Shades of Florida. This is an old bike painted up to indicate where bicyclists are supposed to park. I don’t know about elsewhere, but this type of blue bicycle is common in Ft. Lauderdale. Possibly because I’ve never ridden a bicycle elsewhere? Note it has to be chained up itself. Make that really, really dark shades of Florida.
I should go easier on myself. My resistor circuit was correct but probably with mismatched components, which is precisely the kind of thing I’m out to learn. While I have no schematics for what I want, at least I found several warnings not to connect diodes in parallel, and that each diode should have its own resistor. I learned that soon after I burned up my first LED. And I’m building a permanent 5V power supply. The transformer is from an old 15V cell phone. I designed the wiring early this morning. I have all the components except a switch, which are proving to be damn expensive gizmos. The switch is necessary so one does not have to bend down and unplug the power transformer or risk a short by removing the alligator clips. My clips are intentionally on different lengths of wire to minimize those chances.
I just wish there was some way to turn off the transformer itself, as it uses power even in idle mode, and I’m still on batteries here. Actually battery, not batteries. I kept the original from my first stage DVD player in 2007. Thus it was brand new when I recruited it for circuit work, and keeps a charge an amazing 60 hours.
While I have not yet decided to publish the log of the circuits I’ve built (there is no log for those not physically built), the effort of keeping track got me to thinking about e-book again. What I need to know is can I put my own files into an e-book and carry them with me? Or am I obligated to use a format only available from the e-book manufacturer at a cost? Oddly enough, not one of the specification sheets that I read on these devices answered this simple question. What’s that smell?
The one person I asked who was using an e-book did not have a clue what I was talking about, as if it was a given (she had that “of course you idiot” look on her) that one bought pdf files from the Internet, you did not create and upload your own. If I can display my own files, may I then sell my work to others directly, or must I go through an outfit I detest, like Amazon? And if I can’t do any of the above, billions await the person who makes it so. They’ve already done it, calling it a laptop, but you know what I mean.
What’s more, I need a camera that will take close-ups, at least of the breadboard projects. The limit of being able to describe the circuits was quickly reached, now I need something worth a thousand words. I’m cautious as I already have too many things around here that I use only occasionally. This is a phenomena of anyone who works from home: you get things piling up that aren’t exactly shown in Homes & Gardens. It is now 8:30 AM and I’m going to Dunkin.
This afternoon was library time. Now we know there are no decent local electronic clubs, only “memberships” run by parts retailers. I met a guy, Dave-P, who is an inventor type. He’s got this idea that I would build for him in a second if I had the skill. There are various construction jobs that require constant referrals to blueprints. Or how about the guy who goes around with the plumbing stakes, that’s a waste of good time. Dave-P has invented a way to shave about four days off the average housing plans.
Anyway, I bought a Ryobi 18V skill saw from him for $4.00. For anyone who is curious, my hobbies cost me around $90 per month, or about half what a beer-drinker spends just stopping in for a couple every day. It is nonsense to think I’m spending money that should be allocated for other things. Anything is better than wasting that much every month on cable. My hobbies save me money, and in some cases (like music) make money. I talked to the Radio Shack guys about forming a club, not so much for fraternity, but to share ideas and more importantly, expensive tools.
Right how, I have no fancy tools, not even a drill press. Every idea I get is solitary unless I publish. A club would make it much more rewarding. For instance, here is something probably nobody but me could come up with. Most projects built in a box benefit from having those little rubber feet, and with electronics, they are an added layer of insulation on the chassis. Those little sheets of cork or rubber peel-off feet are, how to say this, useless beyond description. The screw in type means boring a hole. Now imagine in my mind’s eye as I remember those steel pegged rubber tips for lady’s spiked heels. . . .
Here’s another. I found a free piece of Swedish software that converts your computer’s sound card microphone input to an oscilloscope. Now that’s the kind of information that is the opposite of gossip because it does more good as it spreads. Joke of the day. What do you get when you play New Age music backwards? Answer: More New Age music. Say, I just got an idea about the 12-bar blues.
I sang Karaoke with Laura tonight, a decent show of it in front of people who could not care less. Despite the distractions of bingo, I managed to memorize the value codes for capacitors, which are not at all as complicated as they claim. It is typical for literature to state the Farad is such a large unit that nano- and micro- Farads are the norm. Apparently nobody was clever enough to ignore the physical measurement and name the Farad after the most practical units. The same principle could handily apply to the dollar. Just shift the decimal point and forget about what principle is violated. Hey, Canada does it all the time (name things for other than practical concerns).
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