What's everyone working on?

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jwax
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Re: What's everyone working on?

Post by jwax »

Oh, I see! What we have here are a couple of Marines, I'd bet!
See, us Air Force guys will use a scope because IT'S EASIER TO SHOOT ACCURATELY! Our Marine brethren prefer to make it difficult, right? :D
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Mike6158
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Re: What's everyone working on?

Post by Mike6158 »

My Dad was Airforce. Both of my sons are Airforce :D I was almost Airforce but I decided to continue to work with my Dad. Good choice but I think that I would have liked the military. <p>Gotta love the Marines though. Nothing wrong with the Army and Navy either. It's all good.<p>I went out to Vandenburg to see my youngest son graduate from ALCM and CALCM maintenance school. I figured they would be working on some high tech doo dads. Nope. I was the only parent at the graduation (I thought that sucked) so they treated me pretty good. The instructor took me back to show me the diagnostic tech gear for cruise missiles. It was brand new... In the 70's :D The "software" for each test routine was loaded off of a big 12" diameter optical disk. Good stuff as my son says.<p>My oldest took me on a tour of the AC130H and AC130U. He's an H model electrician or at least he's working on it. I figured the flight deck would be all glass and high tech. Nope. Looked like like a souped up Cessna console with a few extra levers (4 engine throttles, 4 prop controls, etc) for the engines and a few extra "go shoot-em buttons for the 20mm, 40mm, and 105mm guns. There were other goodies (FLIR, radar, fire control radar) but none were super glitzy. They were working machines and they sound cool as h e double toothpicks when they are working. Well... as long as they aren't working on you I guess they sound cool. :D
"If the nucleus of a sodium atom were the size of a golf ball, the outermost electrons would lie 2 miles away. Atoms, like galaxies, are cathedrals of cavernous space. Matter is energy."
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philba
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Re: What's everyone working on?

Post by philba »

Mike, my Dad was a lifer in the USAF. He drove C141s as well as C124s and, gasp, C47s. I can't recommend being a military dependent - I was in 4 high schools in 4 years. He wanted me to serve but I just couldn't bring myself to do it. Glad I didn't. heh heh.
pboese
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Re: What's everyone working on?

Post by pboese »

I'm working on a USB coders cable for the Dreamcast. This cable allows transfering files and programs to the Dreamcast at 1.56M baud. Here's a picture of the latest revision.
Image<p>There's a thread about it on a homebrew/developers game console forum here: ConsoleVision Developers Cafe. It's been a fun project. I learned alot. It the first time I used CAD tools to capture a schematic and layout a board. I started with the tools from expressPCB, but later tried Eagle. Eagle was harder to learn but the results are worth the effort.
The Dreamcast is not dead
Mike6158
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Re: What's everyone working on?

Post by Mike6158 »

<blockquote><font size="1" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">quote:</font><hr>Originally posted by philba:
Mike, my Dad was a lifer in the USAF. He drove C141s as well as C124s and, gasp, C47s. I can't recommend being a military dependent - I was in 4 high schools in 4 years. He wanted me to serve but I just couldn't bring myself to do it. Glad I didn't. heh heh.<hr></blockquote><p>I wasn't born until my dad got out of the USAF. He built gas processing plants for a living by the time I came along. We travelled all over. The shortest time that I was in a school was 3 hours :D Something about the guy running the job that he didn't like so we went to another one. The longest was 3 years. I can relate.
"If the nucleus of a sodium atom were the size of a golf ball, the outermost electrons would lie 2 miles away. Atoms, like galaxies, are cathedrals of cavernous space. Matter is energy."
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dacflyer
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Re: What's everyone working on?

Post by dacflyer »

as a few of you may have noticed,i am working on building my 217 led clock..its simelar to the big ben , but made from off the shelf IC's...no programming needed..and more basic,,no bells and whistles..just a neet looking thing..anyway i been working on it all year..hoping to have it done soon...cannot afford to have the circuit board made..so i am point to point building it..
i'd post a foto or 2 here...but i too do not know how to post fotos here...
anyway i'll keep you all posted. TA TA!
Engineer1138
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Re: What's everyone working on?

