tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35246035919000625612024-03-05T22:52:15.842-07:00House of HacksHouse of Hacks presents videos on varied topics that may interest people with a "maker" bent. Episodes may be anything from project overviews to how-tos to tool reviews on topics ranging from woodworking to computer programming.Harley Pebleyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06610309768015904662noreply@blogger.comBlogger140125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3524603591900062561.post-9553107526854904682022-12-17T17:06:00.007-07:002022-12-17T17:21:58.961-07:00Build Your Own Binary Clock: Design Changes and Electronics Review (part 2)<iframe width="560" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/_Cl112lGBgw?rel=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>
<h3>Description</h3>
<p>Want to make an Arduino project a bit more complicated than blink? In today's episode of House of Hacks, Harley starts a project on how to make a binary clock. This project will use an Arduino and be presented in three parts. Today, the first part will be the overall design and software. In future videos, the second part will be building the circuit and getting it operational and the third part will be finishing it off with an enclosure.</p>
<h3>Additional resources</h3>
<p>If you want to build your own, here are the parts I used (all affiliate links):</p>
<ul><li><a href="https://amzn.to/3mkJEDY">Arduino Micro</a></li>
<li><a href="https://amzn.to/3j3gI1m">DS1307 Clock module</a></li>
<li><a href="https://amzn.to/3sy6E3q">Pack of 74595 chips</a></li>
<li><a href="https://amzn.to/37W77Db">LEDs</a></li>
<li><a href="https://amzn.to/3giOX32">Optical encoder</a></li>
<li><a href="https://amzn.to/3AXhQtj">Hook-up wire</a></li></ul>
<p>If you just want a commercially made one like I have, they’re available on Amazon: <a href="https://amzn.to/3eGXFVD">https://amzn.to/3eGXFVD (Affiliate link)</a></p>
<p>Arduino Foundations book: <a href="https://amzn.to/37WMV3U">https://amzn.to/37WMV3U (Affiliate link)</a></p>
<h3>Music licenses</h3>
<p>Music under Creative Commons License By Attribution 4.0 by Kevin MacLeod at <a href="http://incompetech.com">http://incompetech.com</a>.</p>
<ul><li>Intro/Exit: <a href="https://incompetech.filmmusic.io/song/3885-hot-swing">Hot Swing</a></li>
<li>Incidental: <a href="https://incompetech.filmmusic.io/song/4616-werq">werq</a> and <a href="https://incompetech.filmmusic.io/song/3800-george-street-shuffle">George Street Shuffle</a></li></ul>
<h2>Contents</h2><ul>
<li><a href="https://youtu.be/_Cl112lGBgw?t=0">0:00 Intro</a></li>
<li><a href="https://youtu.be/_Cl112lGBgw?t=22">0:22 Imagine, Design, Build</a></li>
<li><a href="https://youtu.be/_Cl112lGBgw?t=51">0:51 Welcome to the House of Hacks!</a></li>
<li><a href="https://youtu.be/_Cl112lGBgw?t=74">1:14 Project review</a></li>
<li><a href="https://youtu.be/_Cl112lGBgw?t=98">1:38 Arduino Micro specs</a></li>
<li><a href="https://youtu.be/_Cl112lGBgw?t=118">1:58 DS-1307 specs</a></li>
<li><a href="https://youtu.be/_Cl112lGBgw?t=152">2:32 I2C bus overview</a></li>
<li><a href="https://youtu.be/_Cl112lGBgw?t=197">3:17 74595 operation overview</a></li>
<li><a href="https://youtu.be/_Cl112lGBgw?t=347">5:47 Miscellaneous parts</a></li>
<li><a href="https://youtu.be/_Cl112lGBgw?t=365">6:05 Where I've been</a></li>
<li><a href="https://youtu.be/_Cl112lGBgw?t=432">7:12 Arduino Foundations</a></li>
<li><a href="https://youtu.be/_Cl112lGBgw?t=489">8:09 Design changes</a></li>
</ul>
<h2>Transcript</h2><h3><a href="https://youtu.be/_Cl112lGBgw?t=0">Introduction</a></h3>
<p>Interested in making a binary clock inspired by this?</p>
<p>You're at the right place! This video is the next one in the series on how to make a binary clock.</p>
<p>Wow, it's really been a while since I've, started this project, and there are some good reasons for the delay, which I'll get into later. But in this video, I'll show the parts I've received since the last video and review the design with some changes I've thought of since then.</p>
<h3><a href="https://youtu.be/_Cl112lGBgw?t=22">Imagine, Design, Build</a></h3>
<p>When putting any project together there are three big stages: imagine, design and build.</p>
<p>Each stage is iterative and there's a
bit of gray area, sometimes quite a bit,
between where one stops and the next one
begins. And sometimes you find problems in the
stage you're working on that requires
you to scrap it and go back to the
previous stage.
It's really just part of the creative
process.</p>
<p>Well that happened to me on this project
and I'll talk about that
and some of the changes that I've made.</p>
<h3><a href="https://youtu.be/_Cl112lGBgw?t=51">Welcome to the House of Hacks!</a></h3>
<p>If we're just meeting, I'm Harley. Welcome
to the House of Hacks where I make
things out of different materials and
show you how you can do that too.
Around here any type of media is fair
game, from things as basic as wood to as
virtual as software.</p>
<p>In this project, I plan on using
electronics, software, wood and some resin.
But you know, plans change and when it's
all said and done we'll see how things
ultimately turn out.</p>
<h3><a href="https://youtu.be/_Cl112lGBgw?t=74">Project review</a></h3>
<p>This is the second in a series of videos
about how to make a binary clock.
I picked up this clock at a conference a
number of years ago and thought it'd
make a basis of a really cool project.</p>
<p>In a previous video I talked about the
requirements, how to read it
and the overall design.
Since that last video, I ordered and
received the electronics parts that
will make up this project.</p>
<h3><a href="https://youtu.be/_Cl112lGBgw?t=98">Arduino Micro specs</a></h3>
<p>This is the Arduino I'm going to use.
It's the micro version and has several
things going for it.
It doesn't have as many pins as the
larger versions but it has more than
enough for the purposes of this project.
It's really compact and it's designed
to be soldered into a project.</p>
<h3><a href="https://youtu.be/_Cl112lGBgw?t=118">DS-1307 specs</a></h3>
<p>And this is the clock module. It's a
DS-1307. We can see here the battery
holder and it's designed to keep accurate time.
The way it works is you set the time
and it will then tell you the time
whenever you ask for it.</p>
<p>One of the nice things about this,
besides the battery backup, is it outputs
in BCD, so we don't have to do any conversion
in our code.</p>
<p>This module actually has a number of
features we're not going to be using
such as tracking the date
in addition to the time and a square
wave generator. And it also has some
memory that you can store small amounts
of data in.</p>
<h3><a href="https://youtu.be/_Cl112lGBgw?t=152">I2C bus overview</a></h3>
<p>It communicates over what's called an
I2C or I-squared-C bus. There are different
ways of pronouncing this, none of which are
really the "right" way.</p>
<quote>route, route<br/>
data, data<br/>
neither, neither<br/>
gif, gif</quote>
<p>But whatever it's called, this is a
communication standard that allows
multiple devices to communicate over
just two wires.</p>
<p>It can be as simple as this project
where there is one main controller, also
called the master that initiates
the communications, and one that responds
to the controller, also called a slave.
But it has a possibility to be something
more complicated with multiple masters
and multiple slaves.</p>
<p>In any case, regardless of how many exist,
the masters always control the
conversation and the slaves just respond.</p>
<h3><a href="https://youtu.be/_Cl112lGBgw?t=197">74595 operation overview</a></h3>
<p>These are the 74595 chips that we'll be
using to light up the LEDs.
Technically they're called 8-bit shift
registers and use something called
serial-in/parallel-out.
That sounds a bit confusing but it's
really not too hard if we break it down.</p>
<ul>
<li>"8-bit" just means there are 8 outputs
that are either on or off.</li>
<li>"Shift" means we put things in one end and
they come out the other.
<p>Kind of like a line at the grocery store.
You shift closer to the register as you
move from the end of the line to the front.</p></li>
<li>"Register" means it remembers its value
without having to do anything special.
<p>It gets written to and remembers that
until it's written to again kind of like
a check register if you're old enough to
remember those things.
It's really just a type of computer memory.</p></li>
<li>"Serial-in/parallel-out" means you put in
one thing at a time and you get multiple
things out.
<p>In this case, we put in one bit at a time
and the output is eight bits at a time.</p></li></ul>
<p>These chips connect to the Arduino with
just three pins: that's the serial-in
part. The three input pins are called the
latch, data and clock.</p>
<p>First the latch pin says "get ready, we're
about to make some changes." We set it
whenever we want to change the contents
of the register.
We then use the data and clock pins to
actually set values and then unset the
latch when we're all done.
When unset, the values put in on the data
pin is transferred to the eight output pins.</p>
<p>The data pin says this is one value to
display. It can be thought of as high or
low, or on or off, or one or zero.</p>
<p>Finally, the clock pin says take the
value off the data pin right now.
This is because there can be a
transition time when the data may not be
fully on or fully off and we really want
to make sure that the data value
that we're using is the value we want to
use before setting it on the chip.</p>
<p>One of the cool features of this chip is
they can be daisy-chained together.
If eight values are sent to a chip it
fills up all the output pins.
As more values are sent to it, each of
the values at the end are sent to an
overflow output pin.
This overflow pin can be connected to
the data pin of another shift register
and the clock and latch lines connected
to both. This means you could connect two
of these chips together and clock in 16
data values or you could connect three
and clock in 24 data values or however
many groups of eight you want to put in.
All through the same three pins on the
Arduino.</p>
<h3><a href="https://youtu.be/_Cl112lGBgw?t=347">Miscellaneous parts</a></h3>
<p>And last of all, there are some
miscellaneous things: the LEDs and
resistors that will be used to actually
display the time, the rotary encoder that
will set the time and the project board
that will connect everything together.</p>
<p>There may be some other things needed as
this comes together but those are the
major components.</p>
<h3><a href="https://youtu.be/_Cl112lGBgw?t=365">Where I've been</a></h3>
<p>I have some design changes to talk about
but first let me say a bit about where
I've been and why there haven't been as
many videos in the past year as in
previous years.
Besides the whole dumpster fire that was
2020 in the world in general, there were
several personal things that happened
for me personally in 2020.
One was really sad and the other is
really pretty exciting. But both took time
and emotional energy away from making videos.</p>
<p>The sad one was the passing of my Mom.
It was quite unexpected and, as these
things go, relatively quick.</p>
<p>One day she felt like she had the flu
and was taking it easy. The next day the
neighbor found her unconscious on the
floor.
Instead of the flu, she had a systemic
infection that she just couldn't recover
from.
She never regained consciousness, which
in the long term, I think is really
probably for the best. There wasn't any
long drawn-out painful period of decline
as happens with some diseases. It was
just, you know, one day she was herself
and the next day she was gone.</p>
<p>But, we miss you Mom.</p>
<h3><a href="https://youtu.be/_Cl112lGBgw?t=432">Arduino Foundations</a></h3>
<p>And the one that's a bit more upbeat is
I actually wrote a book called "Arduino
Foundations." It's all about the things
you need to know to start working with
Arduinos.
It's really kind of the pre-steps to
your first project and it's broken down
into three main sections.</p>
<p>The first section is about the
hardware and electrical side of things.
Answering questions like:</p>
<ul><li>What is an Arduino and why would I use it?</li>
<li>How does it differ from other computers I'm familiar with?</li>
<li>What's voltage and amperage and watts and current?
<p>This section also talks about the tools
needed to get started with an Arduino.</p></li></ul>
<p>Next is a softer section going over what
software is and the different things
that make up a program particularly on
an Arduino.
All the basic commands are discussed and
how memory is used.</p>
<p>And finally there's a setup and configuration section.
In this section, I talk about how to set
up a computer to work with an Arduino
and how to select which model of Arduino
to use from all the different options
available.</p>
<p>If this sounds interesting to you,
it's available on Amazon with a link
down in the description.</p>
<h3><a href="https://youtu.be/_Cl112lGBgw?t=489">Design changes</a></h3>
<p>Now, let's revisit the design for this
project for a minute.</p>
<p>In the first video, I talked about the
need for 20 bits for all the output.
Seven bits are needed for the seconds
section, 7 bits for the minutes section
and 6 bits for the hours section.
In my prototype, I sent those in a single
stream and that made for some messy code
since the values weren't broken up into
clean 8-bit values that are used by the
8-bit shift registers and internally in
the memory of the Arduino. To clean up
the code, I changed it to instead control
each of the 595s individually, instead of
chaining them together.
This made the code much easier to read
at the cost of using nine Arduino pins
instead of just three.</p>
<p>After the video, as I thought about it
some more, I realized that originally my
idea to put all the unused bits at the
end of the daisy chain was an unneeded
constraint.
There really was no reason for all the
unused bits to be bunched up together.
They could easily be spread out. This
insight allows clean easy to read code
and still daisy chain the shift
registers together using only three pins
on the Arduino.
It's simply a matter of connecting the
LEDs to the shift registers in a
slightly different pattern.</p>
<p>This is a great example of the iterative
nature of making things. Sometimes it's
not our first or even second idea that
sticks.</p>
<p>And this demonstrates the value of
prototyping.
By putting something together quickly,
that's intended to be temporary, we can
see the problems and work on better
solutions without having a huge time or
materials investment.</p>
<p>If you missed the first video in this
series it can be seen up here and the
next video will be down here when I get
it released.</p>
<p>As always, go make something.</p>
<p>Perfection isn't required, fun is!</p>
Harley Pebleyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06610309768015904662noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3524603591900062561.post-51341071385547950842020-11-20T06:04:00.002-07:002022-12-17T15:06:17.293-07:00Wireless Mini Keyboard Review: Can This Cheap Bluetooth Keyboard Work on Raspberry Pi with Linux?<iframe width="560" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/tGcXTrGEMRs?rel=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>
<p>As a Raspberry Pi and Linux user, I was in need of a new wireless mini keyboard and came across an inexpensive Bluetooth option that caught my eye. It had a number of features that sounded appealing, including RGB backlighting and a mouse control with adjustable DPI, so I decided to give it a try.</p>
<p>When the keyboard arrived, I was pleased to find that it came with a short USB cable for charging and a small user guide. I quickly unboxed it and took a look at the keyboard itself. It had a nice feel to it and fit well in my hands, with a clicky feel and positive action. I also appreciated that it had a battery compartment for a replaceable BL-5C battery or, according to the manual, two AAA batteries (though the keyboard didn't actually have connectors for the AAA batteries).</p>
<p>However, I was a bit skeptical about the Bluetooth connection, as I've had mixed experiences with Bluetooth devices in the past. But, I was hopeful that this keyboard would work well on my Raspberry Pi and Linux setup.</p>
<p>I plugged in the receiver and turned on the keyboard, but quickly realized that the setup was a bit confusing and I needed to do some research first. I spent some time reading the manual and charging the keyboard before attempting to use it on my Raspberry Pi setup.</p>
<p>The setup wasn't hard once I read the manual. I was presently surprised; the keyboard worked exceptionally well. The mouse control was particularly useful and I found the keyboard to be very responsive. It's a full keyboard in a small form factor, which is perfect for my setup, with a switch on the top to turn it off when not in use to preserve battery life.</p>
<p>Overall, I'm extremely happy with the performance of this inexpensive wireless mini keyboard on my Raspberry Pi and Linux setup. It did have a bit of a learning curve in terms of figuring out how to use it, but I found it to be a great value for the price. If you're in the market for a new wireless keyboard for your Raspberry Pi or Linux setup, I highly recommend giving this one a try.</p>
<h3>Additional resources</h3>
<p>Sign up for book updates: <a href="https://list-optin.house-of-hacks.com/">https://list-optin.house-of-hacks.com/</a></p>
<p>Interested in this keyboard? Here's where I got it: <a href="https://amzn.to/2InJVnS">https://amzn.to/2InJVnS (Affiliate link)</a></p>
<p>Here at House of Hacks we do tutorials, project overviews, tool reviews and more related to making things around the home and shop. Generally this involves wood and metal working, electronics, photography and other similar things. If this sounds interesting to you, you may <a href="https://goo.gl/0wxKv7">subscribe here.</a></p>
<p>If you’re interested in learning more about the House of Hacks' values, <a href="https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLWmDBD9SrrwkhVpoZqlHRkQ2SiauhA_eT">here’s a playlist for you.</a> <p>And here’s <a href="https://goo.gl/uVXA8I">the most recent video.</a></p>
<p>Here's a <a href="https://www.house-of-hacks.com/p/tools.html">list of the tools I use.</a></p>
<h3>Music licenses</h3>
<p>Music under Creative Commons License By Attribution 4.0 by Kevin MacLeod at <a href="http://incompetech.com">http://incompetech.com</a>.</p>
<ul><li>Intro/Exit: <a href="https://incompetech.filmmusic.io/song/3885-hot-swing">Hot Swing</a></li>
<li>Incidental: <a href="https://incompetech.filmmusic.io/song/4616-werq">werq</a> and <a href="https://incompetech.filmmusic.io/song/3800-george-street-shuffle">George Street Shuffle</a></li></ul>
<h2>Contents</h2><ul>
<li><a href="https://youtu.be/tGcXTrGEMRs?t=0">0:00 Introduction</a></li>
<li><a href="https://youtu.be/tGcXTrGEMRs?t=68">1:08 Unboxing</a></li>
<li><a href="https://youtu.be/tGcXTrGEMRs?t=224">3:44 Setup</a></li>
<li><a href="https://youtu.be/tGcXTrGEMRs?t=510">8:30 Summary</a></li>
</ul>
<h2>Transcript</h2><h3><a href="https://youtu.be/tGcXTrGEMRs?t=0">Introduction</a></h3><p>Wondering how well one of these inexpensive wireless mini keyboards works?</p>
<p>So do I. So I got one and we're going to open it up and see how well it works on Raspberry Pi and Linux.</p>
<p>I've used a number of Bluetooth devices on a number of operating systems and hardware platforms over the years.
I've always found them to be a little finicky.
Sometimes you turn them on and they work and sometimes they don't.
I've had some devices i just couldn't work get to work at all.</p>
<p>So, i'm hopeful that this will work.
It's got some really cool features:
<ul><li>It's got RGB backlight on the keyboard.</li>
<li>It's a full keyboard in a very small form factor.</li>
<li>It's got a mouse control that has adjustable DPI so, depending on the size of your screen you're working with, it makes it easy to control.</li>
</ul></p>
<p>On the surface it sounds really cool, but it's bluetooth and I'm kind of skeptical about that.</p>
<p>So we're going to open this up and take a look at it and try getting it running on a Raspberry Pi.</p>
<p>If we're just meeting, Welcome!
I'm Harley and this is the House of Hacks.
I make stuff here, usually out of wood or metal, but sometimes that involves technology like Raspberry Pis and mini keyboards.</p>
<h3><a href="https://youtu.be/tGcXTrGEMRs?t=68">Unboxing</a></h3>
<p>Let's open this up and see what's inside.</p>
<p>So I'm kind of hopeful that this is going to work well.
I would really like it to.</p>
<p>So it comes out with first of all a short USB cable with a large and small connector on it. I'm assuming this is for recharging purposes.</p>
<p>And then we have just the keyboard unit.
It's in bubble wrap to help protect it.</p>
<p>A very small user guide.
It's all pictorial. No... a little bit of writing inside.
And not much to it. A small trifold thing.</p>
<p>And there's the device.
It's got some keys for... for controlling things and then the keyboard.
It actually has a pretty nice feel to it. It has some a click feel and real positive action.
I've been pretty impressed with it so far.</p>
<p>I don't know how to use this at all. It's controls are a little confusing.</p>
<p>It fits well in the hands but so... yeah it doesn't doesn't feel too bad.</p>
<p>It looks like it has a battery compartment back here.</p>
<p>OK, so here's the receiver unit... so maybe it isn't Bluetooth.
