29 JUNE 2013
Earlier this year I ordered a Landrover Defender Replacement HD (heavy duty) crossmember from blacksheepcrossmember.co.uk to replace the rear crossmember on my Defender which was rusting fairly badly on each end due to the...
19 JUNE 2013
Now we are doing a lot more work with static sensitive devices we decided it was time to update our workbench with an ESD antistatic mat and wrist straps to try to ground any static electric build-up before it can damage...
10 JUNE 2013
I have now finished working on the mobile app for the Raspberry Pi controlled central heating controller. This is following from the www.briandorey.com/post/XBee-Central-Heating-Control-via-Raspberry-Pi blog post which detailed...
06 JUNE 2013
It has now been just over 12 months since we installed our Raspberry Pi solar data logger system on the house and it has been uploading temperature readings, battery voltage and current readings every minute, 24 hours a day,...
31 MAY 2013
After another cold winter driving our Landrover Defender 90 we decided to try to insulate the roof and exposed side panels in the vehicle and try to track down an annoying water leak which caused water to build up above the...
31 MAY 2013
Our solar thermal hot water system has now been installed for 12 months and has given a good saving on our annual gas bills with the summer gas usage being almost 80% lower than previous years.
A recurring problem with the...
28 MAY 2013
Following a recent update to the new BlogEngine 2.8 version it seems that some of the blog posts have vanished and didn’t transfer to the new system correctly.
I have been able to recover some of the posts but...
18 MAY 2013
After struggling for some time using homemade stencil holders and bits of tape to hold the stencils down we decided to buy a commercial stencil holder. Most seemed to be around the £2000 mark and only take large framed...
05 MAY 2013
A few weeks ago I ordered a pair of “20W 1600Lm LED Garden Outdoor FloodLight 85-265V Pure White Wall WashLights” at £35 each to replace the pair of 150W halogen outdoor lights in the back garden. The seller...
29 APRIL 2013
I had been looking for a Kent hand key from eBay for some time as I plan to try to learn CW (Morse) to use with my Yaesu FT817 on the HF bands. As the Kent keys are around £100 new I thought that a used one would be a good...
28 APRIL 2013
The factory fan on my 2 year old Apple ATI Radeon HD 5870 1Gb Graphics Card finally failed last week after over 8 months of rattles and worsening noises before finally stopping and the graphics card getting a bit warm!
As...
14 APRIL 2013
Following from the Arduino pick and place update blog post video and Automatic component feeders post we have now completed the first version of the Android tablet control software which uses bluetooth to communincate...
01 APRIL 2013
Below is a photo overview of how we make our own PCB’s using a UV box and developing the boards.
Disclaimer: Wear appropriate safety equipment when handling chemicals and when using UV boxes and lights. Don’t...
27 FEBRUARY 2013
The basic Chinese Vacuum Pickup pump we have been using on the DIY pick and place machine has been giving us problems with its lack of suction when handling larger SOIC components and didn’t hold them still when moving...
27 FEBRUARY 2013
Following from the Automatic component feeders DIY pick and place Part 1 post we have now redesigned the Y axis which pushes the activation arms on the Panasonic component feeders to use a new leadscrew from Reliance...
10 FEBRUARY 2013
Since upgrading our solar charge controller to a MPPT model we lost the facility for the charge controller to shut down the inverter when the battery voltage dropped too low. This resulted in a few days when the battery voltage...