DrDestructo.com

Some time in the shop at long last

This past weekend I manged to spend some time in the shop. After cleaning things up a bit, I decided it was time to build some overhead shelves along a wall or two. I bought the melamine shelving, but both Lowes and Home Depot were out of the correct sized shelf brackets. I had some wood in the scrap box from an old broken-down pallet and though I'd make a nice set of shelf brackets from that. This is a shot of my inaugural use of the hollow chisel mortising attachment on my Shopsmith. Thanks Ante for this fantastic x-mas gift! A hollow chisel mortising attachment should be in every mans stocking next year. I cut the tenons by hand, but I wasn't sure about the 45 degree mortises.

My first son is on his way...

I've been here at the hospital since early last night. The pitocin drip is starting in the next few minuites. I should be a father in a few hours. Very excited. Watch http://schullerfam.blogspot.com or this space for updates.

Nokia 770

Well, I saved up a bunch of little on-the-spot-but-only-convertible-into-gift-card-bonuses and splurged on a Nokia 770. I've been reading forums and testing applications for about a week now. The verdict is in, this is one cool device. It has bluetooth and wi-fi built in, both with good software support. The display is quite impressive. Apart from a lack of SVG support and antiquated Flash 6.0, the browser is fantastic. It plays video and audio very nicely. There is a very good mplayer port with support for the 770's audio and video hardware, so it's possible to play video in the megabit bitrate range. Here is the kicker. Wait for it... USB host mode. This is pretty much unheard of outside of Laptops/UMPC devices. PDA's and such just don't have it. It's a bit of a hardware/software hack, but nothing I couldn't drum up with existing parts I had around in an hour or so. In fact, I spend more time in Fry's buying a USB flash drive (all of mine are on apparently permanent loan) than it did to get it working on the 770. Read on for more...

]]> The USB port on the 770 is a Mini-A Female port. Since it's designed for use as a client-only USB port, it isn't powered. A simple command (./flasher --enable-usb-host-mode) to enable the USB host mode in the driver combined with a power injector is all you need. The 770 expects power to the port as does the device you are connecting to it. I read several plans for power injectors. Although I was impressed, I'd already looked down the 9V + 7805 voltage regulator road. Not only do 9V batteries suck, you're waisting so much power with that regulator. I already had two of Ladyada's fantastic MintyBoost! kits assembled and in use. They've served me very well. I decided to convert one into a USB power injector for my 770. I'll get an instructable up as soon as my cameras get back from vacation with my Wife. The basic gist is this:

Sacrifice a cable with a mini-a male connector. Solder each of it's leads to the corresponding lead on the MintyBoost's USB connector. Plug your USB device into the MintyBoost port, and the new cable into the 770. Yes, it's that easy.

Watch dmesg for the device created for the USB device and then mount it up. I'll be looking into USB NIC's, keyboards and mice sometime in the next few weeks. I've successfully mounted and used a USB Flash drive and my iPod mini so far. I'll be doing a study on the cheapest high-capacity flash memory too. I can just connect a USB reader and get support for media types than the nobody-carries-it RS-MMC. And in capacities higher than 2GB to boot!

Campfire Back Warmer

This campfire back warmer looks really cool. I wonder how well it works?

Cool Robot Hand

What on Earth Catalog has a neat robot hand for sale for only USD $17!

PanaVise on Sale at Jameco

Jameco has a decent work vise on sale for $29.99.

iPhoto iMovie HD integration

I had some trouble getting iMovie to recognize any of the photos I had in iPhoto while playing around with the video camera Mariana gave me as an anniversary gift. I ended up having to delete all of my keywords as described in this thread.

Tools, tools, tools...

I came across the Toolmonger website while surfing in my hotel room in Boston. I found a few tools that I will likely be picking up. More after the break.

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I've never been good at making custom tools. In my two years of precision machining, I butchered more tool steel than I can count. That's why I turned to the good ol' CNC mill. I wasn't expected to grind my own end mills. Perhaps if there were decent tool rest on the grinders in the shop I might have had an easier time with it. You can be sure that once I have space for a bench grinder, I'll procure a Veritas Grinder Tool rest to compliment it.

Since the process of grinding involves chipping off tiny pieces of metal and flinging them at high speeds, safety goggles and a face shield are standard safety equipment. Standard face shields leave plenty of room for debris to fly in from the bottom. They do a decent job of protecting you from a direct hit, but leave an awfully big gap between chest and chin. They are cumbersome at best.

The Uvex Bionic Shield on the other hand is stylish and ergonomic.

After all of those flecks of metal and stone have bounced off your safety equipment, you're going to need to clean them up. Shop-vacs suck. I have a feeling that Dyson may have done it right. First of all, no cords. Get right up on the bench with it or back behind the bench grinder without having to buy a 12' vacuum tube.

I'm gonna be in Make!!!

Okay. My "reveiw" of the Sonicare Toothbrush was actually picked up by Make Magazine. It was featured in the TNT email newsletter and might even make it into Make volume 09. Hooooooooo!

Versatility of the Sonicare Toothbrush

I've been thinking for a long time about what a great cleaning tool my sonicare toothbrush might make. My first vision was cleaning flux from assembled PCBs instead of using an ultrasonic bath. I still haven't tried that, but I did get my money's worth cleaning something else.

