What's on the Workbench?
Every day I will try to take a picture of my workbench and post it, along with details of
the current projects. After 5 days (or pics) I will archive them and set up a link to the history.
See the history by date...
See the archive for 3/3/99-3/19/99 Building the Four Star 40 and installing the Macs smoke system.
Or just go directly to the project you want info on.
Building the Four Star 40 The Macintosh Fishtank
Installing the Macs Smoke system
Today's picture for 5/16/99
5/16/99 Well I'm getting settled into my new house somewhat. The picture today is of the
new workbench! I picked it up for 35 bucks from my old office. It's got a drawer and a power strip
all along the back. The shelf has a large lamp attached. Right now everything is a totals mess, I
have not had time to get everything in its place yet. I wanted to grab a couple of pics of the new
smoke system (hopefully a working one), but the camcorder seems to be busted. Luckily the warranty
runs out on 5/5 so I have just enough time to take it back. There is no recording, and I don't have
a A/V cable that would reach the bench. The image still comes through on standby, so I snapped the
shot from my new computer desk. I talked to the folks at Ramsey yesterday. They informed me that I had
indeed recieved an older revision of the kit. They are upgrading the components for me for free, and
fixing the problem. It seems that the I/C that controlls the signal to the crystal was a dud. I was
afraid I may have messed something up, but they assured me I did a great job and the kit looks fine.
(no image, sorry)
3/24/99 I've been very busy, getting ready to move and get a new job. I was able to test the
smoke system on the Four Star; the results were less than desireable. No billowing smoke. When the
smoke line is removed from the muffler smoke fluid pours out, but there might be too much pressure
for it to flow when it is connected to the engine. Connecting a empty fuel bulb to the pressure line and
squezing produces an impressive cloud of smoke. I connected the check valve on the smoke line near
the engine and a small amount of smoke is produced. I am going to try a small pressurized resivoir
(likely PVC) with a tire valve and fitting for the pressure line. Hopefully I can get some fluid into the muffler
that way. The micro video camera works, but the transmitter does not. I've checked it over a bunch of
times and everything looks ok. I am going to send it back to Ramsey. I think I either fried a component
or the crystal is bad.
3/20/99 Today I got my kits from Ramsey Electronics
for the color micro video camera, micro video transmitter, and camera interface. Picture "A" shows
the completed interface, basically A/V outputs for the camera. It's a simple project; it only took a few
minutes. Picture "B" shows the transmitter board on the vise. I put a beer cap in there so you could see
how small this board is. The more beer caps I get the smaller the board looks to me! The board is all SMT
and very hard to work on. Picture "C" shows the bench. You can see that I have geared up for this project!
I have a PCB vise, a Luxo magnification lamp, a 10x Bausch&Lomb handheld illuminated microscope, Loctite 348
chipbonder SMT glue, and some tiny soldering irons. Luckily the company I work for is closing a huge SMT plant
and I am reaping the benefits for a low price!
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