Oh, that would be cool.
Maybe it looks just like a regular keyboard. That would be better... interesting.
And it has a little slot in here for storage.</p>
<p>It has one battery that's easily replaced and it's a BL-5C, so that's nice.
It's probably rechargeable since it has the cord here but is it easily changed.
At first i thought it had AAs in it, or AAAs, and that was going to be a little bit of a pain.</p>
<p>But that looks like a nice unit.</p>
<p>It's got a switch here on the top. I assume that's the power switch and then a plug here for the USB cable which, as I said, I assume that's just for charging purposes.</p>
<p>I'm going to read the manual and take a look at this and try to get it hooked up.</p>
<h3><a href="https://youtu.be/tGcXTrGEMRs?t=224">Setup</a></h3>
<p>I've got the Raspberry Pi here set up with my little tiny video monitor and it's plugged in.
I don't have any keyboard or mouse though at this time.</p>
<p>I have gone through the instruction manual that came with this thing.
Like I said, there's not much to it.
It basically says plug it in and turn it on and use it.</p>
<p>One thing of note, it does say though is it will take either the battery that we saw before in it or it will also take two AAA batteries.</p>
<p>Well, the manual said it would take AAA batteries...<br/>
and the case has a place for AAA batteries...<br/>
but there's no actual connectors for AAA batteries...<br/>
so while you could technically put them in here, I don't think they're really going to do anything.</p>
<p>And then it has a little troubleshooting section that has just basic common sense kind of things...
and maintenance... "Don't submerge it in water," that kind of thing.
So not a whole lot of interesting stuff there.</p>
<p>So I did throw it on the charger for a little bit and I'm going to take this out for the receiver... out of the little holder thing... close that back.
I'm going to put this in one of the USB slots and turn it on and let's see what happens here.</p>
<p>I turn the power on my screen... Raspberry Pi boots...</p>
<p>And this does have, in addition to kind of the D-controller that looks like it works for the mouse, there's also a touchpad.</p>
<p>We'll see how that works... We'll turn this on... Now it's booted and...
Well the mouse works for the touchpad.
It doesn't seem to work using the D-controller.</p>
<p>There's no instruction manual on this so it's kind of going to be a little bit of experimentation.</p>
<p>Looks like there's a mouse button here that brings up the context menu.
It's right click and then you use the up and down arrows to select something.</p>
<p>The mouse does work and you can tap it to double to do a click and it's supposed to have some sort of scrolling...
Oh, that probably works if you have a... if you have an app open...</p>
<p>Let's try opening the browser... and we'll just pull something up here...</p>
<p>So it's working really well other than learning how to navigate the keyboard.</p>
<p>One thing i did notice is it only has shift and control on the left side.
There's nothing over here on the right and also the Windows key is on the right side which is opposite most keyboards.
So if you want to do... you know control keys... and you have to kind of reach over the keyboard.
Probably not a big deal with a small enough keyboard.</p>
<p>Triple fingers will allow you to scroll...
As does the D-controller... scrolls either way.</p>
<p>So yeah, overall it looks pretty cool.</p>
<p>It's got the backlit keyboard.
I have no idea how you change change the colors on the keyboard. It defaults to blue.</p>
<p>Oh, I see these... it's hard for me to see without my glasses...
This keyboard has buttons on here... This is a right click and looks like a left-click buttons...
But that's not kind of what I saw... it seemed to be the other way around.</p>
<p>Oh, if you triple click it will bring up the context menu too.</p>
<p>So the icons seem to be backwards to me. This one says it's a a right click... that's the way i would interpret that icon... but it's actually a left click.
And this one is a right click and the button looks like a left click to me.
I guess it's one of those cases where you can't... when you only have two items and there's one there's a little graphical differentiation between them, you don't know which the graphical representation means.
It's kind of like when you have a menu item and something's highlighted but you don't know if the highlight is the selected item or the unselected item.
That's always kind of fun.
The same same issue here.</p>
<h3><a href="https://youtu.be/tGcXTrGEMRs?t=510">Summary</a></h3>
<p>But it seems to be working just fine. No problems whatsoever hooking it up.
It's not Bluetooth like i originally thought so that's probably why it actually works. It doesn't have all those finicky drivers that you need to hook up.</p>
<p>So i'm really impressed with this little thing... I think I paid $13 or $14 for this... I think it was under $15...</p>
<p>So it seems to be working really well.
I assume that there's a way to change the colors. I'm not going to try to fiddle with that here on camera but just first impressions it's working.</p>
<p>I give it a thumbs up! Yeah!</p>
<p>Over here is a video that Youtube thinks you're going to enjoy.</p>
<p>And while making things remember: perfection's not required, fun is!</p>Harley Pebleyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06610309768015904662noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3524603591900062561.post-64440609606522965872020-11-09T05:59:00.001-07:002020-11-09T05:59:17.723-07:00Labists Starter Kit For Raspberry Pi 4: Everything you need to know<iframe width="560" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/sMiwb29vTDU?rel=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe> <h2>Description</h2><p>Interested in a Labists Starter Kit For Raspberry Pi 4? In this episode, Harley unboxes, assembles and runs through the initial setup wizards for one of these kits.</p>
<p>Sign up for book updates: <a href="https://list-optin.house-of-hacks.com/">https://list-optin.house-of-hacks.com/</a><br/>
The kit I got: <a href="https://amzn.to/3oYXY45">https://amzn.to/3oYXY45</a> (Affiliate link)<br/>
A list of different kits: <a href="https://amzn.to/2TZj187">https://amzn.to/2TZj187</a> (Affiliate link)<br/>
<p>Here at House of Hacks we do tutorials, project overviews, tool reviews and more related to making things around the home and shop. Generally this involves wood and metal working, electronics, photography and other similar things. If this sounds interesting to you, you may <a href="https://goo.gl/0wxKv7">subscribe here.</a> <p>If you’re interested in learning more about the House of Hacks' values, <a href="https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLWmDBD9SrrwkhVpoZqlHRkQ2SiauhA_eT">here’s a playlist for you.</a> <p>And here’s <a href="https://goo.gl/uVXA8I">the most recent video.</a> <p>For a written transcript, go to <a href="https://www.house-of-hacks.com/2020/11/labists-starter-kit-for-raspberry-pi-4.html">Labists Starter Kit for Raspberry Pi 4.</a> <p>Here's a <a href="https://www.house-of-hacks.com/p/tools.html">list of the tools I use.</a> <p>Music under Creative Commons License By Attribution 4.0 by Kevin MacLeod at <a href="http://incompetech.com">http://incompetech.com</a>. <br />
Intro/Exit: "Hot Swing"<br />
<h2>Contents</h2><ul>
<li><a href="https://youtu.be/sMiwb29vTDU?t=0">0:00 Introduction</a></li>
<li><a href="https://youtu.be/sMiwb29vTDU?t=94">1:34 Unboxing</a></li>
<li><a href="https://youtu.be/sMiwb29vTDU?t=434">7:14 Assembly</a></li>
<li><a href="https://youtu.be/sMiwb29vTDU?t=1091">18:11 Setup</a></li>
<li><a href="https://youtu.be/sMiwb29vTDU?t=1237">20:37 First time startup</a></li>
</ul><h2>Transcript</h2><h3><a href="https://youtu.be/sMiwb29vTDU?t=0">Introduction</a></h3><p>Today at the House of Hacks we're going to unbox and setup this Labists Raspberry Pi Starter Kit.</p>
<p>OK, the box it comes in is nice and sturdy, not much to it.</p>
<p>Just kind of your basic box.</p>
<p>We're going to go ahead and open this up.</p>
<p>It's got a couple anti-tamper stickers on it.</p>
<p>And we'll just open this up.</p>
<p>Recently I've had some ideas floating around my head for some projects where it needed a little bit more computing power than what an Arduino supplies but I still wanted to be fairly close to the hardware.</p>
<p>So, of course the Raspberry Pi is a great solution for this.</p>
<p>Having never worked with Raspberry Pis before I didn't have anything and I wanted a starter kit to just get going quickly.</p>
<p>So, I searched on Amazon and found this Labists Starter Kit. It came with pretty high reviews and seemed to be pretty complete. So I went ahead and got one.</p>
<p>It's supposed to have a case and power supply and other miscellaneous things that you need to get started.</p>
<p>It doesn't have a keyboard or monitor, of course, but I have those in plenty.</p>
<p>I went ahead and got one of these. It has 8 GB of RAM and 128 GB SD card and so I thought I'd open this up and show you what it takes to get started.</p>
<p>If we're just meeting, I'm Harley. Welcome. This is the House of Hacks where I make stuff.</p>
<p>Usually out of metal or wood, other kinds of media like that. Sometimes it includes things like Arduinos and Raspberry Pis.</p>
<h3><a href="https://youtu.be/sMiwb29vTDU?t=94">Unboxing</a></h3>
<p>It starts off with a Raspberry Pi Model B. 8 gig of RAM.</p>
<p>That looks like the main box or the main computer.</p>
<p>I have to rip the box and there's the Pi.</p>
<p>They are pretty small little units, aren't they?</p>
<p>It has the connectors on the side. The power supply.</p>
<p>Network. USB. Looks like USB 2 and 3.</p>
<p>And yeah, there's not much to it. Not much bigger than an Arduino.</p>
<p>Just for size comparisons, there's an Arduino Uno.</p>
<p>It's a little bit bigger but about the same size.</p>
<p>Digging more into the box...</p>
<p>Packing material.</p>
<p>Oh, and inside this box looks like there's some basic instructions and a fairly large piece of paper with multiple language instructions.</p>
<p>We've got a Quick Start Guide.</p>
<p>A power supply... with an on/off switch.</p>
<p>Labists power supply.</p>
<p>We have, looks like a case.</p>
<p>I assume it snaps open somehow. I won't do that on camera but it's got holes for the connectors.</p>
<p>It must go this way. There's the connectors that way and that way.</p>
<p>And interestingly, it looks like it has a 1/4-20 connector on there which I'm guessing they may have it setup for putting a camera on this. That kind of looks like a camera hole. I don't know exactly.</p>
<p>That looks like a hole for a lens on a camera. They might have an aboard board camera you could put on there and then that would be for taking pictures with.</p>
<p>Interesting little concept.</p>
<p>HDMI cable.</p>
<p>This looks like another HDMI cable.</p>
<p>That's definitely HDMI... and that's definitely HDMI.</p>
<p>So, two HDMI cables.</p>
<p>A cute little tiny fan.</p>
<p>I assume that goes in the case.</p>
<p>An SD card that says Raspbian on it. So, I assume it's preloaded with the operating system. That's handy.</p>
<p>I don't recognize that.</p>
<p>I'll have to read the manual for that one.</p>
<p>A little screwdriver for mounting the fan.</p>
<p>Some heat sinks.</p>
<p>And that's it.</p>
<p>So, everything that comes in the box.</p>
<p>Those are the things that are inside the box in this kit. I want to get into the setup of this and see what happens when we turn it on for the first time but before that I do have an exciting announcement.</p>
<p>Those are you that have been around the channel for awhile may have noticed that my uploads this year have been down from previous years.</p>
<p>That's not because I've been slacking off but because I've been working on a new project.</p>
<p>This is a beginner's guide to working with electronics, specifically the Arduino ecosystem.</p>
<p>So, if you've been interested in getting Arduinos into your projects but don't know anywhere to begin, this book is for you.</p>
<p>I talk about three things in it...</p>
<p>Basic electronics. What is a transistor. What is a resistor. Real basic things like that.</p>
<p>And then I talk about how to setup a computer to program an Arduino.</p>
<p>And third, I talk about the basic elements of what goes into an Arduino program and the fundamental programming issues related to that.</p>
<p>If this is something that's interesting to you, I've left a link down below for a mailing list where I'll be announcing when the book is released and also providing a discount code for those that are interested.</p>
<h3><a href="https://youtu.be/sMiwb29vTDU?t=434">Assembly</a></h3>
<p>Now that we've got everything unpacked, let's assemble this.</p>
<p>The Quick Start Guide is fairly thick and a bit intimidating at first glance but there's six languages in here so for any one language there's only about four pages.</p>
<p>Half of those four pages are how to install the operating system on a blank SD card.</p>
<p>The SD card that comes with this is already pre-formatted so we don't need to worry about those two pages.</p>
<p>About half of the rest is specifications and what comes in the kit.</p>
<p>So there's really about a page, page and a half, of actual instructions for getting started and those seem to be really clear in reading things over.</p>
<p>I don't have any questions off the top of my head.</p>
<p>We'll see how complete they are once we get into it and see if we have any questions.</p>
<p>The mystery piece that I wasn't sure when I was unboxing it is actually an SD card reader which is kind of handy.</p>
<p>It's a type C connector. It pulls apart and there's the connector for plugging into USB and there's where the SD card goes in on the back side.</p>
<p>So that's kind of cute. It's an inexpensive one. It's not great but I'm sure it works for the purposes that we have here today.</p>
<p>There's really only a couple steps we need to do.</p>
<p>We need to install the heat sinks onto the card.</p>
<p>We need to install the fan into the case.</p>
<p>And then we need to install the card into the case and put it all together.</p>
<p>Finally we can install the SD card after the card is in the case and then apply power and keyboard and monitor and see how it works.</p>
<p>They do say that you don't want to have the SD card in the computer when you're trying to put it in the case.</p>
<p>I think there's a fitment problem trying to get it all lined up and stuff.</p>
<p>So you put the card in after everything is assembled and put together.</p>
<p>So, let's get to this.</p>
<p>First we're going to put the heat sinks on the chips and the manual says exactly which ones they go onto and they are self adhesive so they should go on fairly easily.</p>
<p>We've got this one goes on that chip.</p>
<p>We've got this square one that goes on the main CPU.</p>
<p>And then we have this other smaller one that goes on, looks like the chip that's right there.</p>
<p>So that's how it's assembled.</p>
<p>Time to get out the tools.</p>
<p>I've got a pick that works really well for taking off things like self-adhesive tape when it's hard to get off.</p>
<p>That one wasn't too bad.</p>
<p>So that goes on... try to get my fat fingers in here on this little board. That goes on that chip.</p>
<p>Just press it on.</p>
<p>This self-adhesive tape isn't too bad to take apart. Sometimes it can be a real pain.</p>
<p>That does on that chip.</p>
<p>And this goes on the last one.</p>
<p>I assume that is the primary CPU. It's this metal cased one.</p>
<p>That was easily done and I didn't need the pick at all.</p>
<p>So now we want to install things in the case.</p>
<p>The case just pulls apart. There's a little handle there.</p>
<p>And there's screws for mounting the board and there's screws for mounting the fan.</p>
<p>It seems that there's more screws there than I actually need.</p>
<p>And this case also is designed for a camera. I didn't get the camera option but there is a hole in the case and mounting space to snap a camera in there.</p>
<p>The fan can go in two ways. There's no indication of air flow.</p>
<p>I don't know that it really makes a difference which way it goes in.</p>
<p>I'll put it in this way so the strain relief on the cable pulls up.</p>
<p>The self tapping screws go into the fan. They have a round head on the top.</p>
<p>They're a bit longer than the screws in the other package that are for the card.</p>
<p>You don't want to torque them down too tight since you may strip out the plastic.</p>
<p>You just need to make them so it holds things in without rattling.</p>
<p>And that's the fan in there.</p>
<p>Next we need to mount the board.</p>
<p>It's pretty obvious. There's big holes in the case go for the USB and ethernet port.</p>
<p>And this should just drop in there.</p>
<p>And there are...</p>
<p>It seems to fit... fairly snugly.</p>
<p>There we go. You can kind of feel it where it snaps in.</p>
<p>You want to make sure the connectors are all lined up with the holes and the connectors on the side actually fit into the holes on here so there's a bit of a snap feel to it.</p>
<p>Get the other screws.</p>
<p>These screws I'm going to need the spectacles for.</p>
<p>It'd be nice if this screw driver was magnetic but that one went in without too much difficulty.</p>
<p>On screws like this, I tend to start them, get them all started, and then I go through later and with a second pass tighten them down for good.</p>
<p>That way you don't... If you tighten it down one at a time, sometimes you'll knock things out of alignment and then it's harder to get the other screws in.</p>
<p>And for both sets of screws, they sent me one screw more than I actually needed. Which was convenient since I dropped of those on the floor. I'll have to go retrieve that later.</p>
<p>And then I can go through a second time and tighten everything down.</p>
<p>Again, you don't want to tighten it down too tight because you don't want to strip the threads or the head.</p>
<p>And this screwdriver seems to be possibly at end of days.</p>
<p>This one screw... No this one screw has some munged up threads.</p>
<p>The screwdriver is fine. The head is rounded out without putting any torque on that at all.</p>
<p>And I can't get it out so now I need to get the pliers.</p>
<p>Let's try the extra screw that they gave me.</p>
<p>Those are magnetized and it's making it hard to get the screw in.</p>
<p>Once you have threads in plastic you want to do a technique called indexing where you turn backwards until you feel a click and then you can go forwards again.</p>
<p>That way you're not cutting new threads into the plastic.</p>
<p>And this new new screw worked much better.</p>
<p>There we go.</p>
<p>So I think now we are ready to put the operating system SD card into the case.</p>
<p>There's a small slot right there on the back of the case that this should slide into just like so.</p>
<p>And yeah, it protrudes out so if that was in the card when we tried to put the card in here, we'd have problems getting it in. So that's definitely what's going on there.</p>
<p>Now we're ready to wire up the fan.</p>
<p>The fan goes in this way and there's two options on this.</p>
<p>The red wire is positive and the black wire is negative and the manual says which ones go where with some pretty detailed instructions.</p>
<p>There are two options on this fan. You can either run it at low speed on 3.3 volts or at high speed on 5 volts, both of which are available right here on the GPIO connector.</p>
<p>And the black one is ground and it's on pin 6 which it shows right there.</p>
<p>I'll orient this in the way it shows in the diagram. Pin 6 is the third one on the top. So it goes in there.</p>
<p>And then the red is either pin 1 for 3.3 volts or pin 2 for 5 volts.</p>
<p>So I'm going to put it on 5 volts because, hey, more power! Right?</p>
<p>And then everything should just snap together if I can figure out which way this goes on.</p>
<p>And there we have it. We're ready for power, keyboard and video.</p>
<h3><a href="https://youtu.be/sMiwb29vTDU?t=1091">Setup</a></h3>
<p>So, we have the things that came with the kit and a few extra items in order to use this.</p>
<p>We need an external monitor. This is a small HDMI monitor that is designed for use with video equipment but any HDMI output source will work.</p>
<p>I also have a keyboard and mouse. Those are really the only things you need in addition to what comes in the kit.</p>
<p>For the purposes of today and this particular setup, I also have an HDMI splitter so that I can run the signal out of the Raspberry Pi, not only to the monitor, but also into my computer to be able to record it and capture it in high quality so that you can see what's going on in the video.</p>
<p>That complicates this particular setup but that's not a setup that you'd normally need when working with the Raspberry Pi.</p>
<p>One thing of note, is while the power supply that comes with a Pi looks like a normal wall wart, it is a high power device.</p>
<p>The Pi requires more than what most wall warts produce.</p>
<p>Most wall warts output in the milliamp to maybe 1.5 amp range.</p>
<p>The Pi needs more than that and this particular one that came with this kit is a 3000 milliamp, or 3 amp, power supply.</p>
<p>So, you do want to make sure that if you're not using a kit that you get a power supply that has sufficient output for the Pi's use.</p>
<p>If you don't have a power supply that has enough power, you'll get weird things happening.</p>
<p>It'll work sometimes and not others.</p>
<p>It will just work for awhile and then suddenly not work.</p>
<p>Just kind of bizarre things like that. So if you do have problems like that and you don't have a power supply that came with a kit, make sure that the output of the power supply is sufficient for the Raspberry Pi.</p>
<p>Let's start putting this together.</p>
<p>Everything's plugged in now, including the power supply into the wall.</p>
<p>I've got the software running on the computer to capture the screen.</p>
<p>I'm using OBS by the way just to record everything.</p>
<p>It's Open Broadcast Software I believe is what it's called and we're just using that as screen capture at this point off the HDMI input and the little converter thingy that I have.</p>
<p>Let's turn it on and see what happens.</p>
<h3><a href="https://youtu.be/sMiwb29vTDU?t=1237">First time startup</a></h3>
<p>Down here in the corner I have overlaid a time code on the screen capture.</p>
<p>I'll be speeding up through parts of this so we don't have to wait during the entire video.</p>
<p>The time code will show the actual length of time it took in real life.</p>
<p>It takes a bit to start up and now we have a background with this welcome message.</p>
<p>I'm going to go ahead and hit Next and now we get a chance to setup our country, language and time zone.</p>
<p>I'll set mine for the United States and since I'm in Mountain Time, I'll select Boise.</p>
<p>Clicking Next it takes a couple seconds to set that and now we have the opportunity to set the password for the main account.</p>
