Custom Motorcycle Creator Shinya Kamura.

Shinya Kimura from Adam Richards on Vimeo.

When he started this beautiful machine it sent shivers down my spine.

572B Breadboard Linear Amplifier

This is why HAMs are analog badasses.

The Amp Hour

Listening to the Amp Hour on an old Silvertone radio that a buddy of mine gave me.

New Device May Revolutionize Computer Memory

Traditionally, there are two types of computer memory devices. Slow memory devices are used in persistent data storage technologies such as flash drives. They allow us to save information for extended periods of time, and are therefore called nonvolatile devices. Fast memory devices allow our computers to operate quickly, but aren’t able to save data when the computers are turned off. The necessity for a constant source of power makes them volatile devices.

But now a research team from NC State has developed a single “unified” device that can perform both volatile and nonvolatile memory operation and may be used in the main memory.


Full Release

Railroad Gin Episode 4 "The Leaving of Liverpool"

Tetrad Transformers HighRes Photos

These are the Tetrad Transformers that I purchased at Apex. Like I stated before they are not the exact right values but I am going to try them out none the less.

Hackers Are People Too (Complete)

Altec 1566A Day One

So today was spent primarily in preparation for building. The bench was a true mess and needed to get cleaned up, but I have started work on the Pre. The output tube stage is complete it was just a few jumpers that needed to get wired up so not to bad very quick to do. Also now I know what parts I need to go out and get, and that the transformers that I picked up yesterday are not to speck of what I need. I am going to do some research and see if I am still able to use them, if not they were all of five dollars and I need to get a power transformer from APEX as well. The Primary windings are in the 250ohm range, which is not perfect, but it just means 100 ohms would load down the microphone? The Secondary is were the problem lies, its only 1.89k, which may be to low of an impedance for the tubes. Even if I ran both the Secondary in parallel I would still be 6k under the speck of the original.

Altec 1566A

Tomorrow I am going to start building an Altec 1566A.  I got the schematic form here.  I scored input and output transformers at APEX today hope they are the right values. They are made by Tetrad Co. Inc.

Input is a LEAR#91881  T 102
Output is a LEAR#91934 T 106
If anyone has anymore information on these transformers that would be great!

Ill keep the blog updated on progress. Also anyone want to start a Hacker/Maker space in Huntington Beach with me?

Tube Powered Flash-drive

I came across an image of a vacuum tube with a flash drive sticking out of it tonight and I thought to my self well my flash drive is stupid looking in its plastic black case so here it is. After breaking it out of its black case I realized that the flash drive its self is really small and would fit right over the pins of the tube so its just wedged onto the pins. Works great!

Steam Powered Bike

Via Hackaday.com

Usually we don’t like to feature projects that have zero build details, saving them instead for a links post. But this steam-powered bicycle is too… peculiar to pass up. In between the rider’s legs is the firebox that contains a wood-fueled fire. Watch the clip after the break and you’ll find just how noisy this contraption can be. In addition to the mid-range “chug-a chug-a” there’s also the constant whistle we’d attribute to the pressure regulator. It’s surprising that the whole bike doesn’t heat up, but it must not be all that bad since the test pilot isn’t wearing asbestos pants. All kidding aside, it looks like this beast has no problem getting up to a running pace (based on the movements of the camera) and that’s thanks to a renewable energy source.

We’d be much more comfortable seeing this in a mechanized tandem form factor since we just can’t get over having a fire between our legs.

Optigan Light

IMG_1717.JPG
Originally uploaded by ryanmac411

This is the light source for an optigan; an electronic keyboard instrument designed for the consumer market. The name stems from the instrument's reliance on pre-recorded optical soundtracks to reproduce sound. This photo was taken by my friend Ryan he had it for a short while before selling it on craigslist, at the time we did not know what it was so he let it go but for a profit and to someone that was going to fully restore it.

Reboxing

I built this pedal originally about a year or so ago now its two Zvex SHO in series with an in and out loop for each stage and well as volume control for each stage. When I orginally built this pedal I was off in some of my measurments so the loop functionality did not work do to the output jacks touching together. I wanted to try fix this problem as well as try out Frequency Central Layout that adds an additional 2N5457 into the circuit which gives an extra crunchy tone. While cleaning out some of my parts I found this extra enclosure that I had so I figured that now was the time to try it out. Still working on it currently but here are some pictures.

Laying out the box for parts:

Adding pots and switches to make sure everything fits and allow for easier soldering:

New circuit form Frequency Cental at the top in the center:

Power jack wired up ready to test out:

Happy New Years to All

Hope Everyone made it through the night safe. Anybody got any New Years resolutions? I know that I want to write more for the blog and share some cool projects that I'll be building. Going to be sending my MOTU back to the factory next week to get fixed so hopefully some more noise music to come as well as higher quality audio on youtube videos, especally now that I know how to use Logic with movies. Well I think that is it catch you all later!