I posted a couple of weeks back that I was soon to be the recipient of a new gigabit symmetric link to the intertubes – and there was a bit of a caveat of their use of CG-NAT due to the exhaustion of the IPv4 address space. To compensate I’ve
Everyone who reads this website will know about the cost of living crisis – this is a global problem brought about by the combination of the Covid-19 pandemic, and the unfortunate situation in Ukraine at the present time. For us in the UK, the costs of energy have skyrocketed in
For 90% of the time I’ve run this website, it’s been run from a server in my house, over a domestic-grade ADSL connection. The problem has always been the very asymmetric download/upload bandwidth provided by domestic ISPs. Normally it’s about a 10:1 ratio these days (the current connection is 350MBit
I’ve been looking for ways to build a DIY Laser Power meter for some time now, but I had no way to calibrate anything. I have been aware of DIY thermopile sensors with TECs – but no way to verify any results until now. Since I have my Gentec meter
Now the cell modules have been removed from their original home, it’s time to get them repurposed! A custom mounting board has been constructed from timber, and the modules mounted on them. To say this assembly is heavy would be an understatement – it’s barely a two-man lift! As assembled
Continue readingBMW 5 Series Battery Pack – Reconfiguring The Modules & Wiring
Here’s something I didn’t think I’d be doing! Here’s a teardown of a BMW 5 Series G30 530E Hybrid Battery pack – a monster 351V, 9.2kWh Lithium pack, obtained for it’s cells to replace the boat’s aging lead acids. This is something I didn’t have the safety gear to do
Since I do a lot of camping, and several festivals per year (when there isn’t a pandemic on!), I identified the need for a proper fridge that can be powered from my solar setup. Such fridges & coolers already exist, that run from either mains AC, 12/24v DC, and some
Continue readingUndercounter Fridge – Conversion for 12 Volt Use
Recently I found the need to do some measurements on 75Ω CATV equipment, only having 50Ω test equipment to use. For this, matching networks exist to convert 50Ω to 75Ω, but they’re fairly simple, so building them was a viable option. Above is the very simple schematic to create the
Since I inherited an old HP 8753C Network Analyser from work, I figured updating a few things to relatively modern standards would be good. The factory CRT, being 28 years old, is definitely getting a little tired, not to mention being slow to warm up. I read over on the
Since I fitted the new “8kW” diesel heater to the camping power trolley, it has occurred to me that there is a lot of energy in the exhaust gas stream that ordinarily would be wasted into the atmosphere. Since we’re all still on lockdown here in the UK, I figured
Continue readingCovid-19 Lockdown Projects – Extracting Diesel Heater Exhaust Waste Heat
This unit recently appeared on eBay, as a spare part from a refrigerant charging machine, and I figured it would make a good explorational post. This unit analyses the purity of R-134a refrigerant gas, using an Infrared sensor cell, and communicates over RS-232. The sensor cell itself is at the
Continue readingR-134a Refrigerant Analyser Module Exploration
So, it’s time to finish off the upgrades to the core storage server on my network. Now a new motherboard, CPU & RAM have been obtained (MSI GA-X58-USB3), Core i7 950, 12GB), along with new SAS/SATA HBAs for the disk rack I can get everything fitted into place. Proper branded
Continue readingTau-Volantis Storage Server – Upgrades Part 2
So I figured it was time to get a hardware update sorted for my network’s core storage server, which I have posted about before. The way I had the drives anchored to steel rails really doesn’t make moving or replacing disks easy, so a proper case needed to be sourced.
Continue readingTau-Volantis Storage Server – Upgrades Part 1
While we’re away camping, be it at a festival or general site, it would be nice to have a relatively efficient fridge to store food & drink in, so I set to work assessing the requirements. Commercially supplied 12/24v fridges are hella expensive – running between £450-£700 for even a
Continue readingFestival Power Trolley – Integrating a Fridge – The Condensing Unit
While I’m pretty happy with the Chinese diesel heater replacement for the old Eberspacher on the trolley, the stock controller leaves much to be desired. While functional, it’s fairly unresponsive, bulky & doesn’t allow external control as the Eberspacher did with it’s simple ON/OFF signal. So after a massive amount
Continue readingAfterburner Aftermarket Diesel Heater Controller Build
As part of the giant power bank that gets dragged to all my major camping trips & festivals, there is an old Eberspacher Diesel heater, a D1LCC from at first guess somewhere in the mid 90’s. At only 1.8kW heat output this is a little small for our current tent,
I figured it was about time I built another valve amplifier, and since I already had most of the required parts in stock, here it is! Above is the lid of a cake tin sourced from a local shop as a case, marked out & drilled for the valve sockets,
Here’s the CRT & it’s drive board removed from the main chassis. Nicely modular this unit, all the individual modules (radio, tape, TV), are separate. This is effectively a TV itself, all the tuner & IF section are onboard, unlike in other vintage units I’ve modified, where the tuner &
Now the trolley is pretty much built, some burn-in testing is currently underway before it’s first trial-by-fire at Download Festival. There are a couple of minor issues that have needed fixing, since everything is enclosed in a pretty tight box. The Eberspacher was the first point that needed sorting –
Since I do festivals every year, along with a couple of other camping trips if the weather is good enough, I’ve been taking equipment with me for years in flight cases to make things more comfortable. Things like a large battery to power lights & device charging, an old Eberspacher
Continue readingCamping Support Trolley – Some Build Progress
The Sterling charger we’ve had on board nb Tanya Louise since Feb 2014 has bitten the dust, with 31220 hours on it’s internal clock. Since we’re a liveaboard boat, this charger has had a lot of use while we’re on the mooring during winter, when the solar bank isn’t outputting
Continue readingSterling ProCharge Ultra PCU1210 Teardown & Repair
Since I do my own PCBs on a somewhat regular basis, I decided it was time to move to a more professional method to etch my boards. I have been using the cheap toner transfer method, using special yellow coated paper from China. (I think it’s coated in wax, or
Some time ago I posted about an ancient piece of EDA software called Stripboard Magic, which was made by a small British company by the name of Ambyr. I have been hosting copies of this now long-dead software for some time, as it still seems to be in popular demand
Cleaning, Replacement Parts & Reassembly The housing of the contaminated motor was left to soak in diesel for a few hours to loosen the grok, this has come very clean. I couldn’t have used a stronger solvent here – the magnets are glued in place in the steel housing, I
During the rebuild of the wheelchair motors for the support trolley, I found myself needing an accurate milliohm meter to test the armature windings with. Commercial instruments like these are expensive, but some Google searching found a milliohm meter project based around the Arduino from Circuit Cellar. Here’s the original