<p>I'll put that in here what I want to use and click Next again.</p>
<p>Now it's asking about screen setup.</p>
<p>We can see around the outside edges here that we have a black border where the background screen doesn't take up the whole screen.</p>
<p>This has to do with different HDMI display devices and sometimes you'll see these bars and sometimes you won't.</p>
<p>Since we see them here, I'm going to click this check box and that should remove them in the future.</p>
<p>So now I'll click Next to save this.</p>
<p>And the next step is it's looking for wireless networks.</p>
<p>We can see a bunch from the neighborhood here so I'll scroll down here and select mine and it refreshes the list and now I have to select it again and hit Next.</p>
<p>And now it's asking for my wireless network password. I'll put that in and continue on.</p>
<p>And now it wants to update the software. I'm going to click Next and...</p>
<p>uh, oh. For some reason it didn't connect to the network. I'll have to look into that.</p>
<p>For now, we'll just move along. That's something that I can do in the future.</p>
<p>And I guess that's it for the setup wizard. It's going to reboot and let's see what happens.</p>
<p>OK. That didn't take too long.</p>
<p>Now we can see the whole screen is being used. We don't have the black borders, so that worked.</p>
<p>In the top right corner here we can see that we now have a network connection.</p>
<p>Now let's go look at the software installer.</p>
<p>I'll go over here to the menu and click on the Raspberry Pi icon to pull the menu down and then I'll go down here into Preferences.</p>
<p>Let's start with this Recommended software option.</p>
<p>It'll start off by checking for updates so it's going out to the network and seeing what's different between what's been released now and what the software was originally setup for.</p>
<p>Well that took about a minute. Now we can see all the menu items that are part of the recommended list for the Raspberry Pi ecosystem.</p>
<p>On the left we have different categories and when you select one it shows the items in that list.</p>
<p>You can check or uncheck the box on the far right to add or remove the options that you want installed on your particular Raspberry Pi.</p>
<p>After you have everything you want selected, click Apply and it'll start installing or removing as you've directed.</p>
<p>This may take a bit depending on what you've selected and the speed of your internet connection.</p>
<p>Fortunately it does a good job of telling you what it's doing with all the status messages and the progress bar.</p>
<p>After it's gone through and figured everything out, we get this completion dialog when it finishes.</p>
<p>If I hit Apply again, we'll see that nothing happens since it's all caught up.</p>
<p>So I hit Close to finish this step.</p>
<p>And so now if we look here in the menus, we can see that it installed the software that we asked for.</p>
<p>Now I want to make sure that the operating system is up to date.</p>
<p>To do that, I'm going to go to the terminal window and run a command.</p>
<p>"sudo apt update" will check for updates for everything that's installed on the Pi, both at the base operating system level as well as any additionally installed applications.</p>
<p>It takes a little bit, but generally not terribly long.</p>
<p>When it finishes, we get back to the command prompt.</p>
<p>All this has really done is update some internal lists so that it knows what needs to be updated. It hasn't actually done any updates.</p>
<p>To do the actual updates, I'm going to run the command "sudo apt full-upgrade".</p>
<p>This will compare what I have installed to the update list and tell me what needs to be changed.</p>
<p>I have the option to continue or not. Hitting return selects the default Yes answer that's indicated by the capital Y and off it goes.</p>
<p>This does take awhile. It's a two step process. First it has to download all the actual items that it needs to install and then it has to actually install them.</p>
<p>Again, it does provide good feedback while it's doing this but it may take some time depending on how much needs to be changed and the speed of your internet.</p>
<p>In this situation, it took between 7 and 8 minutes that I've sped up through here.</p>
<p>Now that the updating is all done, I want to see how much storage space I have available for future development.</p>
<p>I'm going to use the "df" command with the "-h" option.</p>
<p>On the first line it's showing that I have 3.1 gig used and 110 gig is available.</p>
<p>That's out of 128 gig SD card. So that'd not doing too bad.</p>
<p>There is some overhead for the operating system of course and things like that.</p>
<p>The update process downloaded a bunch of files that really aren't needed anymore.</p>
<p>To clean those up I'm going to use a "sudo apt clean" command. That doesn't take any time to run. It just returns immediately.</p>
<p>Running the "df -h" command again shows that now I have 3.0 gig used, freeing up about 100 megabytes. Not a whole lot, but every little bit counts.</p>
<p>Now I'm done setting this up and so we're going to use the exit command to close the terminal.</p>
<p>All told, that took around 19 minutes to do the initial setup and now the Raspberry Pi is ready to be used.</p>
<p>For now I'm going to shut it down by selecting Logout and then clicking Shutdown.</p>
<p>You always want to make sure you do this when you shutdown so that everything gets written out to the SD card properly.</p>
<p>Do you have a Raspberry Pi now? Or are you thinking about getting one? What are your plans for it? Leave a comment down below. I'd love to hear about it.</p>
<p>I'll see you over here in this video that YouTube thinks you're going to enjoy.</p>
<p>And when making things remember...<br/>
Perfection's not required. <br/>Fun is!
Harley Pebleyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06610309768015904662noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3524603591900062561.post-90933972493361921102020-07-03T05:15:00.000-06:002020-07-03T05:15:00.228-06:00How To Make A Sewing Room Cutting Table<iframe width="560" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/e8fzthMmZ1M?rel=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe> <h2>Description</h2><p>In this episode of the House of Hacks, Harley takes you on the journey from idea to finished product to show how to make a sewing room cutting table.</p><p>You might also like the video <a href="https://youtu.be/4PxD7I-knmg">How to Make a Sewing Table</a></p><p><a href="https://amzn.to/3eDLWY4">Sign up for a 30-day free Audible trial</a> and get 2 books that are yours to keep, even if you don’t continue past the trial. (Affiliate link)<br />
<a href="https://amzn.to/2BgjtsZ">The Art of War by Steven Pressfield</a> (Affiliate link)<br />
<a href="https://amzn.to/3dFpyMD">Atomic Habits by James Clear</a> (Affiliate link)</p><br />
<h2>About</h2><p>Stay connected with what's happening here at the House of Hacks by <a href="http://list-optin.house-of-hacks.com/">signing up for our newsletter</a><br />
<p>Here at House of Hacks we do tutorials, project overviews, tool reviews and more related to making things around the home and shop. Generally this involves wood and metal working, electronics, photography and other similar things. If this sounds interesting to you, you may <a href="https://goo.gl/0wxKv7">subscribe here.</a> <p>If you’re interested in learning more about the House of Hacks' values, <a href="https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLWmDBD9SrrwkhVpoZqlHRkQ2SiauhA_eT">here’s a playlist for you.</a> <p>And here’s <a href="https://goo.gl/uVXA8I">the most recent video.</a> <p>For a written transcript, go to <a href="https://www.house-of-hacks.com/2020/06/how-to-make-sewing-room-cutting-table.html">How To Make A Sewing Room Cutting Table</a> <p>Here's a <a href="https://www.house-of-hacks.com/p/tools.html">list of the tools I use.</a> <p>Music under Creative Commons License By Attribution 4.0 by Kevin MacLeod at <a href="http://incompetech.com">http://incompetech.com</a>. <br />
Intro/Exit: "Hot Swing"<br />
<h2>Contents</h2><ul><li><a href="https://youtu.be/e8fzthMmZ1M?t=0">0:00 Introduction</a></li>
<li><a href="https://youtu.be/e8fzthMmZ1M?t=61">1:01 Overall design</a></li>
<li><a href="https://youtu.be/e8fzthMmZ1M?t=130">2:10 Initial Construction</a></li>
<li><a href="https://youtu.be/e8fzthMmZ1M?t=175">2:55 Resistance</a></li>
<li><a href="https://youtu.be/e8fzthMmZ1M?t=269">4:29 Habits to overcome Resistance</a></li>
<li><a href="https://youtu.be/e8fzthMmZ1M?t=314">5:14 Final Construction</a></li>
<li><a href="https://youtu.be/e8fzthMmZ1M?t=350">5:50 Finished product</a></li>
</ul></p><h2>Transcript</h2><h3>Introduction</h3>I have had that cutting table top for more than 20 years since before we moved here. And it's really hard letting go because I've had it so long... But, I'm getting a much better one and I'm can't wait! It's happening today!!<br />
<br />
I think she's pretty excited there! That was some unplanned video that I found when I was reviewing the footage.<br />
<br />
If we’re just meeting, I’m Harley, that was my wife, and this is the House of Hacks where I make stuff out of a variety of materials.<br />
<br />
In today’s episode we're going to be looking this cutting table that I made for my wife’s sewing room. It's primarily woodworking, but I also want to touch a little bit on some of the resistance we run into when creating things.<br />
<br />
In a previous video, I showed how I made a table for my wife’s sewing machine out of largely recycled materials. In this video, we're going to be doing the same for her cutting table.<br />
<br />
<h3>Overall design</h3>The ends are filing cabinets that my previous employer was throwing away. And they're attached to a base that's primarily 2x4s and some plywood. This serves to hold the cabinets together so they don't move around and also to provide a little bit of a toe kick.<br />
<br />
The cabinets were designed to go underneath desks in cubicles, and so they're designed to have things attached to the top which works perfectly for this application with the table top.<br />
<br />
Back here in the middle, my wife wanted to use these cabinets that were designed for maps and blueprints. And here we can see see they’re stacked together, they're a couple inches taller than the filing cabinets on the end, so the design will have to account for that.<br />
<br />
Since this table is right behind her sewing machine work area, she wanted this one corner to have a cutout in it to accommodate her serger. That adds a little bit of complexity to the overall design.<br />
<br />
So, I took some measurements, got the materials and started to work.<br />
<br />
<h3>Initial Construction</h3>I started with an 4x8 sheet of plywood. This was several inches larger than I needed on both the length and the width and so cut it down to size.<br />
<br />
As I did this, I sliced it off in thin strips. I then glued and tacked these strips to the bottom side edges of the table top to give a little more substance for the edge banding to attach to. I mounted these a little bit proud of the edge so when the glue dried, I could use a router bit to make the edges flush.<br />
<br />
My wife has some poplar trim in her sewing room, so I cut some banding out of this for the edges to:<br />
<ul><li>improve the looks,</li>
<li>protect the exposed plies of the plywood and</li>
<li>to tie the different elements of her room together.</li>
</ul><br />
I then glued and tacked the banding to the edge of the top.<br />
<br />
And then the project sat.. and sat… and sat.<br />
<br />
<h3>Resistance</h3>I ran smack dab into what Steven Pressfield in The War of Art calls “Resistance.”<br />
<br />
Eventually I did get going on it it again.<br />
<br />
Steven Pressfield sees Resistance as an invisible inner force that keeps us from exercising our genius, from doing the thing that we were born to do. In the book. he talks about the various forms this can take and different ways of overcoming it.<br />
<br />
As a Christian, I don’t know that I completely agree with all the things he talks about. In particular, he talks about praying to his Muse. That doesn’t fit within my faith framework.<br />
<br />
But the part about Resistance being a force opposing the creative process does resonate with me. He seems to see it as an impersonal force within ourselves that we have to overcome. I’m not sure that’s the whole story.<br />
<br />
I believe we are each made in God’s image and part of that is being imbued with creativity. We’re creative because He is creative.<br />
<br />
In what follows, I don’t have any scripture for this. It’s based more on general spiritual principles than direct scriptural support, so don’t take it as doctrine. It’s just musing on my part.<br />
<br />
I think Steven is right in that there may be psychological, internal reason we face Resistance when creating things. But I can also see Resistance as being a tool the Enemy of our Soul uses to keep us from doing the very things that God has created us to do. He's always trying to stymie God's plans and purposes in our lives. I think this may be one of the ways he does it.<br />
<br />
I suspect it’s probably some combination of the two, both the psychological and the external, and the ratio probably varies from one person to the next.<br />
<br />
<h3>Habits to overcome Resistance</h3>I started a new job at the beginning of the year and now have a longer commute. To make use of that time, I subscribed to Audible and have listened to a number of books that have been on my reading list for quite a while, The War of Art being one of them.<br />
<br />
Another one I listened to is Atomic Habits by James Clear. I found it interesting that some of the things James talks about in forming habits dovetail nicely with some of the strategies Steven talks about in overcoming Resistance. <br />
<br />
If you’re interested in using your drive time, or chore time, or any other time where you could listen to a book, sign up at the Audible link below. It’s a 30 day free trial where you get two audible books that are yours to keep, even if you don’t continue past the trial period. Or if you’re already an Audible subscriber, there’s a direct link to both these books below too.<br />
<br />
<h3>Final construction</h3>Getting back to the project, under the plywood, the table top has a skirt that is boxed in on each end.<br />
<br />
The boxes serve multiple purposes:<br />
<ul><li>they add rigidity to the whole top,</li>
<li>they provide a mounting spot to attach to the cabinets and</li>
<li>they fill the space difference between the two types of cabinets.</li></ul><br />
The bottom of the boxes are made with a thinner plywood and have t-nuts in them to attach to the filing cabinets. The thinner plywood also acts as a top in the serger cutout.<br />
<br />
After it was all assembled, I painted the main field and then put a polyurethane top coat over the paint, the edge banding and skirt.<br />
<br />
<h3>Finished product</h3>With a little help, putting it in place was simply a matter of taking out the old top and placing the new one in its place. And a bolt on each corner keeps it from sliding around.<br />
<br />
Join me in this video where I show how I put made the table for my wife's sewing machine. And down here is a playlist of other sewing room related projects.<br />
<br />
Thanks for joining me on our creative journey, long as it may take some times.<br />
<br />
Now, go make something.<br />
<br />
Perfection isn't required.<br />
<br />
Fun is!<br />
Harley Pebleyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06610309768015904662noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3524603591900062561.post-45258365355464277192020-06-19T07:30:00.000-06:002020-06-19T07:32:09.919-06:00What are the Undocumented Outlet Tester Light Meanings? Examining All Combinations<iframe width="560" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/BMH12RfEQqs?rel=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe> <h3>Description</h3><p>Someone asked in the comments of a <a href="https://youtu.be/mjnGkex4dxQ">previous video</a>, what all the outlet tester light meanings were. Tester tools typically have a limited space and only explain the most common ways plugs are miswired. In this video, Harley looks at all the different ways a plugs wiring could be messed up and shows what lights the tester shows.</p><br />
<p>Get an outlet tester of your own: <a href="https://amzn.to/2V0EX3J">https://amzn.to/2V0EX3J</a> (Affiliate link)</p><br />
<h3>About</h3><p>Stay connected with what's happening here at the House of Hacks by <a href="http://list-optin.house-of-hacks.com/">signing up for our newsletter</a><br />
<p>Here at House of Hacks we do tutorials, project overviews, tool reviews and more related to making things around the home and shop. Generally this involves wood and metal working, electronics, photography and other similar things. If this sounds interesting to you, you may <a href="https://goo.gl/0wxKv7">subscribe here.</a> <p>If you’re interested in learning more about the House of Hacks' values, <a href="https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLWmDBD9SrrwkhVpoZqlHRkQ2SiauhA_eT">here’s a playlist for you.</a> <p>And here’s <a href="https://goo.gl/uVXA8I">the most recent video.</a> <p>For a written transcript, go to <a href="https://www.house-of-hacks.com/2020/06/what-are-undocumented-outlet-tester.html">What are the Undocumented Outlet Tester Light Meanings? Examining All Combinations</a> <p>Here's a <a href="https://www.house-of-hacks.com/p/tools.html">list of the tools I use.</a> <p>Music under Creative Commons License By Attribution 4.0 by Kevin MacLeod at <a href="http://incompetech.com">http://incompetech.com</a>. <br />
Intro/Exit: "Hot Swing" <h3>Transcript</h3>A number of years ago, I did a video talking about this and how to use it.<br />
<br />
It's a 110 outlet tester and it lists 6 different ways that outlets can be miswired and gives you codes for these lights light up.<br />
<br />
A couple people commented that they were getting the lights lighting up in ways that weren't documented.<br />
<br />
In today's video, I'm going to go through all the different ways, there's 6 listed here but I counted 12 different ways, an outlet could actually be miswired and see what kind of light codes we get for the different ways that they're wired.<br />
<br />
If we're just meeting, I'm Harley. Welcome to the House of Hacks.<br />
<br />
I make things out of various things here in the workshop.<br />
<br />
Sometimes that includes doing 110 wiring, for which these are really handy.<br />
<br />
Let's go over to the workbench, see the test setup and then checkout the 12 different combinations and what the lights look like for those.<br />
<br />
At the bench here, I have an outlet that's wired correctly and the wires are plugged directly into an outlet.<br />
<br />
I do not recommend you do this at home.<br />
<br />
There is exposed 110 voltage here.<br />
<br />
And there's a high risk of shock, injury and potentially even death.<br />
<br />
So, I'm doing this so you don't have to.<br />
<br />
Right now, this is plugged in over here in the correct configuration, as we can see from the outlet tester.<br />
<br />
I'll go through the 6 different documented ways that the tester will report errors and then I'll go through the 6 undocumented ways and we'll see what the lights look like.<br />
<br />
So, hopefully, that will tell us something about what those commenters were asking and give you that information.<br />
<br />
OK, here we can see we have correctly wired because our lights are lit up to be correct.<br />
<br />
And now we have hot/neutral reversed with the red and orange.<br />
<br />
And now we have the open hot with no lights lit whatsoever.<br />
<br />
And here we have open neutral with a single orange light.<br />
<br />
Here we have a hot/ground reversed configuration.<br />
<br />
And here we have the last documented item with an open ground with just a single orange light.<br />
<br />
Now let's take a look at what other combinations we have that aren't documented.<br />
<br />
Here's a ground/neutral reversed. Interestingly, it doesn't show up any different than a correct.<br />
<br />
And here we have an open hot with neutral/ground reversed.<br />
<br />
And in this case we don't get any lights because we don't really have any power coming into the tester for it to be able to light anything up with.<br />
<br />
OK, this is a very confused situation where we have hot going to neutral and ground and neutral swapped.<br />
<br />
OK, here we have a situation where ground and hot are reversed and neutral is open.<br />
<br />
Looks like the tester can't detect this situation.<br />
<br />
Now this is a really twisted situation here again where nothing is anywhere close to being correct.<br />
<br />
Neutral is wired to hot. Hot is wired to ground and ground is wired to neutral.<br />
<br />
OK, and here's the last undocumented configuration where ground is open and hot and neutral are reversed.<br />
<br />
If you're interested in the video where I talk about how to use one of those outlet testers, it's in this video over here.<br />
<br />
Down here is a video that YouTube thinks you'll enjoy.<br />
<br />
Until next time, go make something.<br />
<br />
Perfection isn't required.<br />
<br />
Fun is!<br />
<br />
--------<br />
<br />
Configuration<br />
<br />
Configurations<br />
<br />
Configurations<br />
<br />
Configurations<br />
<br />
Configurations<br />
<br />
Configurations<br />
<br />
Take a shot for every time I say "Configuration."Harley Pebleyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06610309768015904662noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3524603591900062561.post-75779534942599221272020-06-12T05:00:00.001-06:002020-06-19T07:29:11.714-06:00How to make a binary clock: design<iframe width="560" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/H-RZc5jFVJ4?rel=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe> <h3>Description</h3><p>Want to make an Arduino project a bit more complicated than blink? In today's episode of House of Hacks, Harley starts a project on how to make a binary clock. This project will use an Arduino and be presented in multiple parts. Today, the first part will be the overall requirements and design. In future videos, the software, circuit and finishing it off with an enclosure will be covered.</p><h3>Resources</h3><ul><li>All the information to make this project: https://www.house-of-hacks.com/p/arduino-project-binary-clock.html</li>
<li>If you just want to buy one: https://amzn.to/3eGXFVD (Amazon affiliate link)</li>
<li>Get a digital version of the new Arduino poster by signing up for the House of Hacks newsletter: https://list-optin.house-of-hacks.com/arduino</li>
<li>Or a printed copy of the poster can be bought on the House of Hacks store: http://store.house-of-hacks.com</li>
