Solidworks Tip

Posted: June 20th, 2014 | Author: | Filed under: Tips | Tags: , | Comments Off on Solidworks Tip

Tip of the day : when dimensioning to a circle in a sketch, if you hold down the shift key it will dimension to the circle edge, instead of the (default) center of the circle.


The Humble Breadboard

Posted: June 20th, 2014 | Author: | Filed under: Blog, writings | Comments Off on The Humble Breadboard

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NOTE:  This is the part of an experiment I’m doing on the blog. I’m not sure what the experiment is but I think it will involve more words in the postings than usual.

A big shout-out today to the humble electronics prototyping breadboard. Like many things I use regularly (like coffee), it is something I easily take for granted (unlike coffee). But consider life without it. Ok fine, life in the BIG picture wouldn’t be that different. But for the very small community that cares about such things its a big deal.

Did you know — that the breadboard is so named because “back in the day,” people used actual wood bread cutting boards to lay out experimental electronic circuits? Circuit diagrams would be pasted or drawn on the wood surface, and circuit components would be screwed down and wired together as the project developed. What we know today as the electronics breadboard, with its power buses at the outer edges and the numbered rows of terminal holes, was designed by Ronald J. Portugal of EI Instruments Inc. in 1971.

When I was a kid (maybe 8 or 10) I used these all the time. I would hole up in my room with breadboard, Forrest M. MimsElectronics Workbook   (Perhaps Radio Shack’s greatest contribution to the world) and a pile of wires and components. I would spend hours putting together circuits that would occasionally work (I particularly remember my disappointment at a failed touch switch circuit). LED arrays were pretty new then, so “digital” timers were one of my favs. Eventually, though, I got caught shoplifting resistors and IC’s one too many times and was sent to boarding school (where my only attempt at electronics resulted in blowing the dorm’s fuses). My relationship with the breadboard was put on hold for 10 years or so. During which time I discovered computers.

Then, when I was in college, I majored in Electrical Engineering.  For our final project we had to build (in teams of 3) a working computer out of standard 7400 series chips and a stone-age microprocessor the name of which I forgot long ago. It interfaced with a keyboard and monitor and all the electronics were contained in 3 briefcases filled with breadboard. Nothing fancy, no indestructible pelican cases or james bond type enclosures that would make geeks drool. They were just dirt-brown plastic boxy cases with power supplies and rows of breadboard built in. The kind of thing you’d see, well, nowhere really. The professor – one of the oldest in the department – gave each team their three cases, a stack of photocopied reference materials, and said “see ya in five months.” I don’t recall him being around much for help, either. Asking him questions during his infrequent office hours always seemed to leave me more confused than before. In the end our computer “kinda” worked (I believe the problem was our wires leading to the memory input buffer were too long and so our data “floated” too much before it could get locked into RAM) and I was too traumatized to do any electronics for another 10 years, when I started doing some work-related prototyping.

What made me think of this? Its pretty silly actually. I recently started following Adafruit on instagram and their pix are always so fine that I couldn’t resist when I saw a photo of one of their breadboard kits.

Plus I’m procrastinating from doing my drawings. Even though it’s a beautiful late Friday afternoon, I really should get back to work.

 


Linkssss

Posted: May 16th, 2014 | Author: | Filed under: Links | Comments Off on Linkssss

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I want to go here  : The Glacier Skywalk at  Canada’s Jasper National Park

These allen keys are pretty cool – shaped like keys – but what I really want to see is this : double ended allen keys that have metric & inch sizes on the two ends. So you always have the right size and never try the gamble of using the wrong type (thus stripping it)

I wish I could see this show:  Nowhere & Everywhere at the Same Time #2   – William Forsythe’s market space filled with hundreds of swinging pendulums. Too bad its in Brighton, England.

Nice video of Adam Savage fabricating a quick-access Leatherman holster from some aluminum sheet metal. Nice thing is – it was a remake of something he made long ago, and its kind of sweet to see him going through the same design process as the rest of us – trial & error / running into unexpected problems & finding quick solutions. The final result isn’t what he wanted either – as it often the case for all of us who try to make.

Wanna make something cool out of wood but don’t have anything to measure with: Here’s everything you need in one fancy box : Lee Valley’s Veritas Marking & Measuring Kit. So nicely organized and clean looking….  ( It would surely all end up dirty & scattered among many bags & drawers in no time if it were mine!)

 


Today at Nine Stories Furniture

Posted: April 24th, 2014 | Author: | Filed under: Blog | Comments Off on Today at Nine Stories Furniture

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My friend Andrew of Nine Stories Furniture has added a cool page with day-to-day pix of his shop work. I always like to see whats going on in there, so I’m pretty psyched!


