The Guardian had an interesting article entitled “The need to protect the internet from ‘astroturfing’ grows ever more urgent“. As one who used to co-lead a very large internet forum, we used to laugh at some of the lame attempts at astroturfing (they were easy to detect). The big deal is that over time, such [...]

continue reading.....

Here is the block diagram for the long wave IR theremin design. A full size expanded version is available by clicking the image. IR Sensor Discussion The IR sensors are an array of thin film Bismuth-Antimony thermocouples surrounded by Xenon gas. Active junctions in the center of the detector receive radiant energy through a thin [...]

continue reading.....

The detector mounts are ready to roll but the it is getting more than a bit cold outside, so here goes the theory of operation and block diagram section. A simplified view of the long wave IR detector is shown in figure 1. The background radiation is ever present, and the detector is mounted in [...]

continue reading.....

The traditional theremin used a couple oscillators, a reference one, and another one was controlled via physical proximity. The difference frequency between the oscillators was then sent to an amplifier, whose volume was controlled by yet another set of oscillators. In the 1920′s such an instrument was no doubt difficult to build. In our time [...]

continue reading.....

Broken studs can be a real nightmare, even more so because more often than not, they end up in locations where its near impossible to get at. The traditional approaches of drilling out the stud, and then using an ez-out or other broken stud extraction tool often fail. Sometimes they mere strip out, which inevitable [...]

continue reading.....

The case of an inadvertent transformer winding… A new large turbogenerator in a UK power station was designed to have its 20kA three-phase output busbars split either side of one of its support pillars, because of a lack of space. The support pillars were steel, part of a steel framework, and created a single-shorted turn [...]

continue reading.....

One of the headaches of dealing with high temperature materials, is not that they are not available, but more so, that its often impossible to buy them in non-oem (original equipment manufacturer) quantities and/or lead times. However, if one steps back a bit, and looks not so much at the oem world, but the mro [...]

continue reading.....

I came across the following from Home Shop machinist and it looks to be a really cool tool for identifying aluminum alloys. Granted, I have yet to verify this myself… on the other hand, the author very much seems to know what he is talking about based upon other threads. Rather than using the image [...]

continue reading.....

I’m getting a lot of hits on the flash dryer post, so I figured I better get rolling on the articles I stated I’d be working on. First off, I want to take on the safety aspect, as usually in the DIY realm, this is where the biggest deficiencies exist. There are four main things [...]

continue reading.....

The Nissan Consult interface is pretty cool, and even cooler is all the diagnostic functionality provided… there are provisions for all sorts of automated tests, and even better, the data is out in the public, rather than hidden away. Unlike ODB-II, Consult albeit older provides for actual diagnostics and the ability to change values, rather [...]

continue reading.....