</ul><h3>Contents</h3><ul><li>0:00 Project introduction</li>
<li>0:59 Welcome and about House of Hacks</li>
<li>1:19 Description of BCD</li>
<li>2:14 BCD for binary clocks</li>
<li>3:05 Project requirements</li>
<li>4:02 Controlling the LEDs</li>
<li>5:45 Tracking the time</li>
<li>6:18 Adjusting the time</li>
<li>7:23 Arduino selection</li>
</ul><h3>About</h3><p>Here at House of Hacks we do tutorials, project overviews, tool reviews and more related to making things around the home and shop. Generally this involves wood and metal working, electronics, photography and other similar things. If this sounds interesting to you, you may <a href="https://goo.gl/0wxKv7">subscribe here.</a> <p>If you’re interested in learning more about the House of Hacks' values, <a href="https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLWmDBD9SrrwkhVpoZqlHRkQ2SiauhA_eT">here’s a playlist for you.</a> <p>And here’s <a href="https://goo.gl/uVXA8I">the most recent video.</a> <p>For a written transcript, go to <a href="http://www.house-of-hacks.com/2020/06/how-to-make-binary-clock-design.html">How to make a binary clock</a> <p>Here's a <a href="https://www.house-of-hacks.com/p/tools.html">list of the tools I use.</a> <p>Music under Creative Commons License By Attribution 4.0 by Kevin MacLeod at <a href="http://incompetech.com">http://incompetech.com</a>. <br />
Intro/Exit: "Hot Swing" <h3>Transcript</h3>A number of years ago, at a software conference, one of the evening activities as an outing to a hands-on science museum. <p>While there, I noticed and picked up this binary clock. <p>It uses something called BCD encoding and I thought it'd be kind of cool to make my own version of this as a project. <p>Technically, it could be done with some simple logic circuits and a timer. <p>But this would involve more hardware design and wiring than I wanted to be involved with and so I'm going to go the easy route and use an Arduino. <p>This is going to be done in four parts. <p>Part one today is the basic requirements and design. <p>Than as I'm waiting for parts to come in, I'll go over the software design and how to actually do some testing without having a complete circuit finished. <p>The third video I'll assemble all the circuits and get it running. <p>And then the fourth video will be creating an enclosure for it. <p>Welcome to the House of Hacks. If we’re just meeting, I’m Harley and I make stuff out a variety of materials. <p>For example, in this project, we're doing design discussions, and software and electronics and mixed media for the enclosure. <p>If making a things out of a variety of materials in the workshop is something that's your thing, consider subscribing and you won’t miss future episodes. <p>BCD is an acronym for Binary Coded Decimal and this was an encoding system that IBM came up with nearly a 100 years ago in the 1920s for use in their early mechanical devices. <p>As early computers came on the scene, they took this basic coding that they used and expanded upon it to use in the computers. <p>It was called EBCDIC at the time and was actually used until relatively recently. <p>Interestingly, early in my career, I had to write an ASCII to EBCDIC conversion routine for use by our business partners. <p>Before going to the whiteboard, a couple notes. <p>First, the code and schematics for this project, is available for free download off of GitHub. <p>And second, a commercial version of this clock, kind of like the one that I picked up at the conference, as well as all the materials I'm using in the project are available on Amazon. I’ll leave links for everything down in the description below. <p>In BCD, each column represents a decimal digit, coded in binary. The first column is the tens digit for the hours, the second is the units column for the hours. Next, we have the tens and units digits for the minutes and the tens and units digits for the seconds. <p>In decimal, we need four bits to cover the all digits 0-9 in binary. So all the units columns on the LEDs have four LEDs. Because on a clock, none of the tens digits go all the way to 9, we don’t need a full 4 bits for each of the tens columns. Hours for example only go to 2, so we only need 2 bits for a 24 hour clock. The minutes and seconds only go to five so we only need three bits for those. <p>So, to make this, what are our requirements? <p>For the LEDs, we have 3 groups of 4 and 2 groups of 3 for a total of 18 and another 2 for a total of 20 LEDs that we need to control. <p>Second, we need a way of keeping track of the time. <p>Third, we need a way to set the time. <p>I’ll talk about all these requirements in detail but first I’m excited to announce that I’m working on some Arduino training materials. I have an Arduino reference poster available now and am working on a book for people new to digital electronics and programming the Arduino. A digital version of the poster is available by just signing up to the House of Hacks mailing list where I’ll keep you updated on things happening here. I won’t bombard your email with a bunch of stuff. Just occasional updates when products are released and an occasional news item that I think you might find interesting related to making things. If you’re interested in this, there’s a link below in the description below. <p>Now, back to the design... <p>Looking at controlling the LEDs, my first inclination was to think about this as a single string of 20 bits where each digit in each group was put inline with the rest of the bits. The common way of working with large numbers of LEDs is to use a '595 based shift register. This only requires three pins on the Arduino but provides a number of digital outputs. This is so commonly used that there’s a shiftOut command built into the Arduino ecosystem. ‘595 chips typically only work with 8 bits (although there are variants that have more bits) but they can be daisy chained together so you can have an almost arbitrary number of digital outputs, all controlled by only three pins. <p>Since there’s 20 bits needed and each ‘595 provides 8 bits, I thought about using three shift registers, daisy chained together. This would give 8 times 3, or 24, bits. The first 20 bits would be used and the last 4 bits would be ignored. <p>I coded up a prototype sketch using this idea but it ended up being more messy than I really liked. All the code was one big blob with a bunch of dependencies spread throughout the whole thing. Some of that mess could be cleaned up with some refactoring, but it was still going to be more messy than I really liked. <p>Upon reflection, I realized each group of two numbers only needs at most 7 bits and I have three groups. For the purposes of this project, I could still use the three ‘595s but instead of daisy chaining them together, I could connect each one to the Arduino directly. This would help make the code cleaner. Each ‘595 needs three pins, so that’d be a total of 9 pins for the LEDs instead of 3. Let’s look at the rest of the requirements and see if there are enough pins. <p>To track time, the most reliable would be to use a clock module. A real time clock module, also called an RTC, is designed to interface with micro controllers and has it’s own battery backup. There are a number of different models. I selected to use a DS1307 because they can be had inexpensively and communicate with the Arduino using only three pins over the I2C bus. <p>It would also be possible to use the Arduino itself to track the time although I’m not to sure how accurate that would be. It would provide a software only solution though. <p>Finally, we need a way to set the time. <p>The commercial unit I have uses two buttons. One increases the hour each time it’s pressed. The other increases the minute each time it’s pressed and if they’re both pressed at the same time, the seconds are increased. <p>This could work, but I don’t have any good buttons that’d be appropriate for mounting in an enclosure and, in my spare parts bin, I have a rotary encoder. <p>Rotary encoders come in different styles. This particular one allows the user to spin it in either direction without any limits. It can also be pressed to indicate an event. The micro controller can detect which direction it’s turned and take appropriate action. <p>I think this would be easier to make accessible to the user in the enclosure, so I’m going to use it. It uses two pins to the Arduino to communicate the rotary action and one pin to communicate being pressed. <p>So, all in all, I’m looking at using 9 pins for the three ‘595s, 2 pins for the clock module and 3 pins for the rotary encoder. A total of 14 pins. <p>Since I want to keep this pretty compact, I’m going to select the Arduino Micro. It’s only about 2 inches long and about 3/4 inch wide and designed to go in breadboards and pre-made circuit boards with standard hole spacing. And it has 18 digital I/O pins. Four more than then 14 that we need. <p>I think it should work well. <p>So, I’ll go order the parts and, while waiting for them, I'll show you the software in this video. <p>If that video hasn’t been released yet, I’ll see you in this other video where I do an Arduino project simulating wind to make wind chimes sound indoors. <p>After watching that, go make something. <p>Perfection isn't required. Fun is!Harley Pebleyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06610309768015904662noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3524603591900062561.post-65591651594140003942020-02-17T16:45:00.000-07:002020-02-17T16:45:09.070-07:00How to photograph splashes every time!<iframe width="560" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/n4MKsb6Fz9s?rel=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe><br />
<h3>Description</h3>Interested in photographing splashing water? In this episode, we'll see how to take splash photography and capture the image every time. As demonstrated by Peter McKinnon, capturing high-speed events can be achieved by repeatedly doing the action and using your camera's burst mode. This doesn't take much equipment but does take quite a bit of time. Today, Harley shows how a little bit of inexpensive equipment can enable getting the splash every time, allowing you to fine tune the image to get it perfect.<br />
<br />
<h3>Resources</h3>Peter McKinnon’s video: https://youtu.be/1t3iTjAe2Fw<br />
Hiviz: https://hiviz.com/kits/kits.htm<br />
Neewer flash triggers: https://amzn.to/38wv1nk (affiliate link)<br />
<br />
<h3>About</h3>Here at House of Hacks we do tutorials, project overviews, tool reviews and more related to making things around the home and shop. Generally this involves wood and metal working, electronics, photography and other similar things. If this sounds interesting to you, you may <a href="https://goo.gl/0wxKv7">subscribe here.</a><br />
<br />
If you’re interested in learning more about the House of Hacks' values, <a href="https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLWmDBD9SrrwkhVpoZqlHRkQ2SiauhA_eT">here’s a playlist for you.</a><br />
<br />
And here’s <a href="https://goo.gl/uVXA8I">the most recent video.</a><br />
<br />
For a written transcript, go to <a href="https://www.house-of-hacks.com/2020/02/how-to-photograph-splashes-every-time.html">How to photograph splashes every time!</a><br />
<br />
Here's a <a href="https://www.house-of-hacks.com/p/tools.html">list of the tools I use.</a> <br />
<br />
Clock video by Jason H Austin from Pexels.<br />
<br />
Music under Creative Commons License By Attribution 4.0 by Kevin MacLeod at <a href="http://incompetech.com">http://incompetech.com</a>.<br />
Intro/Exit: "Hot Swing" <br />
<br />
<h3>Transcript</h3>Want to learn how to take splash photos?<br />
<br />
Is an hour for one image to long for you?<br />
<br />
Want to get this image...<br />
every...<br />
single...<br />
time?<br />
<br />
Stick around and I'll show you how!<br />
<br />
\Welcome to the House of Hacks!<br />
If we're just meeting, I'm Harley.<br />
I make stuff and I show you how to make stuff too.<br />
<br />
I love Peter McKinnon's work. He's both inspirational and informational in the photography related videos that he makes.<br />
<br />
Recently he did a video regarding splash photography where he made some really cool product portraits. The way he did this was to just take a whole lot of images and hope one of them turned out in drive mode. This is kind of a spray-and-pray method if you will.<br />
<br />
The advantage to this is it's very inexpensive. Beyond the basic photography<br />
equipment that you probably already have, there's nothing new required.<br />
<br />
The disadvantage is it's very time intensive. I think he said it took him an hour to<br />
get one good usable image. Well, if it's taking you an hour to get an image, if<br />
you're trying to dial in on a specific look, it might give you quite a while and<br />
a lot of patience. Or you might settle for something that's not exactly what<br />
you're looking for.<br />
<br />
I'm going to show a high speed photography setup that I use to get very repeatable results when dropping things into a water tank. Every time you drop something it's going to show up in the same place in the frame every time.<br />
<br />
The equipment that I have is pretty old and it's no longer available but I've left links in the description below for equivalent systems that are available now. The total cost for this is less than $100. So while it is a little bit of investment, it's not very burdensome.<br />
<br />
Today I'm going to cover two topics: 1) the equipment and how to set it up and 2) how to set your exposure to get the right images.<br />
<br />
To do these splash images, there's really three things that are required: a photo gate which is a light based trigger so when something interrupts a light beam this sends out a trigger signal, and then there's a delay unit because you don't want the flash to go off when the beam is interrupted but rather when the object has had time to drop down into<br />
frame where you want it, so you need a delay that's measured in like milliseconds.<br />
<br />
A number of years ago I found these HiViz kits online and when I got mine they were just getting developed and were pretty rough. I got one and it was basically just some components and a schematic. I wired that together on a little point-to-point circuit board and put them in these cases so they're nice and neat and easy to use.<br />
<br />
Since that time they've really refined their kits quite a bit and now you get a<br />
whole assembly where you can assemble the kit and put it inside the control<br />
panel that comes with it and the box that comes with it so you get a complete<br />
package.<br />
<br />
And then you need a way to trigger the flashes. I'm using a wireless system by<br />
Cactus. These aren't made anymore but there's a new model by Neewer that<br />
looks like it does pretty much the same thing. You don't need all the fancy TTL<br />
stuff that drives up the price on these. You just need a simple on/off switch<br />
because we're going to be running these in manual mode.<br />
<br />
You could also, instead of using a wireless system, get one of those little devices that goes on the hot shoe that has a remote trigger input on it. That would work just as well.<br />
<br />
First of all, the light beam needs to be set up across the opening of the tank so when<br />
something falls in, it interrupts the beam and sends off the trigger.<br />
<br />
The kit came with an infrared LED laser but I found that to be very hard to use<br />
because being infrared it's invisible and trying to get it lined up this<br />
distance so that it could trigger things was very very difficult. I found that a<br />
normal red LED laser works just as well and is much easier to set up since you<br />
can see it. I've got the laser on one side and I've got the sensor on the<br />
other and that's going into the photo gate controller.<br />
<br />
The wireless trigger just slides on to the bottom of the flash and now whenever the trigger is put off the flash goes off.<br />
<br />
We could take the output from the photo gate and plug it directly into the transmitter for the wireless unit. The problem with this is we'd get an image when the object immediately hit the laser beam and not when it actually got into frame so we'd never see anything.<br />
<br />
To solve this problem we use a delay unit that will delay the trigger signal by a<br />
couple milliseconds that it takes to fall from the laser beam to where we<br />
want it in frame and then the output from that delay unit then goes into the<br />
transmitter for the wireless system.<br />
<br />
Putting this all together, this is the equipment setup. We've got the LED going to the sensor for the photo gate. It's wired into its control module. The control module for the photo gate's output is wired to the input of the delay unit and the output of the delay unit is wired to the wireless trigger for the flashes.<br />
<br />
So now whenever the light beam is interrupted the flashes go off.<br />
<br />
Now for the exposure part of the setup.<br />
<br />
To freeze action, a high shutter speed is required. And to get high shutter speed, a<br />
lot of light is required. Peter used a combination of a nice light and high ISO.<br />
On modern cameras, a high ISO isn't usually a problem. But without expensive<br />
lighting, getting enough light on the object can be a problem.<br />
<br />
An alternative is to use flashes. Speed lights work well for this. An interesting fact about speed lights is the lower the power, the faster the flash. This isn't necessarily<br />
true about standard studio lights. With both studio lights and speed lights on<br />
high power, typically the flash is long enough that motion will blur on you.<br />
<br />
An interesting point when using flash is shutter speed isn't very relevant. Most,<br />
if not all of the exposure, is from the flash, not ambient light. So if ambient light is low enough, shutter speed can actually be quite long.<br />
<br />
<br />
Putting all these facts together, using a low power on the flash, combined with low<br />
ambient light, and also combined with shutter speed in the order of seconds, we<br />
have enough time to be able to trigger the camera and then drop the object. As<br />
long as the shutter speed is long enough for us to do that operation, we're good.<br />
<br />
So I have my camera set to two seconds for the shutter speed, f/10 to get a decent depth of field and ISO 200. The flashes are set to 1/16 power.<br />
<br />
Once the equipment is set up then we're ready to dial things in. The photo gate<br />
has a sensitivity setting that I find mid-range works best. If it's too<br />
sensitive, random things in the air will cause it to trigger. We want it to be<br />
reliable though when the objects that we're dropping really do pass through<br />
its path.<br />
<br />
Then there's the time delay that we need to set. My unit will work in<br />
seconds, milliseconds or microseconds time ranges. I find that for dropping<br />
objects in a set up like this, milliseconds works best. The range that<br />
you'll use will depend on how far the trigger is from where you want it in<br />
frame and how fast the object is moving. We'll dial this in through a series of images with kind of trial and error once we start making photos.<br />
<br />
So let's start making them.<br />
<br />
When I set up for this shot, the first image captured the item just before it hit the water.<br />
<br />
I adjusted the lighting and tried again.<br />
<br />
The lighting was better and the item was exactly the same place.<br />
<br />
See how repeatable this is?<br />
<br />
I then adjusted the delay in one direction and tried again.<br />
<br />
This time the flash went off before the item was even in the frame.<br />
<br />
I dialed the time the opposite direction and tried again.<br />
<br />
This time it was exactly what I wanted.<br />
<br />
As we can see from these subsequent images, once it's dialed in, the object will be at the same place in the frame every time.<br />
<br />
These images are all sequential. They're not cherry picked from a bunch of different ones.<br />
<br />
It's important when dropping things that they're dropped from the same height every time. But things of different weights can be dropped each time without changing the height. You will get a bigger splash though.<br />
<br />
As you've seen, every time I drop something, the item is in the same spot in the image.<br />
<br />
Over here is a playlist of other photography related videos and down here is a video that YouTube thinks you'll enjoy.<br />
<br />
Remember when making things, perfection's not required, fun is!<br />
Harley Pebleyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06610309768015904662noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3524603591900062561.post-37423701732363382942019-12-14T05:15:00.000-07:002019-12-14T05:15:00.169-07:00How To Convert Film Slides To Digital Pictures - Easy DIY setup for any camera<iframe width="560" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/NaLg4AU7CNI?rel=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe><br />
<h3>Description</h3>Want to convert slides to digital images? In this episode of House of Hacks, Harley shows how to convert film slides to digital pictures using the gear you already have. This technique also works for transfer old negatives to digital photos.<br />
<br />
Resources (Amazon affiliate links):<br />
<a href="https://amzn.to/2GANbZa">Clamp light with aluminum reflector</a><br />
<a href="https://amzn.to/2GDiWkh">GE 100 watt equivalent LED lights</a><br />
<a href="https://amzn.to/35gd1Mi">Clip on macro lenses</a> <br />
<br />
<a href="https://youtu.be/iMO50AlGyrw">Additional information about camera/lens selection and post processing.</a><br />
<br />
<a href="https://youtu.be/kDRxVxIncvw">How to shoot to the right (aka ETTR)</a><br />
<br />
Here at House of Hacks we do tutorials, project overviews, tool reviews and more related to making things around the home and shop. Generally this involves wood and metal working, electronics, photography and other similar things. If this sounds interesting to you, you may <a href="https://goo.gl/0wxKv7">subscribe here.</a><br />
<br />
If you’re interested in learning more about the House of Hacks' values, <a href="https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLWmDBD9SrrwkhVpoZqlHRkQ2SiauhA_eT">here’s a playlist for you.</a><br />
<br />
<a href="https://goo.gl/uVXA8I">And here’s the most recent video.</a><br />
<br />
For a written transcript, go to <a href="https://www.house-of-hacks.com/2019/12/how-to-convert-film-slides-to-digital.html">How To Convert Film Slides To Digital Pictures</a><br />
<br />
Music under Creative Commons License By Attribution 4.0 by Kevin MacLeod at <a href="http://incompetech.com">http://incompetech.com</a>.<br />
Intro/Exit: "Hot Swing" <br />
Incidental: "Starry," "Touching Moments Two," "Riptide" & "Rocket"<br />
<br />