Mariana and I tied the knot last October and as is the American tradition, our car was decorated. My crack team of groomsmen used some fluorescent paint on the windows to inscribe "Just Married" and other things on the windows. It all looked great. The paint was designed for glass and pretty much wiped right off. As we were getting into the car, Mariana wiped some off onto her dress and subsequently onto the passengers armrest. The armrest is textured to look like leather and since then I've had a fluorescent yellow patch there. I've had detailers and car wash folks try to get it out, but it wouldn't budge.

Sonicare to the rescue. 5 minutes with the toothbrush dipped in just water was all it took. If you're going to use this method on larger areas, I'd suggest having two small containers of water. One to rinse the head with, and one to get fresh, clean water from. I haven't tried using the brush with any sort of cleaning solution, but if you do be sure to use eye protection as the brush tends to fling the liquid in tiny droplets all over the place.

You have pick up a basic "Sonicare Essence 5300" from Aetna over the web. It's priced at $57.30 plus $9.50 for shipping and handling when you use the code "sonicare". Retail price seems to be about $80. Amazon has it for just under $70, so if you're going to do free shipping with them it might be worth it, especially if the Aetna deal goes away.

The essence seems to be perfect for cleaning since it's almost half the cost of the elite series without special brushing "features". If you don't use a sonicare toothbrush on your teeth, this might be the perfect opportunity to buy two. I really like the results.

As for me, I'll continue to use an old brush head with the base I already have until Mariana makes me stop.

More Cool Tools

This weeks Make TNT newsletter brought a few tools to my attention.
The Yankee Push driver looks very cool.

The good ol' brace is also a tool I would like to come by. A nice antique one would be even cooler than a modern plasticy tool.

An Inconvenient Truth

I'm no kook, but I have to say I've been re-motivated to take some more personal responsibility for the environment. Mariana and I saw An Inconvenient Truth and boy was it compelling. I'm always wary of spin, so I saw this movie with a fairly critical eye. I felt like Al Gore presented facts that added up to a very inconvenient truth indeed.

I've always had a fascination with alternative energy. My motivation came primarily from my wallet (free power!) and secondarily by feeling I would be sticking it to the man by finally making him pay ME to be connected to the grid. Both of these are still motivating factors, I now feel much more comfortable making the initial investment in a solar installation or similar sort of thing.

It also seems to me that there ought to be a way to get filthy, filthy rich from the changing paradigm. If the folks maintaining the status quot of the oil-driven economy are so keen on protecting it, there is sure to be tons of money behind toppling it. Enough for now. Recycle something, or better yet, reuse it.

The Versadriver

I saw this tool on the Make Blog and thought it was pretty neat. I'm always looking for a good, small versatile driver to carry with me. I wonder if I could fly with this? (http://countycomm.com/versadriver.htm)

Sonic.net, the best ISP ever

My wife and I recently moved about half a mile east to a new townhouse. Since I wanted to keep the same phone number, there was going to be a slight delay in getting my DSL service moved over to the new place. Some confusion lead to some issues. All is well now and I am now being served up fantastic access to the internet. Here's the feedback I gave Sonic.net:

Due to an incorrect address to phone number mapping on the SBC side, Sonic.net was initially incorrectly led to believe by SBC that DSL was unavailable at my new address. My first call to cancel service based on this information and my subsequent call asking you to double check were both handled with the utmost courtesy, respect and friendliness. On the very rare occasion I've had to contact your sales or support departments it has been a pleasure to deal with friendly competent folks who have always been able to solve my problem quickly. Between your excellent customer service and the fact that I get exactly what I pay for: fast, unfettered, unfiltered, unshaped access to the internet, I was almost brought to tears for the 10 minutes I thought I was outside of your service area. Thank you for being a bastion of freedom amongst an industry full of blundering knuckleheads. Keep up the great work!

If you live in the Bay Area, please sign up with them. They're great!

Biked to work today

Yepp, it's been a while since I've made an entry. I finally bit the bullet and rode my bike / the train to work and back today. I took the train from Downtown Campbell to Evelyn and Pioneer in Mountain View. That station is conveniently close to the Stevens Creek Trail, which in turn conveniently connects to the Shoreline trails. The trail head is about 2 minutes from my building and 3 minutes from building 10 with the showers. The down side is that it took me a little over two hours each way. I'm going to try and make the trek a few times a week still. Now that I more or less know where I'm going, I can speed up the biking a bit and pay less attention to what stop is coming and do some more reading on the train. Click for more...

]]> I never thought of my bike as huge until I tried to stand it on it's end in the middle of a train without knocking anyone (including myself) over while the train was moving. Also, it sticks way further out in the isle than the other bikes prompting some comical maneuvers as passengers try to squeeze between it and the folks seated across from it.

I have some issues with all the gear I have to carry too. I have two very nice German made waterproof panniers I spent more money on than I choose to admit. It was the dot com boom days though and that $100/hr I was raking in was going to make me rich. If only I had been able to consistently get more than 10 hours of work a month.

Anyhow, the panniers are stuffed to the brim with my laptop, magazines, clothes, a towel, toiletries, second hydration pack (for the trip home), etc, etc. That along with my soft shell, helmet, gloves and hydration pack it's all a lot to manage. It also takes up a full seat on the train. I think I might try to use the "shelf" behind the seats across from the bike rack next time. It's a lot of stuff to carry as you're trying to maneuver your bike into that pain in the ass rack.

Aside from managing it all while on the train, I also have to haul it all around with me. My bike is pretty heavy with all that gear strapped to it. I'm really used to being able to whip it around. Oh well.