Post by Engineer1138 »

Home: trying to build a tiny furnace heated by a carbon arc (reading the welding machine thread with interest!). Yes, I'm taking appropriate safety precautions.<p>Work: writing software for a complex medical instrument to control dozens of motors, pumps, pneumatics, etc. Fun stuff.
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jwax
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Re: What's everyone working on?

Post by jwax »

Engineer- got me curious! What's the carbon arc furnace going to do (besides get hot! :) )?
Do you have a specific use in mind?
I built an infrared furnace, controlled reducing atmosphere, with two focused IR lamps. It was for brazing some stainless parts together. Small parts- 3/8" dia., with brazing rings in between, peaked at 400C or so.
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Engineer1138
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Re: What's everyone working on?

Post by Engineer1138 »

jwax: its primary purpose is to get hot ;) <p>Actually I started out building a charcoal furnace and was able to melt and cast aluminum. Just on a lark I began researching arc furnaces and decided to try to build a tiny, well insulated one so I wouldn't need too much power. <p>I really just want to see how high a temperature I can create. I figure if I can make glass, then I've accomplished all I set out to do.<p>But that arc is BRIGHT. Glad I bought that welding glass.
JKMADSCI
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Re: What's everyone working on?

Post by JKMADSCI »

Im working on using a pic 16f684 as a generic control circuit. I have a board with an lcd,pic and an op amp. Using the 2 atd's on the pic i can control the pwm signal out for voltage or current control. Working with double bytes is so hard i cant speak to humans anymore.<p>Last year i used a bs2 to make a fully functional battery charger, discharger, tester.
i can write in basic and still speak to humans
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dacflyer
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Re: What's everyone working on?

Post by dacflyer »

update on my led clock,,,bench tested the circuit board for my led clock,,test passed...just now need to wire up the display of 217 leds in matrix fashion...i hope i am finished before new years :D
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philba
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Re: What's everyone working on?

Post by philba »

<blockquote><font size="1" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">quote:</font><hr>Originally posted by dacflyer:
update on my led clock,,,bench tested the circuit board for my led clock,,test passed...just now need to wire up the display of 217 leds in matrix fashion...i hope i am finished before new years :D <hr></blockquote><p>you doing that by hand? I think I'd get a board made.
Mike6158
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Re: What's everyone working on?

Post by Mike6158 »

Ah ha... someone that might know something that I've been thinking about lately :D I found a circuit for a scrolling led sign over a month ago. The led's are wired in "matrix fashion" I don't remember seeing a wiring diagram for the led's. I've been out of town for almost 2 weeks and I didn't have access to the site. So, I've been thinking about the led's and how they could have been wired. For the life of me I can't figure out how one would wire led's so that each one could be controlled by two outputs. The circuit that I found was for a 7 x 10 matrix. The cathodes were sinked via (10) transistors and a 4017N and the anodes were sourced by (10) outputs from a 74HC14N and a resistor. I guess "wire" isn't the right term... Whatever it's called I can't get it in my head how the guy that designed the thing was able to do what he did.
"If the nucleus of a sodium atom were the size of a golf ball, the outermost electrons would lie 2 miles away. Atoms, like galaxies, are cathedrals of cavernous space. Matter is energy."
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frhrwa
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Re: What's everyone working on?

Post by frhrwa »

small target, great distance, good shooting!... I shoot the center out of a dime at 75 yards without breaking the outside ring.. with a 22 open site.. dad always called it the boys gun..<p>
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Mike6158
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Re: What's everyone working on?

Post by Mike6158 »

<blockquote><font size="1" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">quote:</font><hr>Originally posted by wayne:
small target, great distance, good shooting!... I shoot the center out of a dime at 75 yards without breaking the outside ring.. with a 22 open site.. dad always called it the boys gun..<p>Indian defintion of Vegetarian... "Bad Hunter"!<hr></blockquote><p>I wasn't impressed until I read "open site". That's definitely good shooting :D
"If the nucleus of a sodium atom were the size of a golf ball, the outermost electrons would lie 2 miles away. Atoms, like galaxies, are cathedrals of cavernous space. Matter is energy."
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