<h3>Transcript</h3>Our memories are more like photos than videos. We remember moments. Snapshots in time.<br />
<br />
Photos allow us to share these moments with others.<br />
<br />
Some may have been there with us and photos give us a common anchor point.<br />
<br />
Some may not have been, separated by distance, time or both, and photos allow us to share our experience with them.<br />
<br />
Imagine what it’d be like if you could move those memorable moments captured with physical images into the digital world.<br />
<br />
You could have a historical record that doesn’t degrade over time.<br />
<br />
You could instantly share them others around the world.<br />
<br />
You could compile them into new and different ways.<br />
<br />
Stick around and I’ll show you how to move from imagination to reality.<br />
<br />
In this episode, I’m going to show an easy DIY build to help you digitize either slides or negatives.<br />
<br />
Its primary materials are some cardboard and an inexpensive light you can get at the home improvement store or online for less than ten dollars.<br />
<br />
And you can use any camera. An SLR if you have one. Or your phone. Or anything in between.<br />
<br />
Welcome to the House of Hacks.<br />
<br />
If we’re just meeting, I’m Harley and I show you how to create stuff in the workshop.<br />
<br />
Sometimes it's out of wood or metal. Today it’s going to be out of cardboard and duct tape.<br />
<br />
Basically, we’re going to make a light filled box. This does two things for us.<br />
<br />
It diffuses the light nicely so we don't have any hot spots in our final image and it gives us a place to mount either a slide or negative.<br />
<br />
Whatever's mounted here gets lit up nicely and then we can use any camera to make an image of it.<br />
<br />
I'll show some samples from my SLR and my phone later in the video.<br />
<br />
Let’s get started.<br />
<br />
The tools we’re going to need are:<br />
<ul><li>a box knife,</li>
<li>a straight edge,</li>
<li>a right angle,</li>
<li>a pen,</li>
<li>and a measuring tape.</li>
</ul><br />
The materials we’re going to use are:<br />
<ul><li>some scrap cardboard, (both corrugated and non-corrugated.),</li>
<li>white duct tape, or you can use white paper or paint,</li>
<li>shop lamp,</li>
<li>daylight balanced LED light bulb,</li>
<li>and glue.</li>
</ul><br />
I’m going to be using this inexpensive shop light as a light source. They come in various sizes.<br />
<br />
This is one of the smaller ones with an 8.5” reflector. You can get them at any home improvement store or online.<br />
<br />
They'll take any kind of light bulb, but I'm going to be using an LED. These run cooler and have great color rendition.<br />
<br />
I recommend using daylight balanced for the best color in your final images.<br />
<br />
And this one happens to be a 100 watt equivalent.<br />
<br />
Since the light is going to be bouncing around inside the box quite a bit, I wanted something with a higher wattage in order to be able to keep the ISO in the camera down lower.<br />
<br />
I’ll leave Amazon affiliate links to all of this down in the description below.<br />
<br />
First, let’s make a box to contain the light and give us a place to mount the slides or negatives.<br />
<br />
This needs to be large enough for the light to mount to and also so there’s enough room for the light to disburse nicely.<br />
<br />
Too small and you may end up with some shadows or gradients.<br />
<br />
I’m going to use an old cardboard box that was used for shipping.<br />
<br />
You could also use some foam board from the craft store and cut it to the desired size.<br />
<br />
First I mark a circle where I want to put the light.<br />
<br />
Now, I’m going to cut a hole in the cardboard above the reflector for the film mounting point.<br />
<br />
I have a number of different film sizes I work with, so I’m going to make this a bit larger than the largest negative I’ll want to duplicate.<br />
<br />
In my case it’s 120 film and making it a bit larger keeps the thick edges of the cardboard from casting shadows on the film.<br />
<br />
This gives me an idea for the size to cut the rest of the box to. <br />
<br />
I want the box to be about as deep as the light is round, so, looking from the top, roughly square.<br />
<br />
The idea is to have the light shine in one direction, bounce off the back and then into the film mounted on the same plane as the light.<br />
<br />
If we put the light on the opposite side of the film so it's shining directly on it, we might get some hot spots or an unevenness of exposure from the middle of the film to the edges.<br />
<br />
Bouncing it this way should help eliminate that problem.<br />
<br />
So, this box is a bit larger than I need. I’ll use a box knife to cut it down to size.<br />
<br />
I don’t want the inside of the box to be this brownish, cardboard color because that would give us a color cast to the light.<br />
<br />
I want it to be as close to a neutral white as possible.<br />
<br />
I'm going to line the inside of this box with white duct tape.<br />
<br />
But you could also use white paint or glue white paper to the inside. We just need it to be white.<br />
<br />
And of course, this step could be skipped if white foam board was used.<br />
<br />
Now that the box is white inside, I’m going to tape the box closed.<br />
<br />
Next, I’ll tape the light to the box.<br />
<br />
To do this, I’m going to first put down a layer of tape on the outside of box.<br />
<br />
Then I’m going to tape the light to the tape on the box, making sure to fold over the end of the tape to give me a little pull tab.<br />
<br />
By taping to the tape on the box instead of the box itself, it’ll be easy to remove the light without tearing up the box.<br />
<br />
We're almost ready to use this, but first we need an easy place to put the film.<br />
<br />
In addition to 35mm film cameras, I have a number of cameras that take 120 film and expose it in different aspect ratios.<br />
<br />
Some give me square images and some give me wider images.<br />
<br />
I’m going to use this thin cardboard to make different holders for the various sizes so I can convert images from any of my cameras.<br />
<br />
For each type of film, I cut a large base piece that covers the hole in the box. These can all be the same size.<br />
<br />
Then each base gets a smaller hole for a particular film format.<br />
<br />
Finally I make holders appropriate for each type of film to hold it in place.<br />
<br />
For slides, I cut some cardboard and glued in a U shape around the hole.<br />
<br />
Then I glued a small piece of cardboard on the corners to help hold the slide in place.<br />
<br />
This will allow the slides to be consistently placed in the same location.<br />
<br />
For film, I’ll use cardboard folded to the correct size to make a sleeve and line it with fabric to minimize scratches.<br />
<br />
I can then run the film through this sleeve.<br />
<br />
Like the area around the opening for the light, I put more tape on the box around the hole where the film holders go and also on the film holders themselves.<br />
<br />
Then whatever film holder I need for the project at hand can be taped to the box and removed without tearing anything up.<br />
<br />
Now that we have the box constructed, let’s put it to use and get it setup.<br />
<br />
I've got a nice stable setup here with the box on the table and the camera on a tripod.<br />
<br />
When you set this up, you want to make sure your camera is straight on with the image that you're taking a picture of.<br />
<br />
If there's any angle involved at all, one side will be smaller then the other and you'll have distortion that you need to fix in post processing.<br />
<br />
They way that I've found easiest to set this up is to level the camera and then raise and lower the tripod until the images were centered between what I was taking the picture of and the camera.<br />
<br />
And then I could move the box in and out to change the zoom level until the image completely fills the sensor.<br />
<br />
In my case, I have a 35mm camera, full-frame, and a true macro lens and 35mm slides that I'm taking pictures of so I can perfectly fill the image of the slide with the camera.<br />
<br />
If you have a different camera, different lens or different film, then the aspect ratios may not perfectly line up and you'll end up with black bars on either the sides or top and bottom in order to see the entire image.<br />
<br />
If you're using a zoom lens in your setup, you want to set it to something over 100mm ideally.<br />
<br />
This'll give you the least amount of distortion.<br />
<br />
If your wider than that, then the edges may get distorted because of the lens optics.<br />
<br />
Now that we have the physical setup, we need to setup the settings inside the camera.<br />
<br />
There's two things we're concerned with: exposure and white balance.<br />
<br />
For exposure, we need to make sure the light's on, set the camera to manual mode and look at just the white light coming out of the box.<br />
<br />
We want to set this so that our camera's histogram is as far to the right as possible without actually getting clipped off.<br />
<br />
I have a video that talks about this in more detail.<br />
<br />
This'll give us the most amount of brightness in our images without glowing out any details.<br />
<br />
For white balance, you want to use the custom setting.<br />
<br />
How this is setup will vary from one camera to the next, so look in your user's manual to find out how to setup yours.<br />
<br />
Now that everything is setup, I'm ready to put a slide in the holder and start making images.<br />
<br />
This box will work with any camera.<br />
<br />
I just showed an SLR but I've got my phone here and I can use it to just kind of position there and take an image.<br />
<br />
It'd be better if I had a tripod for my phone if I was doing a lot of these.<br />
<br />
But I don't and hand held works fine enough for demonstration purposes.<br />
<br />
I also found that digital zoom works but having a clip on macro lens works even better.<br />
<br />
These are inexpensive for cheap ones. They're not perfect lenses but they're satisfactory.<br />
<br />
As I mentioned, different cameras, different lenses and different films will give you different aspect ratios and may require some post processing.<br />
<br />
Slides of course don't require post processing for color correction but you may need to adjust for crop.<br />
<br />
Negatives will need some color correction.<br />
<br />
Obviously you need to invert the colors and I go into a lot of details about different camera lenses and the effects that they have and also how to post process negatives in this video over here.<br />
<br />
I'll see you over there.<br />
<br />
Down here is a video that YouTube thinks you'll enjoy.<br />
<br />
And when making things, remember...<br />
<br />
Perfection's not required.<br />
<br />
Fun is!Harley Pebleyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06610309768015904662noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3524603591900062561.post-28284489448516703002019-11-22T05:15:00.000-07:002019-11-22T05:15:05.804-07:00Woodworking Measuring Tips - 7 tricks for success<iframe width="560" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/PO5HxyNfrOw?rel=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe><br />
<h3>Description</h3>Having trouble getting consistent measurements in the workshop? In this episode, Harley gives seven woodworking measuring tips to improve your projects' success.<br />
<br />
Here at House of Hacks we do tutorials, project overviews, tool reviews and more related to making things around the home and shop. Generally this involves wood and metal working, electronics, photography and other similar things. If this sounds interesting to you, you may <a href="https://goo.gl/0wxKv7">subscribe here.</a><br />
<br />
If you’re interested in learning more about the House of Hacks' values, <a href="https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLWmDBD9SrrwkhVpoZqlHRkQ2SiauhA_eT">here’s a playlist for you.</a><br />
<br />
<a href="https://goo.gl/uVXA8I">And here’s the most recent video.</a><br />
<br />
For a written transcript, go to <a href="https://www.house-of-hacks.com/2019/11/woodworking-measuring-tips-7-tricks-for.html">Woodworking Measuring Tips - 7 tricks for success</a><br />
<br />
Music under Creative Commons License By Attribution 4.0 by Kevin MacLeod at <a href="http://incompetech.com">http://incompetech.com</a>.<br />
Intro/Exit: "Hot Swing"<br />
<br />
<h3>Transcript</h3>Are you having problems with consistent measurements on your projects?<br />
<br />
Today, I have 7 woodworking measuring tips here at the House of Hacks.<br />
<br />
If we're just meeting, I'm Harley and I believe everyone has a God-given creative spark.<br />
<br />
Creativity involves connecting the dots in new ways.<br />
<br />
The more dots you have, the more creative you can be.<br />
<br />
Here at the House of Hacks, I try to show new connections and give you new dots for your own inspiration.<br />
<br />
If this sounds interesting to you, hit the subscribe button and ring the bell notification icon and you'll be notified when new uploads are available.<br />
<br />
The first tip is to square the ends that you're going to be measuring from.<br />
<br />
This way, if there's any angle, it won't impact the final measurement.<br />
<br />
Tip two is to use the same tape measure for your whole project.<br />
<br />
This will eliminate any variation from one tape measure to the next, particularly on the ends that move.<br />
<br />
Those holes may be slightly different from one tape to the next.<br />
<br />
Tip number three is to use a sharp pencil.<br />
<br />
This will help minimize any error from the mark itself, both when making the mark and also when lining it up for the cut.<br />
<br />
And stay tuned to the end because there's actually a bonus tip at the end.<br />
<br />
Tip number four is to use a "V" to mark your cut location rather than a straight line.<br />
<br />
This will help reduce the amount of interpretation when lining up to make the cut.<br />
<br />
Tip number five is to make one measurement, cut it, make your next measurement, cut it, and so forth.<br />
<br />
This will eliminate any drift from the kerf width of the blade.<br />
<br />
Tip number six is, if you're making multiple cuts that are the same length, use a stop block.<br />
<br />
This way you only have to measure once, it speeds up your production and it also gives you much better consistency.<br />
<br />
Tip number seven is to be consistent where you line up the mark with your blade.<br />
<br />
The more variance you have in your alignment, the more variation you're going to have in your final product.<br />
<br />
And bonus tip number eight is, if you're cutting multiple pieces that are the same length, in addition to using a stop block, if you make multiple cuts at the same time, that'll further reduce the room for error.<br />
<br />
Thanks for joining me on this creative journey that we're on.<br />
<br />
I'll see you in one of these videos over here that YouTube thinks you'll enjoy.<br />
<br />
And when making things, remember...<br />
<br />
Perfection isn't required.<br />
<br />
Fun is!Harley Pebleyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06610309768015904662noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3524603591900062561.post-14921469950020034962019-11-08T05:15:00.000-07:002019-11-08T05:15:06.093-07:00Velleman MK105 Signal Generator - assembly<iframe width="560" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/uALk4lUf26w?rel=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe><br />
<h3>Description</h3>Interested in basic electronic kit projects? In this episode of the House of Hacks, Harley assembles a Velleman Signal Generator kit MK105. This kit is moderately easy to assemble. The company rates it as a 2 out of 5 on the the difficulty scale. Soldering is required but is probably a good kit for learning how to solder circuit boards.<br />
<br />
<a href="https://amzn.to/2Nh7P4s">Velleman MK105 Signal Generator (affiliate link)</a><br />
<br />
<a href="https://youtu.be/KyGZIveihiE">Soldering station review</a><br />
<a href="https://youtu.be/X5gHn5rnbVk">How to solder</a><br />
<a href="https://youtu.be/R5iDU4lGLWY">Soldering tips</a><br />
<br />
Tools needed:<br />
Soldering iron or soldering station and solder<br />
Needle nosed pliers<br />
Wire cutters<br />
Panavise or 3rd hand<br />
<br />
There are other <a href="https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLWmDBD9SrrwmVEUcErkO7ciB-h33qb9mk">computer related videos in this playlist.</a><br />
<br />
Here at House of Hacks we do tutorials, project overviews, tool reviews and more related to making things around the home and shop. Generally this involves wood and metal working, electronics, photography and other similar things. If this sounds interesting to you, you may <a href="https://goo.gl/0wxKv7">subscribe here.</a><br />
<br />
If you’re interested in learning more about the House of Hacks' values, <a href="https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLWmDBD9SrrwkhVpoZqlHRkQ2SiauhA_eT">here’s a playlist for you.</a><br />
<br />
<a href="https://goo.gl/uVXA8I">And here’s the most recent video.</a><br />
<br />
For a written transcript, go to <a href="https://www.house-of-hacks.com/2019/11/velleman-mk105-signal-generator-assembly.html">Velleman MK105 Signal Generator - assembly</a><br />
<br />
Music under Creative Commons License By Attribution 4.0 by Kevin MacLeod at <a href="http://incompetech.com">http://incompetech.com</a>.<br />
Intro/Exit: "Hot Swing"<br />
Incidental: “District Four"<br />
<br />
<h3>Transcript</h3>Today at the House of Hacks, let's assemble this signal generator.<br />
<br />
If we're just meeting, Welcome!<br />
<br />
I'm Harley and I make stuff in the workshop, usually out of wood, metal and sometimes electronics.<br />
<br />
This is a basic electronics kit made by Velleman. It's a signal generator model number MK105 and we'll be assembling and testing it today.<br />
<br />
It runs off a 9 volt battery and makes sine waves, triangle waves and square waves at about 1000 hertz.<br />
<br />
Inside this kit... there's the card that holds everything in,<br />
<br />
a battery holder,<br />
<br />
a bunch of components in a plastic bag,<br />
<br />
and a PCB.<br />
<br />
Inside this card is assembly instructions and a schematic. We'll get to those later.<br />
<br />
The first thing you want to do is dump the parts out and separate them into their different types of components.<br />
<br />
These are resistors and they have color bands on them to identify them.<br />
<br />
These can looking things are electrolytic capacitors.<br />
<br />
These flat disc looking things are regular capacitors are non-electrolytic.<br />
<br />
This is a jumper. These are header connectors for the jumpers.<br />
<br />
This is a socket for the chip and here's the chip itself.<br />
<br />
Here is a variable resistor.<br />
<br />
And some plastic stand-offs and screws to mount this. This will get mounted to this when it's all said and done.<br />
<br />
Looks like there's a transistor here with three legs. They're kind of an interesting shape. They're usually a dome with a flat side on them.<br />
<br />
And those are all the different pieces parts.<br />
<br />
And then there are these connectors that will be the ground and output for the signals.<br />
<br />
I think that's everything in here. We'll just separate these out and put them into piles. We'll separate the resistors by component values.<br />
<br />
And there's a diode too. It looks kind of like a resistor. Rather than having the color bands on it like the resistors have, it has a number around it that tells you the component value and also it has a single band that tells you which direction it goes in the circuit. That is important.<br />
<br />
So it looks like there are... one... two... three... four... five values of resistors. Three different values of capacitors. One value of electrolytic capacitors. A single value for the transistors. And there's only a single diode so there's only one of those values.<br />
<br />
When we're putting in capacitors we need to be sure to put these in the right places because they do have different values on them and along with the resistors.<br />
<br />
The electrolytic capacitors, we need to pay attention to their polarity but it's the same value for both of them.<br />
<br />
And the same thing goes for the transistors and diode.<br />
<br />
This is the card that holds all the components in the blister pack and inside here are all the instructions. They're actually laid out really well considering there's not really any writing on them. They're all just illustrations.<br />
<br />
Across the top it shows how to put the pieces in for soldering.<br />
<br />
And then it tells you what to do.<br />
<br />
Generally with electronics kits, you want to start from the smallest components and work up to larger components.<br />
<br />
That way you're not trying to fit small pieces down in between larger pieces.<br />
<br />
This follows that same convention.<br />
<br />
We have the resistors are number one. And this is also very well laid out because it has the numbers for the resistors which are marked on the PC board and the values for the resistor here but over here they're actually telling you what color represent those values.<br />
<br />
So you don't even have to look it up. Whenever it says R1 through R3, use the brown-black-red resistors.<br />
<br />
And when you need resistors R4 through R6 you use the brown-black-orange resistors. And just so forth. Very well laid out.<br />
<br />
Then we put in the diode and then the IC socket and the IC iteself and the transistor, the capacitor, electrolytic capacitors, the potentiometer, the jumper, the test points that have the output and the ground.<br />
<br />
We'll put in the battery connector and then it shows how to put the jumper in to get different wave forms and finally there's a schematic that shows have everything is put together.<br />
<br />
Today, I'm going to just be assembling and testing this. Leave a comment below if in the future you'd like to see this either put into a project box or talk about the theory of operation.<br />
<br />
This is a good, easy beginners electronics project. The only real specialty tool you need is a soldering iron. I've got a temperature controlled soldering station. It's kind of a low to mid-range tool but you don't need anything near this fancy. You can use just a simple pencil soldering iron that's not temperature controlled for this particular project.<br />
<br />
Those can be had for less than $20, I'm sure, and that'll work just fine for this.<br />
<br />
You need a little bit of solder for connecting things together.<br />
<br />
