but the electrical is a very close second place. There were 34 lights/plugs on one 15A breaker… the entire finished basement… (12 is the max by code.)

good times

…ok, I can’t get embed to work right… I’ll try to figure it out one day. Edit: Just needed to disable the WYSIWYG editor… should be . . . → Read More: Sump pump install.]]> I somehow got started uploading crap to youtube…

…ok, I can’t get embed to work right… I’ll try to figure it out one day.
Edit: Just needed to disable the WYSIWYG editor… should be good now.