Links

Posted: April 19th, 2014 | Author: | Filed under: Blog, Links | Comments Off on Links
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View from Jobsite – Midtown Manhattan

Video of a carpenter with no hands – he does all the work using only his feet. I love watching him use the grinder to sand the wood.

Volvo’s inflatable child seat concept  for cars – the deflated unit folds into its own backpack. Awesome… don’t know if they will actually sell them or if its just a proof of concept thing.

Early Jim Henson video of a robot – for an AT&T ad.

An awesome chandelier with glowing pickles hooked up to high voltage! While you’re at it you should check out the webpage of the folks who did this – Bompas & Parr. They seem to specialize in event planning & installations with food. Think Neon & Jello. Their images are gorgeous – and they have put together some incredible events/projects etc.

Photographers document NYC locations 10 years apart. Fom 2nd Ave Deli to a Chase bank. Alas.


Copper Wire Recycling

Posted: April 13th, 2014 | Author: | Filed under: Blog | Comments Off on Copper Wire Recycling

Found this great page over at Notcot with tons of truly beautiful photographs of a Russian foundry recycling old copper into beautiful, new spools of copper. Fantastic photos with descriptions  – my favorite is when the photographer notes that he melted a tripod while photographing the casting of metal blanks!  Also its interesting to see the second stage of refinement where all the metal blanks are hung in a giant electrolysis bath which separates the pure copper from impurities. (the page is written in Russian but my links are filtered through Google Translate)


Synergy – One Mouse to Rule Them ALL

Posted: April 8th, 2014 | Author: | Filed under: Blog | Tags: | Comments Off on Synergy – One Mouse to Rule Them ALL

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A LOT of my time these days is spent at the computer. I’ve got 2 computers I use side by side – a Macbook Pro and my new Dell desktop. Up until now had to use 2 different mice/keyboards for them which can get very frustrating. I’ve always wanted a “ONE Mouse (and keyboard)” solution. I tried some of the KVM cables that can connect peripherals from 2 computers together but I’ve found them a little buggy (slow to switch, and sometimes I get problems restarting my PC without the keyboard USB switched the correct way first).

Just the other day I was procrastinating and searching on the internet for a simpler solution – I was actually looking for a simple USB switcher – thinking that since the KVM switchers handle audio & video maybe a USB-only fix might work better.

But I found an even better way to fix the problem. SYNERGY. Its a software solution, and so far (I’ve used it for 3 days now) it is AWESOME. Since the keyboard and mouse are connected to the Dell, my PC is the “server” and the Mac is the “client”. If I’m working on my PC and I want to send off a quick email, all I have to do is move my mouse to the right and it appears on the screen of my Mac. Since the keyboard switches with the mouse, I can use my PC keyboard to type up a quick email, send it, and – with a leftward swipe of my mouse – I’m back in PC land.

So far the only issue I have is the control keys don’t work on the mac (command, option, control) – But I think I can fix that if I put some time into it – it looks like Synergy has some utilities to address that. It probably doesn’t help that I use a mac keyboard on the Dell (I just like the feel of an Apple keyboard) and I’ve had to remap some of the control settings so it works on the PC (using Sharpkeys).

I keep expecting some huge problem to crop up, but so far it is fantastic. Thanks SYNERGY!

 

 


Linkss

Posted: April 5th, 2014 | Author: | Filed under: Blog | Comments Off on Linkss

Good example of quick & dirty problem solving : Video of a restaurant fella Peeling apples with a cordless drill.

Funny Unhappy Hipsters blog. Helps put all that contemporary design and architecture into a more human frame of reference.

Cool Candle that melts into a whole new candle.

I like this new Night Light concept – LEDs built into receptacle coverplate : SnapRays Guidelight kickstarter page.

Thanks Andrew over at Nine Stories Furniture for posting a few pix of my recent site work (which he has been of great help with)

Love this Tool Snob Review of a rather alarming multi-tool marketed to truckers. He compares it to something you’d see wielded in The Road Warrior.

Spax fasteners. Love them – look at all the little tooths on the screws.


Lego Patent

Posted: March 26th, 2014 | Author: | Filed under: Blog | Comments Off on Lego Patent

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Love this image from Lego’s original patent. Signed Inventor: Godtfred Kirk Christiansen.

Hard to imagine LEGO was once a new idea.


Linkssss

Posted: March 26th, 2014 | Author: | Filed under: Blog | Comments Off on Linkssss

For some reason I started this post months ago but didn’t post it. Here it is

Learning from the future’s mistakes : Important project management lessons we can learn from Sci-Fi Movies

Plastic cars do it faster : Air Powered Lego Hot Rod

Why Sci-Fi writer Charles Stross wants Bitcoin to die in a fire

Where all the cool staircases hang out :  Stair Porn

Unrelated to work but interesting all the same : Police Mugshots from the 1920s

One of the tool review blogs I’ve found : Tool Snob