You'll want a fan to blow across the project to keep the solder fumes from rising up into your face.<br />
<br />
I've also got some needle nose pliers to bend wire leads with and wire cutters to trim those leads with.<br />
<br />
And then you need a place to work. I'm using a Panavise tool that's designed specifically for working with circuit boards.<br />
<br />
But you don't need anything near this fancy. Just working on a flat table top, probably want to protect it with some cardboard or something that would work fine. Also, if you need to hold the circuit board, I've use pliers with a rubber band just to hold things and that works well too if you need it at an angle.<br />
<br />
And if you're of a certain age, reading glasses. We will be working in close.<br />
<br />
Let's get this put together.<br />
<br />
[music]<br />
<br />
OK. When working on these, we want to bend these leads down so that they fit into the holes like so.<br />
<br />
And then we find the location on the circuit board that they go in. In this case, this is R8 and R8 is... right... 11... 9... 10... R8 goes right in here so we'll just put this right in here like so.<br />
<br />
And on the back, we'll just bend these leads over, that'll just hold it in place before we get the solder in.<br />
<br />
[music]<br />
<br />
OK. So that does it for the resistors. We've got the diode and the rest of the components to put in. It's all exactly the same process and we'll just work through all of them.<br />
<br />
OK. Here we're putting in the diode and we can see on the printed circuit board there's this heavy bar on the one side of the outline for the diode. That indicates where the bar that's on the diode itself should go in the orientation so you make sure that gets put in there correctly.<br />
<br />
Also, we can see on these electrolytic capacitors, there's a plus side to indicate where the plus goes on the capacitor and also on the transistor, there's a D shaped outline that corresponds to the flat side we saw on the transistor earlier and finally on the integrated circuit, there's a notch indicated on the printed circuit board. So those all need to go in one particular direction and it's important to watch the orientation. For the other resistors and the other capacitors, they can go in any direction you want.<br />
<br />
[music]<br />
<br />
It came out to be a pretty nice little package. I do need to find a 9 volt battery and then we'll take it over to the bench and turn on the oscilloscope and see what the output looks like.<br />
<br />
[music]<br />
<br />
I found a 9 volt battery. Pulled the oscilloscope out and got it warmed up. This is an old CRT one so it takes a little bit to warm up.<br />
<br />
And got everything connected and we can see we have a fairly nice square wave here.<br />
<br />
It does drift a little bit. It's a little bit faster than a 1000 hertz but for a basic signal generation to make audio checks and things like that it's fine.<br />
<br />
It does have some other settings.<br />
<br />
It has what they call an integration setting which we can see here. It's sort of a weird looking signal.<br />
<br />
And then it has a triangle wave which looks pretty nice.<br />
<br />
And finally there's a sine wave. <br />
<br />
And the little trimmer pot adjusts the voltage so we increase the voltage and decrease the voltage if we want.<br />
<br />
So that's not a bad little kit for a couple dollars.<br />
<br />
Easy to put together. Great beginner kit.<br />
<br />
Over here there's another video that YouTube thinks you'll enjoy.<br />
<br />
Until next time, go make something.<br />
<br />
Perfection's not required. Fun is!<br />
Harley Pebleyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06610309768015904662noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3524603591900062561.post-74404805407233208102019-10-25T05:15:00.000-06:002019-10-25T05:20:38.862-06:00What's Inside A Hard Disk | Equipment Autopsy<iframe width="560" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/Z81jKJIo-KA?rel=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe><br />
<h3>Description</h3>Ever wonder what's inside a hard disk drive? In this equipment autopsy, Harley takes apart an old hard drive to see what's inside and explain how they work.<br />
<br />
There are other <a href="https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLWmDBD9SrrwmVEUcErkO7ciB-h33qb9mk">computer related videos in this playlist.</a><br />
<br />
Here at House of Hacks we do tutorials, project overviews, tool reviews and more related to making things around the home and shop. Generally this involves wood and metal working, electronics, photography and other similar things. If this sounds interesting to you, you may <a href="https://goo.gl/0wxKv7">subscribe here.</a><br />
<br />
If you’re interested in learning more about the House of Hacks' values, <a href="https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLWmDBD9SrrwkhVpoZqlHRkQ2SiauhA_eT">here’s a playlist for you.</a><br />
<br />
<a href="https://goo.gl/uVXA8I">And here’s the most recent video.</a><br />
<br />
For a written transcript, go to <a href="https://www.house-of-hacks.com/2019/10/whats-inside-hard-disk-equipment-autopsy.html">What's Inside A Hard Disk | Equipment Autopsy</a><br />
<br />
Music under Creative Commons License By Attribution 4.0 by Kevin MacLeod at <a href="http://incompetech.com">http://incompetech.com</a>.<br />
Intro/Exit: "Hot Swing"<br />
<br />
<h3>Transcript</h3><i>Coming soon</i><br />
Harley Pebleyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06610309768015904662noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3524603591900062561.post-5301266151515547162019-10-11T05:15:00.000-06:002019-10-11T05:15:00.319-06:00Replace Mechanical Fuel Pump - 1965 Buick Skylark<iframe width="560" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/tPRzykopwEY?rel=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe><br />
<h3>Description</h3>How to replace a mechanical fuel pump. This is the topic for this episode in the series on starting an old 1965 Buick Skylark convertible. Last episode, Harley determined the fuel pump wasn't pumping any gas up to the carburetor. In this video we change the fuel pump for a new one. Will it start this time?<br />
<br />
Here at House of Hacks we do tutorials, project overviews, tool reviews and more related to making things around the home and shop. Generally this involves wood and metal working, electronics, photography and other similar things. If this sounds interesting to you, you may <a href="https://goo.gl/0wxKv7">subscribe here.</a><br />
<br />
If you’re interested in learning more about the House of Hacks' values, <a href="https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLWmDBD9SrrwkhVpoZqlHRkQ2SiauhA_eT">here’s a playlist for you.</a><br />
<br />
<a href="https://goo.gl/uVXA8I">And here’s the most recent video.</a><br />
<br />
For a written transcript, go to <a href="https://www.house-of-hacks.com/2019/10/replace-mechanical-fuel-pump-1965-buick.html">Replace Mechanical Fuel Pump - 1965 Buick Skylark</a><br />
<br />
Music under Creative Commons License By Attribution 4.0 by Kevin MacLeod at <a href="http://incompetech.com">http://incompetech.com</a>.<br />
Intro/Exit: "Hot Swing"<br />
Incidental: "Chipper", "Decisions", "Rocket Power"<br />
<br />
<h3>Transcript</h3>In the last episode of trying to get this old convertible started, I concluded that the fuel pump wasn't getting fuel up into the carburetor.<br />
<br />
I've got a new fuel pump and in this episode, I'm going to install it and see if that makes a difference.<br />
<br />
Will this car start after I change the fuel pump? Your guess is as good as mine.<br />
<br />
If you're new here: Welcome!<br />
<br />
I'm Harley and this is the House of Hacks where usually we make stuff. In this case, I'm repairing this old car, trying to get it started so I can start work on another car project that I have sitting over in the corner of the garage.<br />
<br />
I'm going to go change clothes and get to work.<br />
<br />
[music]<br />
<br />
OK. I got the old pump out and the first bolt was no problem. The second bolt gave me a little bit of a challenge. At first I thought it was a different sized bolt head because it didn't want to go on. But as it turned out, it was just some road gunk that needed to get cleaned out and it was in fact the same size as expected.<br />
<br />
I took the old pump off and there's nothing special on these blocks that you need to do internally. The pump rides directly on an eccentric cam inside the timing belt cover and so on small block Chevys, there's a pin that you need to make sure doesn't fall out it's kind of a pain to get reassembled.<br />
<br />
The Buicks are much simpler in that this rides directly on the cam and so you don't have to worry about anything.<br />
<br />
Putting it back on, I may need to bump the motor over a little bit to take some of the tension off, depending on where that cam is in the cycle.<br />
<br />
In comparing these two pumps, they are the same as far as the engine connection is concerned. The flanges are the same. The arms going into the motor are the same and the dimensions overall are the same. They are different though where the hoses connect in and I'm going to need to go to the parts store to get some fittings to be able to install this new one.<br />
<br />
[music]<br />
<br />
OK. That should do it.<br />
<br />
The old fitting for the output side, I was able to use from the old fuel pump. The fitting was just fine. It came off without a problem and the threads fit this one.<br />
<br />
I had to get a new fitting for the input side. The old pump had the connection built into it and the new one just had a threaded fitting and so I had to get a brass fitting to be able to put the tubing on.<br />
<br />
It took me four stops to find this. I found it at the fourth place I went to which is probably a good indication as to why Amazon is killing the retail space. Retailers just have a hard time keeping inventory in stock the way Amazon does.<br />
<br />
So let's get this installed!<br />
<br />
[music]<br />
<br />
So there were two outcomes from today.<br />
<br />
The good news is I was able to get the engine running!<br />
<br />
The bad news is I had to put fuel in the carburetor for that to happen. That's telling me the carburetor is not really getting enough fuel.<br />
<br />
I pulled the fuel line from the fuel pump to the carburetor off at the carburetor and there was a little bit of fuel there but no where near the amount that's supposed to be there to keep the engine running.<br />
<br />
That tells me that the fuel pump is trying to work but its not getting enough fuel to be able to pump it through the system.<br />
<br />
That tells me there's most likely a partial blockage from the tank to the fuel pump. I've replaced everything after the fuel pump to the carburetor.<br />
<br />
So the next video will be investigating that, trying to either flush out the fuel line and clear that blockage or putting in a temporary line in the mean time just to get the project running.<br />
<br />
Until then, I'll see you this video that YouTube thinks you'll enjoy and when making things remember...<br />
<br />
Perfection's not required.<br />
<br />
Fun is!Harley Pebleyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06610309768015904662noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3524603591900062561.post-85161436462300623222019-09-13T05:15:00.000-06:002019-09-13T05:15:02.308-06:00Lights For Sewing Room - Get a Massive Improvement<iframe width="560" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/08osDz8wu34?rel=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe><br />
<h3>Description</h3>Wondering about installing lights for sewing room? Is your craft room lighting in need of an upgrade? In this episode of House of Hacks, Harley shows how to upgrade sewing room lights for a massive improvement. Adding several LED lights in room improved the overall usefulness of the sewing space and for craft work.<br />
<br />
Check out Diane's channel Delightful Light: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCqeC5EK8VMuFCK5t268H4eA/videos<br />
<br />
Here at House of Hacks we do tutorials, project overviews, tool reviews and more related to making things around the home and shop. Generally this involves wood and metal working, electronics, photography and other similar things. If this sounds interesting to you, you may <a href="https://goo.gl/0wxKv7">subscribe here.</a><br />
<br />
If you’re interested in learning more about the House of Hacks' values, <a href="https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLWmDBD9SrrwkhVpoZqlHRkQ2SiauhA_eT">here’s a playlist for you.</a><br />
<br />
<a href="https://goo.gl/uVXA8I">And here’s the most recent video.</a><br />
<br />
For a written transcript, go to <a href="https://www.house-of-hacks.com/2019/09/lights-for-sewing-room-get-massive.html">How to start a muscle car that has been sitting - 1965 Buick Skylark - Part II</a><br />
<br />
Music under Creative Commons License By Attribution 3.0 by Kevin MacLeod at <a href="http://incompetech.com">http://incompetech.com</a>.<br />
Intro/Exit: "Hot Swing"<br />
Incidental: "Mining by Moonlight," "Motivator," "Rocket," "Chipper"<br />
<br />
<h3>Transcript</h3><i>Coming soon...</i>Harley Pebleyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06610309768015904662noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3524603591900062561.post-31620675113871439852019-08-23T23:52:00.001-06:002019-08-24T13:41:55.205-06:00How to start a muscle car that has been sitting - 1965 Buick Skylark - Part II<iframe width="560" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/EMKb9waU1Qc?rel=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe><br />
<h3>Description</h3>Wondering about the challenges of starting a car that's been mothballed for a while? In this episode of House of Hacks, Harley continues the saga of getting a 1965 Buick Skylark Convertible started.<br />
<br />
<a href="https://youtu.be/Y4NOqGNQIwc">Part 1 of this series</a><br />
<a href="https://youtu.be/7zeJkQZKx6k">Making a vacuum cleaner</a><br />
<br />
Here at House of Hacks we do tutorials, project overviews, tool reviews and more related to making things around the home and shop. Generally this involves wood and metal working, electronics, photography and other similar things. If this sounds interesting to you, you may <a href="https://goo.gl/0wxKv7">subscribe here.</a><br />
<br />
If you’re interested in learning more about the House of Hacks' values, <a href="https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLWmDBD9SrrwkhVpoZqlHRkQ2SiauhA_eT">here’s a playlist for you.</a><br />
<br />
<a href="https://goo.gl/uVXA8I">And here’s the most recent video.</a><br />
<br />
For a written transcript, go to <a href="https://www.house-of-hacks.com/2019/08/how-to-start-muscle-car-that-has-been.html">How to start a muscle car that has been sitting - 1965 Buick Skylark - Part II</a><br />
<br />
Music under Creative Commons License By Attribution 3.0 by Kevin MacLeod at <a href="http://incompetech.com">http://incompetech.com</a>.<br />
Intro/Exit: "Hot Swing"<br />
Incidental: “Iron Bacon", “Prelude and Action", “Fast Talkin", “Zap Beat”, “Pump", “Happy Alley”, "Chipper", “Rocket Power", "Decisions"<br />
<br />
<h3>Transcript</h3>Hi! Harley here.<br />
<br />
In the last video on trying to get this car started, I got the oil changed, I siphoned out the fuel and as I was working under the hood, I realized I should probably change the coolant.<br />
<br />
I put a little pressure on the radiator hoses and could tell that the wires inside them had corroded and I didn't really want that floating around inside the car.<br />
<br />
It was probably a good thing that I did. I pulled off the radiator hoses and found that the coolant inside had kind of gelled up a little bit and I'd never seen that before.<br />
<br />
But because of that, I want to really kind of do a power flush of the system and try to get all that gunk out of there.<br />
<br />
So, what I'm going to do today, my primary task is to try to find some fittings that I can attach a garden hose to both sides of the radiator system to be able to flush out both the radiator and the block.<br />
<br />
I want to be able to connect garden hoses to both sides: one going in, one going out, for drainage purposes.<br />
<br />
We'll see if that helps.<br />
<br />
Once I've got new coolant in it, then I need to put new fuel in it, get the battery going and then I think we'll be ready to try to start this baby up.<br />
<br />
Hopefully, we'll get all that done today, but I'm not going to make any guarantees.<br />
<br />
Let's get started.<br />
<br />
[music]<br />
<br />
The trip to Lowe's was a success. I found a 1-1/2" flex pipe to slip joint adapter that fits perfectly into the radiator hose.<br />
<br />
Put a hose clamp on that and that'll work just fine.<br />
<br />
And then going into this adapter, I've got a bushing that slips in there for the 1-1/2" side and the other side there's a 3/4" slip connector.<br />
<br />
And then I've got two hose adapters, one male, one female, and they've got a slip 3/4" connector on that side.<br />
<br />
And so then I'll just take a little bit of 3/4" pipe and put right there in the middle like so and I'll be able to run water in one side, through the radiator hose and then on the other end it'll go into the radiator hose and come out the garden hose outside the garage to be able to flush out both the radiator and the block.<br />
<br />
[music]<br />
<br />
OK. I've got everything hooked up with the water and I have one minor leak in one of the solder connections that I made in my plumbing.<br />
<br />
No leaks around the radiator hoses or the thermostat housing or the engine block or anything like that.<br />
<br />
Water's coming through fine. I have it on high speed on the water, full blast, and I'm getting full flow at the other end.<br />
<br />
So that is really good news.<br />
<br />
One of my biggest concerns with this when I found the gelled up coolant was that there'd be a solid block somewhere in the radiator or in the engine block and it would inhibit the flow.<br />
<br />
There might still be a block somewhere, but I don't really know how to check that without just completely dismantling the engine.<br />
<br />
So, we're good to go now, I think.<br />
<br />
I am going to reverse connections on the hose to put reverse flow through the engine to just kind of help knock loose any blockages that might be in there.<br />
<br />
And then the next step will be to do the same procedure on the radiator and then connect up the whole radiator and put coolant in it.<br />
<br />
[music]<br />
<br />
So now, this is going to be the first time in I don't know how long, over a decade, that I've put key in the ignition with a battery in it and tried to start it up.<br />
<br />
Let's see what happens.<br />
<br />
OK. That is great!<br />
<br />
I wasn't sure if this engine was going to be seized from sitting so long or what, but obviously it's turning over just fine.<br />
<br />
So, now I'm going to just put some starter fluid in it and give it a couple more tries. See what happens.<br />
<br />
[starting attempts]<br />
<br />
We could hear it try to start but the belt started sqeeking and I checked the belt and that pulley is really, really, really hot on the water pump.<br />
<br />
So I think the water pump is actually frozen up even though the engine is turning over.<br />
<br />
So, I'm going to have to do some checking on the accessories on the front end of the engine before I really try to start it.<br />
<br />
[Heavy sigh] If there's not one thing, there's another.<br />
<br />
[music]<br />
<br />
The internet in general and Amazon in particular are great innovations.<br />
<br />
Back in the mid-80s when I was working on these cars on a regular basis, getting parts for them was always kind of hit-or-miss proposition.<br />
<br />
You never knew if when you went to the auto parts store if they're going to have what you needed or if they were out of stock or if they even could get them at all.<br />
<br />
Sometimes you had to go to the junk yard to find parts and hope that they in decent enough shape that you could use them.<br />
<br />
I got a new water pump for this thing on Amazon for less than $20 delivered to my door within a week and a half of ordering it.<br />
<br />
That's just amazing to me. It's mind blowing.<br />
<br />
And I had a choice of many different brands to choose from all under $20.<br />
<br />
And in addition to this, I could go to eBay and get new, original stock parts, genuine GM parts, originally manufacture, exact replacement, matching numbers, everything, for $80.<br />
<br />
Again, trying to find something like that back in the day would have been a real challenge.<br />
<br />
So, the internet is an incredible resource for working on these old vehicles.<br />
<br />
That said, I did get the new water pump and started working on this. When I took off the old one, I did have one bolt head break. Fortunately, it broke just underneath the head and I was able to get some Vise-Grips on there after putting some penetrating oil on the screw and was able to pull the screw out without any problems whatsoever.<br />
<br />
Fortunately, none of the other bolts had any problems coming out whatsoever. That was kind of a concern that something would break off and if something broke off on this then it makes it a much larger project.<br />
<br />
So, I got the old one off and got the new one and started getting ready to put it on. I started scraping off the old junk that was on the mating surface so I could get a good surface for the gasket to seal to.<br />
<br />
And in the process I found a hole on the back side of the water pump assembly.<br />
<br />
The way these Buick blocks are designed, is you have the block and you have the timing gears that mount to the front of that. And then there's a casting that mounts over the top of that that the bottom of the crankshaft comes through and that assembly also contains the back side of the water pump.<br />
<br />
So, it's a fairly thick casting. It's several inches thick that acts as both a timing chain cover and also the mounting for the front of the water pump and then also acts as the back of the water pump.<br />
<br />
There's a common failure with these where the back side will wear through. I believe my Dad had a failure of this mode back in the 70s when he was driving one of these cars and had exactly the same thing. <br />
<br />
He had a water leak. Changed the water pump and still had the leak and further investigation found that it was actually coming through the casting itself, not the water pump assembly directly.<br />
<br />
So, it seems to be a fairly common failure on these, in this design.<br />
<br />
Again, I went to the internet and did some searching and did actually find this assembly. I can get it, depending on where I get it from, it's between $110 and $250. Again from many different manufacturers.<br />
