As we’re trying to set out to custom-cast resin figures i’ve built a one-evening-hacked vibration table as a first step for (hopefully!) successful room-pressure casting.
Quick
Simple selfmade Ramen, take one!
A little while ago i’ve set out 
to create simple yet tasty ramen which could be cooked in (almost) any western (especially german) kitchen. As some unsuccessfull experiments showed this wasn’t too easy.
I’ve also burdened me with some constraints – it should require as little “active chef time” as possible. There are some things you can’t change, amongst them that a good broth needs time to simmer. The second was that i’ve tried to use as few “exotic” ingredients as possible.
The result, which can be seen to our left, is neither great nor bad – but its a good start, not too pricey as well as not too complex.
PulseAudio for analog/spdif hell – so simple, yet you have to know…
When it comes to a flexible audio setup Alsa starts to suck … hard. If you want output mainly on S/PDIF (be it optical or coax), automatically upmixed to 5.1, then encoded to A52 so your receiver will eat it, but sometimes your general AC3-passthrough 5.1 movie, sometimes maybe even output to your regular analog output … then its quickly becoming clear that ALSA is basically a driver framework, and not a end-user audio application. I found that most audio middlewares i’ve known sucked quite hard: Jack is too unuseable, arts or phonon never did their job, esound is kind of … dead. So what’s left? PulseAudio is left! Its setup seems very quirky to firsttime users and if you come with some strange distro-configuration (*cough*ubuntu*cough*) you may want to throw it against your wall … but actually its super flexible and nice.
If you have a similar setup to mine – read on!
Quick: Custom sprayed shirt for a mustang fanboy
This is gonna be a real quick post since we haven’t had the time to document the process nicely as the deadline for this gift was really tight (few hours Oo). A friend really loves Ford Mustangs and always wanted to buy a old heap of scrap and make it run again … well, we … Read more
DIY Ebook-Reader Cover (and how to choose a good ereader!)
I’ve always wanted a own EBook-Reader to read, well, mainly manga – the Sony PRS-650 Eefi’s got is just gorgeous, it has all features that you can wish for in a good reader, everything in the firmware is just right – it’s (speed)-optimized till the end, eats next to no battery (i suspect this is not some “general purpose” OS but a highly specialized firmware), the hardware is appropriately fast, very rugged and well-built – no gaps and whatnot to see!
If you want a Ebook-Reader just as good at a lower price you’re gonna suffer – here are my experiences…
PicPost: Headphones Amplifier
Since a long time i wanted to check out DIY Amplifier design and building (see http://ideas.kanojo.de/ for a rough timeline oO). As a first-tryer i opted for a Headphones amp as a friend is a real HighEnd-Headphones fanatic and well … it’s simpler and cheaper – you don’t need large capacitors, big heatsinks, uber-powersupplies … all nice n tiny.
The Amplifier itself is a TexasInstruments TPA1517NE Class-AB Amplifier that is driven at a voltage of 18V (to be able to supply a reasonable signal for high-impedance (600ohms) headphones. The Schematic is almost the application note except for enlarged output capacitors to lower the cutoff frequency of the output-filter. Both powersupply and amp reside on on PCB.
The casing is made from 15mm Multiplex, routered at the edges. The volume-control knob is also routered from the same 15mm MPX material. The edges are routered along with 45*
Buuut, as this is a picpost, here they come:
Wooden Drinholder for cult drinks
As another birthday of a friend came up and we stood there with not even the slightest idea of what might make a good gift we had to get a little creative – first came the idea of collecting some nerdy and culty drinks (non-alcoholic, i think in this respect non-alcoholic has way more style) and well, give him a set of cool drinks. Next were some thoughts about how to package it and well, while thinking about some cardboard setups to pack it up the idea for this wooden drink holder which can be dual-used as a drinkholder shelf.
See the pictures below for the whole drink collection as well as the drinkholder and both put together :P.
(some building details inside!)
MiniPost: This is how election works in soviet germany
This was found on the open streets for a regional election in soviet germany, near where we live!
New HiFirama, Black Beauty
Yay for another cool HiFi Project – a mini-monitor using the MarkAudio “cheapo Series”, CHR-70 which benifits from the design- and production experience MarkAudio has from it’s larger brothers but is made with budget considerations in mind – so in short it’s a modern, well-designed and manufactured “mid-budget” speaker which performs just great! The cases are Teak-veneered MDF, the design is a GHP (“Geschlossen mit HochPass” -> Closed with HighPass Cap) design from a HiFi-Forum (german board) member which was influenced by the “GHP” concept of a german HiFi-magazine…