<br />
So, that's a good thing. The bad thing is it's got a seal for the crank assembly and it's more disassembly of the front end of the engine that I just really don't want to go through.<br />
<br />
Particularly for what I'm doing with the car at this point. I just need to move it around the property. I'm not planning on driving it. It's not going to be a daily driver. It's not even going to be registered for the road or insured. So, I really don't want to put that much effort into it at this point in time.<br />
<br />
So, to do a much simpler, faster, cheaper, patch job, I'm going to use JB Weld.<br />
<br />
I've never used JB Weld on a engine patch like this. I've have talked to people who have done this successfully without any problems so I'm going to give this a shot.<br />
<br />
Hopefully it will work.<br />
<br />
JB Weld does come in a couple different formulations. This is the original formulation. They also had a quick setting formulation that has a shorter working time and sets up sooner.<br />
<br />
But in looking at the specifications for it, the quick set has a lower tensile strength and also lower maximum temperature that it's designed to work in.<br />
<br />
So, the original has twice the temperature range that it's going to be working on and so because this is on the engine around the coolant, it's not going to get super hot like the inside of the engine on the block, but it is high enough that the quick setting stuff was kind of on the edge of where I felt comfortable using it. So, I did get the original formulation.<br />
<br />
So, now I'll do some more cleaning out. I'll put some of this on that hole to patch the hole and then I'll also use some gasket...<br />
<br />
Once the JB Weld is setup, I'll put some gasket material on the inside, just in an effort to make sure it seals properly and then I'll go ahead and put the new water pump on.<br />
<br />
[music]<br />
<br />
The other day, I got the patch on the timing cover. I don't think it's a perfect solution, but it's good enough for what I need to get done right now.<br />
<br />
There's always, in working on projects, there's always a balance between practicality and perfection. In this particular case, I need to get it running, so I can move it around the yard and get it out of the garage to be able to work on the other project.<br />
<br />
So, it doesn't need to be perfect for this application.<br />
<br />
This car needs a lot of work on it before it's considered road worthy in my opinion. And this is kind of the least of the issues. So, this is good enough for now.<br />
<br />
I think it's actually good enough, I'm not going to bother putting any silicone sealant inside here. I think that'd just be overkill and so now I think I'm ready to put the new water pump on.<br />
<br />
I've got the new water pump, bright, shiny and ready to go.<br />
<br />
It came with a gasket.<br />
<br />
I got some red, high temperature silicone sealer and some new bolts.<br />
<br />
The procedure on this will be to put some of the silicone sealer along the edge where the gasket goes. Then the gasket will go on top of that and then another thin layer of sealant on top of the gasket.<br />
<br />
Then this will go onto the timing cover. There are two pins in there that will help locate it. And then I'll put one bolt through to hold it in place and then it'll just be a matter of installing the rest of the bolts.<br />
<br />
When that's all done, it needs to sit for 24 hours to let the sealant set up and cure.<br />
<br />
Then I'll be ready to put coolant and try firing this baby up again.<br />
<br />
[music]<br />
<br />
New day. It's been enough time for the silicone to set up and today's task is to replace the lower radiator hose, refill the coolant, attach the battery and we'll give this another try.<br />
<br />
Hopefully it'll work today.<br />
<br />
[music]<br />
<br />
I don't know why I thought that this was going to be an easy project. Nothing ever goes according to plan.<br />
<br />
I started putting the coolant in and heard a drip that was more than what was accounted for my the little bit of spillage that I had when I started to pouring things in.<br />
<br />
I started looking around and found a fairly major leak somewhere around the upper radiator hose where it goes into the block.<br />
<br />
I'm hoping it's just the thermostat housing because that's an easy fix. If it's not the thermostat housing, then the only other place it could be leaking from would be the intake manifold and that changes the project to a whole new level, which I don't know that I really want to get into.<br />
<br />
So, I do have another block that I think has a thermostat housing on it. I'll take that off. Hopefully it's serviceable enough to patch this one and get this thing back going.<br />
<br />
I got the thermostat housing off the extra, spare block and it's in serviceable shape.<br />
<br />
It has a little bit of corrosion on it, but just surface stuff. Nothing really that would make it a problem.<br />
<br />
I'll take it downstairs into the basement and put it on the wire wheel and kind of clean it up a little bit. Get it so it's serviceable on this other car.<br />
<br />
Hopefully I can get the old thermostat housing off without breaking any bolts. I did have one bolt on this one break in the old block. I don't care at this point.<br />
<br />
And then I'll hopefully get this one installed on the car I'm trying to get running.<br />
<br />
[music]<br />
<br />
Here's the old one. You can see right in there, there's a hole.<br />
<br />
That's on the bottom side of the engine where I couldn't see under there. Actually it was filled with corrosion that only became obvious once I got it off and started cleaning it.<br />
<br />
As I was cleaning it, another huge chunk fell off. You can see it right there.<br />
<br />
Now if we look at this and compare it to the new one, or the one that's not in as bad a shape, you can see what that looks like.<br />
<br />
And if we look at the bottom side, you can see how it's all corroded and eaten away on the old one...<br />
<br />
...and how the new one looks a lot better.<br />
<br />
Fortunately, it's not the intake manifold that's the problem. Yay!<br />
<br />
[music]<br />
<br />
OK, that's really encouraging!<br />
<br />
Putting the starter fluid in there, it did try to start and stumble along and ran for a second or so.<br />
<br />
So that's telling me it's got spark. The engine is probably basically is fine.<br />
<br />
I do need to find out why it's not getting any fuel though.<br />
<br />
I took the fuel line off the carburetor and it's completely dry.<br />
<br />
So, it's not getting up from the fuel pump up to the carburetor.<br />
<br />
My guess is it's probably just taking awhile to pull the fuel out of the tank through the line the length of the car through the fuel pump and up.<br />
<br />
So, I'm going to put a vacuum on the line going into the fuel pump to kind of pull the fuel up from the tank.<br />
<br />
Prime the pump so to speak.<br />
<br />
And then we'll see what happens.<br />
<br />
I made this real simple setup to try to pull the fuel out of the tank and get most of the air out so the fuel pump isn't trying to pull a bunch of air through the carburetor as I'm cranking the engine over.<br />
<br />
Hopefully that'll help the car start easier.<br />
<br />
It's just a trash salsa container that I put a couple holes in and epoxied in a couple fittings.<br />
<br />
One fitting is a barbed fitting that will go to the fuel line coming from the tank and the other, I have a compression fitting with a little bit of this hard tubing that the inside diameter of this is the same as the outside diameter of this other hard tubing that's going into the vacuum pump.<br />
<br />
And I'll just push this in here. I suspect I'll probably have enough seal in here just through friction that I won't need any additional clamping on it.<br />
<br />
If I do, I'll just put a hose clamp on it.<br />
<br />
I got this great little air pump from some people that didn't want it any more and they were just going to throw it away and I gladly took it off their hands.<br />
<br />
It has this flexible tubing that's connected to the vacuum side. <br />
<br />
It also has a output side that's pressurized if you need air pressure instead of air vacuum.<br />
<br />
And there's nothing wrong with it. It is a low volume, little diaphragm pump.<br />
<br />
It's pretty quiet though so I think it'll work perfect for this type of application.<br />
<br />
OK. As you can see, we have the fuel pump right here and we've got the vacuum chamber down there that will receive the gas.<br />
<br />
We've got the vacuum line here and the line coming from the tank there.<br />
<br />
Now all we need to do is apply power. Let's see what happens.<br />
<br />
It looks like it's working.<br />
<br />
[music]<br />
<br />
And we got some gas out. Hopefully that's enough to get the air out of the line and fuel up the carburetor.<br />
<br />
[music]<br />
<br />
Well, it's obviously trying. It's just not getting any gas. Obviously. It runs for brief, a second or two, when I put fuel directly into the carburetor and it tries to go for not quite as long when I use starter fluid.<br />
<br />
So, I'm getting spark. I'm getting air. It's just not getting any fuel, enough to keep the engine running from the pump or through the carburetor, or something.<br />
<br />
So, now I need to kind of do some diagnostics on that. [shakes head]<br />
<br />
Off screen: It's not going to catch fire is it.<br />
<br />
On screen: Nope. At least I hope not.<br />
<br />
Off screen: You got a fire extinguisher handy?<br />
<br />
On screen: Yep.<br />
<br />
OK.<br />
<br />
[cranking]<br />
<br />
OK. That's good.<br />
<br />
Well, I had my wife turn the engine over while I was holding the end of the fuel line that goes into the carburetor and nothing was coming out of it.<br />
<br />
So that really points the finger to the fuel pump. We have fuel coming to the fuel pump because I used the vacuum to pull it up. I replaced the fuel line and the fuel filter from between the fuel pump and the carburetor so we know that's all good.<br />
<br />
So the fuel pump is really the only thing left in the system that could possibly have anything wrong with it.<br />
<br />
So the next step is to replace that. That'll be in a future video.<br />
<br />
For now, YouTube has some videos down below of things that it thinks that you'd be interested in and my latest video that I've released.<br />
<br />
And up here in this playlist, somewhere over there, there's other car related videos if you're interested in those.<br />
<br />
Until next time, go make something.<br />
<br />
Perfection's not required.<br />
<br />
Fun is!Harley Pebleyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06610309768015904662noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3524603591900062561.post-26700994043369070762019-08-10T00:59:00.002-06:002019-08-10T00:59:36.942-06:00Does a miter saw zero-clearance insert make a difference?<iframe width="560" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/YuGkG__qwAI?rel=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe><br />
<h3>Description</h3>Does a miter saw zero clearance insert help with tear-out? In this episode of House of Hacks, Harley shows how to make a miter saw zero clearance insert and then demonstrates the results, showing before and after cuts.<br />
<br />
Here at House of Hacks we do tutorials, project overviews, tool reviews and more related to making things around the home and shop. Generally this involves wood and metal working, electronics, photography and other similar things. If this sounds interesting to you, you may <a href="https://goo.gl/0wxKv7">subscribe here.</a><br />
<br />
If you’re interested in learning more about the House of Hacks' values, <a href="https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLWmDBD9SrrwkhVpoZqlHRkQ2SiauhA_eT">here’s a playlist for you.</a><br />
<br />
<a href="https://goo.gl/uVXA8I">And here’s the most recent video.</a><br />
<br />
For a written transcript, go to <a href="https://www.house-of-hacks.com/2019/08/does-miter-saw-zero-clearance-insert.html">Does a miter saw zero-clearance insert make a difference?</a><br />
<br />
Music under Creative Commons License By Attribution 3.0 by Kevin MacLeod at <a href="http://incompetech.com">http://incompetech.com</a>.<br />
Intro/Exit: "Hot Swing"<br />
Incidental: "MTA"<br />
<br />
<h3>Transcript</h3>Are you getting tear out from your miter saw cuts?<br />
<br />
There's two theories as to why this is.<br />
<br />
One says it's a dull blade.<br />
<br />
The other says it's because you're no using a zero clearance insert, like me.<br />
<br />
I've got the original OEM insert.<br />
<br />
Today I want to try to test out that theory and create a zero clearance insert and see how well it works.<br />
<br />
Zero clearance inserts are an easy afternoon project.<br />
<br />
It's really just a piece of wood, cut to the right shape and thickness.<br />
<br />
Put in the saw and a kerf cut in it with the blade that's going to be used in the saw.<br />
<br />
This means that there's zero excess space around the kerf for things to fall into and in theory it helps support the wood so there's less tear out.<br />
<br />
Because it's an easy afternoon project, I want to test this theory.<br />
<br />
I've got a piece of old wood flooring from a previous project that I want to use to create a zero clearance insert for my miter saw.<br />
<br />
But first, if we're just meeting, I'm Harley and this is the House of Hacks where I make stuff out of wood, metal and other similar material.<br />
<br />
I'm going to be using a bandsaw to cut this to rough thickness and then a planer to get it to the exact thickness.<br />
<br />
I'll also use the bandsaw to cut it to shape.<br />
<br />
But if you don't have a bandsaw or a thickness planer, you can use hand tools: planes, files, sandpaper and a hand saw is really all you need to create one.<br />
<br />
So, don't let not having certain tools stop you from doing a project.<br />
<br />
Figure out a way using what you have to make due and get the project done.<br />
<br />
Before starting this project, make sure the saw is unplugged.<br />
<br />
First we need to remove the old insert. This will be used as a pattern for the new one to get the right thickness and the right shape.<br />
<br />
It's held in by six screws. The last two screws are back here behind the fence and they're easiest to get to if the table is rotated to 45 [degrees] to reveal one screw and then the other 45 [degrees] to reveal the other screw.<br />
<br />
And once the screws are removed, it just slides straight out.<br />
<br />
Now that I have the plate out, I'm going to put it flush with the wood and make a mark for the thickness and then I'll put it on top and mark the outline.<br />
<br />
OK. I have the bandsaw setup with the fence so that I'll get a cut a little bit thicker than I'll need and then I'll sneak up on the exact thickness with the thickness planer.<br />
<br />
OK, again, this doesn't quite fit because I cut it oversized intentionally so I could sneak up onto a perfect fit using the sander..<br />
<br />
OK, let's give this a test fit. It's looking really good actually.<br />
<br />
Wow. I'm really pleased with that. There's no discernible movement in that whatsoever.<br />
<br />
It's a really nice test fit.<br />
<br />
I was wondering about putting the screws back in it and as tight as it is, I don't think I'm going to bother.<br />
<br />
I'm going to see how well it works as it is.<br />
<br />
It's time now to put a kerf in it and then do a test cut.<br />
<br />
So, did it make a difference?<br />
<br />
Let's take a close look and find out.<br />
<br />
So, this is an interesting result.<br />
<br />
Here's the original OEM insert with the old blade.<br />
<br />
And here's the zero clearance insert.<br />
<br />
To me, there's no real discernible difference. The look pretty much exactly the same.<br />
<br />
Now, just for test purposes, I put a brand new blade on and used the original OEM insert and it is much, much cleaner.<br />
<br />
So that tells me that the blade makes a much bigger difference than the zero clearance insert does.<br />
<br />
Lesson learned: always have a sharp blade if you care about tear out.<br />
<br />
I'll see you over here in these videos that YouTube thinks you'll enjoy.<br />
<br />
And until next time...<br />
<br />
Go make something.<br />
<br />
Perfection's not required.<br />
<br />
Fun is!Harley Pebleyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06610309768015904662noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3524603591900062561.post-2373685882026714672019-07-26T05:15:00.000-06:002019-07-26T05:15:06.512-06:00How To Make A Window Garden Box<iframe width="560" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/B10jAvz0Z9A?rel=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe><br />
<h3>Description</h3>Interested in starting plants indoors? In this episode of House of Hacks, Harley shows how to make a window garden box. His wife setup a plant nursery in their window that needed a way to reflect light back onto the plants to help the plants grow straight. Harley attaches a white shade to reflect light back into the plants.<br />
<br />
Here's a playlist of other <a href="https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLWmDBD9SrrwnGvvOVw0fEUWimObPJ0x3G">gardening related videos</a>.<br />
<br />
Here at House of Hacks we do tutorials, project overviews, tool reviews and more related to making things around the home and shop. Generally this involves wood and metal working, electronics, photography and other similar things. If this sounds interesting to you, you may <a href="https://goo.gl/0wxKv7">subscribe here.</a><br />
<br />
If you’re interested in learning more about the House of Hacks' values, <a href="https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLWmDBD9SrrwkhVpoZqlHRkQ2SiauhA_eT">here’s a playlist for you.</a><br />
<br />
<a href="https://goo.gl/uVXA8I">And here’s the most recent video.</a><br />
<br />
For a written transcript, go to <a href="https://www.house-of-hacks.com/2019/07/how-to-make-window-garden-box.html">How To Make A Window Garden Box</a><br />
<br />
Music under Creative Commons License By Attribution 3.0 by Kevin MacLeod at <a href="http://incompetech.com">http://incompetech.com</a>.<br />
Intro/Exit: "Hot Swing"<br />
Incidental: "Rocket Power"<br />
<br />
<h3>Transcript</h3>Want to know how to make an indoor plant nursery?<br />
<br />
Today at the House of Hacks, we're going to be talking about that.<br />
<br />
My wife had this space in front of the window where she wanted to make a nursery for her plants.<br />
<br />
So we got her some shelves.<br />
<br />
These are chrome plated, kind of utility shelves that have wheels on them so she can move them around to make for easy maintenance, clean-up, that sort of thing.<br />
<br />
Then we got her these trays.<br />
<br />
These trays have two parts to them. One part has holes in the bottom that you put the soil in and the seeds.<br />
<br />
And the second part is solid where you put the water in.<br />
<br />
When you put this tray in here, the water soaks up from the bottom and waters the seeds, kind of through capillary action.<br />
<br />
And in a couple weeks time, you get this.<br />
<br />
The problem with this though is these plants are all leaning towards the window.<br />
<br />
They get the sun from one side and there's not enough light coming in from the other direction.<br />
<br />
So to solve that problem, we picked up this.<br />
<br />
It's a outdoor roller shade and it just goes up and down and the idea is we'll mount it on shelves here and we can roll it down and it should reflect light back in from the opposite side.<br />
<br />
We'll see how this works out.<br />
<br />
The problem is that it's designed to mount on wood and the shelves are metal.<br />
<br />
So, I'm going to have to make a mounting bracket for this to mount it.<br />
<br />
And then we'll see how it works.<br />
<br />
Welcome to the House of Hacks. If we're just meeting, I'm Harley and I make stuff. Usually it's out of wood or metal.<br />
<br />
Today we're going to be talking about making garden materials for inside and we're going to be using a combination of these metal shelves and some wood.<br />
<br />
OK, here's the plan.<br />
<br />
The shade is just as long as the shelves are and so I can't put anything on top of the shelves and still have the brackets hold this on because it's just too long.<br />
<br />
So, I'm going to use this longer piece of plywood and cut it down so the brackets will fit on here like so, and that'll hold everything together.<br />
<br />
And then in order to hold this onto the shelves, I've got these two pieces of wood that I'll attach one on each side but close enough in where they'll both fit on the shelves.<br />
<br />
And then I'll sandwich the shelf between these long pieces of wood holding this on and these two shorter pieces of wood in the middle just to clamp everything in place.<br />
<br />
That's the plan. Let's see how it works.<br />
<br />
I have the wood cut to length. I have the holes marked.<br />
<br />
The brackets go right on there.<br />
<br />
I've got these self-tapping utility screws that are short enough that they won't go through the wood.<br />
<br />
And we'll just use the drill to put them in those locations.<br />
<br />
And now I've got some longer self-tapping screws that I'll use to mount these two pieces of wood together.<br />
<br />
Well, that's installed.<br />
<br />
We'll see how well it works long term for helping the plants grow straighter.<br />
<br />
Over here I'll see you in another gardening video.<br />
<br />
And when making things remember...<br />
<br />
Perfection's not required. Fun is!Harley Pebleyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06610309768015904662noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3524603591900062561.post-56327214273431931692019-07-12T05:15:00.003-06:002022-12-17T13:20:00.145-07:00Transform Your Photography: DIY Kaleidoscope Camera Attachment<iframe width="560" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/26O4Ksgq5M8?rel=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe><br />
<p>If you're looking to add some creative flair to your photography, a DIY kaleidoscope attachment for your camera is a fun and easy project that will allow you to take stunning abstract images.</p>
<p>In this tutorial, we'll show you how to make this attachment using simple, inexpensive materials that can be easily assembled with just a few tools.</p>
<p>First, we'll start by cutting three strips of mirror using a glass cutter and a straight edge. Make sure to wear gloves and safety glasses for this step, as broken glass can be sharp and dangerous. If you have trouble getting a clean cut on the first pass, don't be afraid to give it another try. It might take a few tries to get the hang of it, but once you've scored the mirror, it should snap easily along the scored line.</p>
<p>Next, we'll tape the three strips of mirror into a triangle shape to hold them in place while we glue them together. Using a hot glue gun, run a generous bead of glue along each seam to secure the mirror in place. Hot glue is a great material to use for this project because it sets quickly and holds things together firmly.</p>
<p>With the triangular mirror assembly complete, we can move on to creating the mounting plate for the camera. Cut a piece of plywood to the desired size and drill two holes in it. One hole should be slightly larger than a 1/4 inch and will be used to hold the camera in place with a bolt. The other hole should be closer to the top of the plywood and should have a 1/4-20 t-nut for tripod mounting.</p>
<p>Finally, attach the triangular mirror assembly to the mounting plate using a couple of unions and a bolt. Make sure everything is securely in place before mounting your camera on the attachment. Once everything is set up, you can start shooting through the kaleidoscope attachment and creating unique, abstract images.</p>
<p>This DIY kaleidoscope attachment is a great way to add some creativity to your photography and capture unique and eye-catching images. With just a little bit of time and effort, you'll be able to transform your photography and see the world in a whole new way. So why wait? Gather your materials and get started on this fun and rewarding project today!</p>
<h3>Additional resources</h3>
<p>Originally invented by Sir David Brewster when experimenting with light, kaleidoscope comes from three Greek words. "Kalos" meaning beautiful, "eidos" meaning shape and "skopion" meaning to observe. So literally, "to observe beautiful shapes.”</p>
<p>There’s a great video talking about some philosophical ideas related to the kaleidoscope: <a href="https://youtu.be/R5RLZ1vx6Zw">Veronica Soare: We are kaleidoscopes</a></p>
<p>Here's another video featuring abstract photography: <a href="https://youtu.be/A5bq3TD-CPM">burning bulb filament.</a></p>
<p>Here at House of Hacks we do tutorials, project overviews, tool reviews and more related to making things around the home and shop. Generally this involves wood and metal working, electronics, photography and other similar things. If this sounds interesting to you, you may <a href="https://goo.gl/0wxKv7">subscribe here.</a></p>
<p>If you’re interested in learning more about the House of Hacks' values, <a href="https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLWmDBD9SrrwkhVpoZqlHRkQ2SiauhA_eT">here’s a playlist for you.</a></p>
<p><a href="https://goo.gl/uVXA8I">And here’s the most recent video.</a></p>
<p>Music under Creative Commons License By Attribution 3.0 by Kevin MacLeod at <a href="http://incompetech.com">http://incompetech.com</a>.<br />
<ul><li>Intro/Exit: "Hot Swing"</li>
<li>Incidental: "Welcome to the Show" and "Riptide"</li></ul></p>
<h3>Transcript</h3>Interested in abstract images? Both stills and moving?<br />
<br />
Today we're going to be doing this at the House of Hacks.<br />
<br />
In today's project, I'm going to show you how to make this. It's a DIY kaleidoscope attachment for your camera.<br />
<br />
It's basically a mounting plate that your camera bolts to and a triangular mirror assembly that can be rotated around if you want.<br />
<br />
You just shoot through it and take a picture of whatever you want and whatever you're making becomes a kaleidoscope image.<br />
<br />
This is easily made from inexpensive materials, most of this was actually just scrap that I had lying around from previous projects.<br />
<br />
The only thing I really had to buy was a couple unions at the hardware store.<br />
<br />
I think that was it.<br />
<br />
Everything else I had on hand.<br />
<br />
For this build, we only need a few materials.<br />
<br />
I've got a base that's 3/8" thick plywood, 3 inches wide and 18 inches long. The dimensions aren't super critical.<br />
<br />
I've got a 2x4 that I'll be using to make some brackets out of.<br />
<br />
Two unions, ABS, 3 inches in diameter.<br />
<br />
And a piece of 12 inch square mirror.<br />
<br />
A couple tools that we need:<br />
<br />
Some hot glue.<br />
<br />
Some tape.<br />
<br />
Glass cutter.<br />
<br />
And a little bit of hardware.<br />
<br />
I've got a t-nut, that's 1/4-20 and a bolt that's 1/4-20 that's long enough to go through the plywood and into the camera and a couple washers to make it so it snugs down tight.<br />
<br />
I think that's everything we need. Let's start making this.<br />
<br />
Welcome! If we're just meeting, I'm Harley and this is the House of Hacks where I make stuff, usually out of wood and metal.<br />
<br />
Today it happens to also include mirrors, tape and a little bit of hot glue.<br />
<br />
This is the base that, off camera, I drilled two holes in. One is a little bit larger than a 1/4" where the bolt will go through from the bottom and hold the camera in place.<br />
<br />
The other is up here closer to about a third of the way up that has a 1/4-20 t-nut in it and this'll be for tripod mounting.<br />
<br />
The dimensions of this piece are 3/8" thick plywood. It's 3" wide and 18" long.<br />
<br />
The dimensions aren't super critical just as long as you have a good base to mount the camera to and it's long enough for the mirrors that we're going to be cutting.<br />
<br />
OK. I've got the gloves on because I want to be safe.<br />
<br />
We want three strips of mirror out of here that are 1 and 3/4" wide each and so I'm going to make a mark on where I want that cut.<br />
<br />
And I'll lay a straight edge down on those marks. I've got the glass cutter.<br />
<br />
We need to give ourselves a little bit of extra room to compensate for the thickness of the glass cutter.<br />
<br />
We just press down firmly and we want to just do a single pass.<br />
<br />
And then we'll see if this breaks. And I do have my safety glasses on.<br />
<br />
And that didn't work too well. I don't think I was pressing down quite hard enough.<br />
<br />
Generally, you don't want to try to do two cuts. You want to score it in the first pass. I'll give this another try.<br />
<br />
That looks better. I should be able to just... snap it like so.<br />
<br />
And we didn't get as good a cut as I would have liked.<br />
<br />
If you notice, this edge didn't get cut very well. We'll try again.<br />
<br />
And you should hear a creaking sound.<br />
<br />
That's much better!<br />
<br />
OK. So now we have our three pieces of glass.<br />
<br />
And now I'm going to take a piece of tape and tape this into a triangle.<br />
<br />
That's just a temporary thing to hold it while we glue it.<br />
<br />
Now that we have the mirror in a triangle formation, temporarily held in place by the tape, I'm going to just use the glue gun and run a bead along each of the seams.<br />
<br />
And this will be what really holds it in place for good.<br />
<br />
We just want to take out time and run a very generous bead along each of the edges.<br />
<br />
Hot glue is one of those things that I don't think is really given enough credit in the workshop.<br />
<br />
It is a really handy material to work with when holding things together either temporarily or even permanently on projects.<br />
<br />
It would be nice if it set up a little bit faster.<br />
<br />
One of the cool things about this project is it doesn't have to be perfect. There's a lot of leeway for kind of imperfections that really won't show up in the final product.<br />
<br />
This is definitely one of those cases where we're looking for utility over beauty.<br />
<br />
OK. I'm going to let that sit for a couple minutes and let that really setup well.<br />
<br />
The hot glue has setup and I took the temporary tape off and finished up the seams with some more hot glue there in the middle where the tape was.<br />
<br />
And so now we don't really have any sharp edges on this glass. The corners are a little bit sharp but we don't have any cut edges exposed like we did before so we don't really need the gloves.<br />
<br />
The next step is to wrap this whole thing in tape. That will do a couple things.<br />
<br />
It will make it light tight along the edges so we don't have any light leakage.<br />
<br />
It will also, if anything should happen to this and it should break, then it'll help contain the mess and won't get glass all over the place.<br />
<br />
I've got some duct tape, so let's start wrapping this up.<br />
<br />
Now I'll take the utility knife and just cut the edges here.<br />
<br />
I think we have everything now ready to assemble.<br />
<br />
The unions I have have a little tab on them from the manufacturing process and I want to put those on the outside of this assembly so I want to make sure I know where those are relative to the mounting brackets.<br />
<br />
So, those just slide inside the mounting brackets like so, so now that'll help hold everything together so this part doesn't slide in and out as much.<br />
<br />
And now, if everything is setup right, this should just kind of have a pretty snug fit inside these unions. And it's looking really good.<br />
<br />
The tape gives it a good snug fit and if it's a little loose, you can just wrap a little tape around this and it'll hold it nice and tight.<br />
<br />
So we've got one side in and now the other side should just kind of go in the same way.<br />
<br />
And now we're ready to glue this down.<br />
<br />
Now when I cut this, I did put one of these edges thinner. So I want to make sure that's on the bottom.<br />
<br />
And then when this gets glued in, it'll be just like that.<br />
<br />
We're ready to mount this.<br />
<br />
I've got the camera bolted to the base plate so that I know exactly where I want to mount this.<br />
<br />
So this will mount in front of the lens and I want to make sure that I have enough room for the lens to move in and out but I don't want it so much that I have a lot of light leakage around it.<br />
<br />
I made sure I have the thin part of my wood down here and so I think that's pretty much where I want to put it is right about there.<br />
<br />
I'll just turn this over and run a bead of hot glue along this edge.<br />
<br />
Now I'll turn it over and I have a little bit of set time where I can get things lined up just right.<br />
<br />
I want to try to get it as centered as I can and get it going as straight as I can with the camera going along the axis of the mirrors.<br />
<br />
It's just a matter of letting the glue set now.<br />
<br />
Assembly is complete. Let's go make some images.<br />
<br />
I'll see you in this video where I show you how to make some other abstract images using light bulbs.<br />
<br />
But in the mean time, let's go make some images.<br />
<br />
Remember, perfection's not required.<br />
<br />
Fun is!Harley Pebleyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06610309768015904662noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3524603591900062561.post-45532709063802361202019-06-28T05:15:00.000-06:002019-07-10T22:12:06.532-06:00Silverado Tailgate Won't Open - How to fix broken tailgate latch without tools<iframe width="560" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/rD4m5Mqr6Z8?rel=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe><br />
<h3>Description</h3>Have a situation where a Silverado tailgate won't open? In today's House of Hacks episode, Harley shows how easy it is to fix a Chevrolet pickup tailgate latch that won't unlock. This is a simple job that can be done in minutes, without tools.<br />
<br />
<a href="https://amzn.to/2J1zvGU">Silverado Tailgate Handle Rod Retainer Clips (Affiliate link)</a><br />
<br />
Here at House of Hacks we do tutorials, project overviews, tool reviews and more related to making things around the home and shop. Generally this involves wood and metal working, electronics, photography and other similar things. If this sounds interesting to you, you may <a href="https://goo.gl/0wxKv7">subscribe here.</a><br />
<br />
If you’re interested in learning more about the House of Hacks' values, <a href="https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLWmDBD9SrrwkhVpoZqlHRkQ2SiauhA_eT">here’s a playlist for you.</a><br />
<br />
<a href="https://goo.gl/uVXA8I">And here’s the most recent video.</a><br />
<br />
For a written transcript, go to <a href="https://www.house-of-hacks.com/2019/06/silverado-tailgate-wont-open-how-to-fix.html">Silverado Tailgate Won't Open - How to fix broken tailgate latch without tools</a><br />
<br />
Music under Creative Commons License By Attribution 3.0 by Kevin MacLeod at <a href="http://incompetech.com">http://incompetech.com</a>.<br />
Intro/Exit: "Hot Swing"<br />
<br />
<h3>Transcript</h3>Uh, oh! This isn't good.<br />
<br />
I had this happen the other day... I went to open the tailgate and it wouldn't open.<br />
<br />
So, let's tear into this and see what's going on.<br />
<br />
The bezel doesn't have any screws on it at all and there's nothing on the back that would control the bezel, so I think it's just a press fit.<br />
<br />
And... yep... sure enough... it just kind of snaps into place.<br />
<br />
So, I pulled on the top and the bottom just lifted out.<br />
<br />
And... yep... there's a rod in here that's not unlatching properly and has a little plastic piece on it. So, I think that's probably what's broken.<br />
<br />
Welcome to the House of Hacks.<br />
<br />
If we're just meeting, I'm Harley and I make stuff, usually out of wood or metal.<br />
<br />
But today, I'm fixing stuff. Specifically the tailgate for a 2005 Silverado.<br />
<br />
OK. So we can see this is floating free and it's broken off from this hole where it's supposed to be going in.<br />
<br />
To take this off, all I'm going to do is rotate this down and then it just slides off the back of the rod.<br />
<br />
And here's a good one. And you can see that piece that's broken off.<br />
<br />
Now to put this back in, this needs to spring. It won't work if we put the rod on first.<br />
<br />
We need to put this in the hole and clip it in first... like that.<br />
<br />
And then slide the rod into it.<br />
<br />
And then the clip comes up like so.<br />
<br />
And we should be done.<br />
<br />
That works well.<br />
<br />
Now we just need to put the bezel back on. The bottom slides into place in a couple holes and the top snaps into place.<br />
<br />
Cool! That works.<br />
<br />
That's all in all, about five minutes worth of work once I knew what I needed to get done.<br />
<br />
I was able to pick up a lifetime supply of these clips. There were five red ones which go on the left and five green ones which go on the right and these were less than $7.<br />
<br />
So now, if this ever fails again in the future, I have plenty on hand. I'll leave a link to those down below in the description.<br />
<br />
Over here on this side, YouTube has some videos that it thinks you'd enjoy. You can go check those out.<br />
<br />
And until next time, go make something.<br />
<br />
Perfection's not required. Fun is!Harley Pebleyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06610309768015904662noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3524603591900062561.post-59448618304309443612019-06-21T05:15:00.000-06:002019-06-21T05:15:02.656-06:00Workshop Safety Gear - Don't lose your faculties<iframe width="560" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/6AFOITWBIIA?rel=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe><br />
<h3>Description</h3>Do you want to live life without sound or sight or 10 fingers? Protect them! In this episode of House of Hacks, Harley presents basic workshop safety gear and some rules that everyone should follow to stay safe while making things. Topics include safety glasses and other eye protection, hearing protection and other lesser thought about items.<br />
<br />
<a href="https://youtu.be/BS_myTCsgco">16 quick safety tips</a><br />
<br />
<a href="https://www.shophacks.com/dust-collection-and-air-filtration.html#/">Shop Hacks on dust collection and air filtration</a><br />
<br />
Here at House of Hacks we do tutorials, project overviews, tool reviews and more related to making things around the home and shop. Generally this involves wood and metal working, electronics, photography and other similar things. If this sounds interesting to you, you may <a href="https://goo.gl/0wxKv7">subscribe here.</a><br />
<br />
If you’re interested in learning more about the House of Hacks' values, <a href="https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLWmDBD9SrrwkhVpoZqlHRkQ2SiauhA_eT">here’s a playlist for you.</a><br />
<br />
<a href="https://goo.gl/uVXA8I">And here’s the most recent video.</a><br />
<br />
For a written transcript, go to <a href="hhttps://www.house-of-hacks.com/2019/06/workshop-safety-gear.html">Workshop Safety Gear - Don't lose your faculties</a><br />
<br />
Music under Creative Commons License By Attribution 3.0 by Kevin MacLeod at <a href="http://incompetech.com">http://incompetech.com</a>.<br />
Intro/Exit: "Hot Swing"<br />
<br />
<h3>Transcript</h3>[Norm Abram's voice] But before we use any power tools, let's talk about shop safety.<br />
<br />
Be sure read, understand and follow all the safety rules that come with your power tools.<br />
<br />
Knowing how to use your power tools properly will greatly reduce the risk of personal injury.<br />
<br />
And remember this, there is no more important safety rule than to wear these, safety glasses.<br />
<br />
I'm sure many of us remember Norm's sound advice from back in the day.<br />
<br />
While an important start, workshop safety gear goes far beyond just safety glasses and we're starting right now.<br />
<br />
Welcome to the House of Hacks.<br />
<br />
If we're just meeting, I'm Harley and I make stuff out of wood, metal and sometimes other materials.<br />
<br />
And sometimes I talk about other issues, such as today, for National Safety Month, I want to talk a little bit about shop safety.<br />
<br />
To start, I want to acknowledge that if you watch some of my videos, I wouldn't be surprised if you found violations of some of what I talk about today.<br />
<br />
In the home shop, ultimately, you're the only one responsible for your own safety and you have to make the judgement call about what to do and how to do it.<br />
<br />
In my opinion, the two most important pieces of safety gear are eye protection and ear protection.<br />
<br />
Anytime a power tool is used, or a hand tool with high forces, such as a hammer or a press, eye protection is critical.<br />
<br />
Since I wear both glasses and contacts, I have solutions for both.<br />
<br />
But even if you don't wear corrective lenses, it's a good idea to have both on hand in case you have visitors that stop by and need some.<br />
<br />
And, while they're better than nothing, prescription glasses are not safety glasses.<br />
<br />
In addition to safety glasses, for some operations, particularly if flying particles are involved, like using the lathe or a grinder, I like to have a face shield.<br />
<br />
This provides additional protection for the eyes as well as some level of protection for the rest of the face.<br />
<br />
After the eyes are covered, the next most important thing is ear protection.<br />
<br />
This is something that for some reason doesn't seem to get as much attention, but in my opinion should.<br />
<br />
This is something that I kind of got upset at Norm for, for not mentioning it more often in his show.<br />
<br />
Our eyes are super sensitive and we know immediately when we get something in them, but hearing damage is much more insidious.<br />
<br />
It tends to happen without us being aware of it and it's cumulative over time.<br />
<br />
Many small instances of too much noise add up until it's significant.<br />
<br />
Since we adapt as it worsens, we don't notice it until it causes problems in our interactions with other people, and by then it's too late.<br />
<br />
So in addition to safety glasses, another must is either ear muffs that go over the ear or ear plugs that go in the ear.<br />
<br />
I have and use both.<br />
<br />
Ear muffs I use for shorter operations where I only need them for a limited time.<br />
<br />
They're easier to put on and take off but they are more bulky and hot.<br />
<br />
If I need hearing protection for an extended period of time, I personally prefer ear plugs.<br />
<br />
They're a little harder to put in but they're more comfortable, they're not as bulky and they're not as hot.<br />
<br />
I get a box of 200 disposable pair for about $20 a box and I use them not only in the workshop but also in the yard for yard work and when riding the motorcycle.<br />
<br />
Another piece of safety gear that's not talked about as much as the first two is breathing protection.<br />
<br />
Primarily involving wood working, like hearing damage, dust is one of those insidious things that causes damage over time.<br />
<br />
I've heard reports of people that have gone without breathing protection for years and have no visible problems until one day they develop an allergy to either wood or wood dust that makes doing their hobby or profession either undoable or very uncomfortable.<br />
<br />
One way of protecting your breathing is with filters and masks.<br />
<br />
This can be anything as simple as a dust mask to a respirator or even something battery powered that provides positive pressure ventilation.<br />
<br />
Examples of the last one, while expensive, also sometimes have built in eye protection and hearing protection.<br />
<br />
In addition to dust, respirators should also be used with chemicals, but be sure that the filter you're using is appropriate for the chemical that you need to filter.<br />
<br />
And also, dust respirators may not filter out chemicals and vice versa.<br />
<br />
Another form of breathing protection is with really good dust collection.<br />
<br />
Tony over at Shop Hacks has this down to a science and a really optimized system.<br />
<br />
His shop air while he's running his table saw has a lower particulate count than the outside air.<br />
<br />
Another unrecognized hazard, and something I'm become more aware of, is jewelry.<br />
<br />
Anything loose can get caught in equipment, particularly things that rotate, and something that would have been a simple brush with the equipment becomes a serious injury.<br />
<br />
Since I wear my wedding band all the time, I rarely think about taking it off when I come into the shop.<br />
<br />
And this is something I've been thinking about: I need to do more proactively.<br />
<br />
I've also thought about the option of getting a silicone ring and wearing it most of the time and only wear the gold band for dressy occasions.<br />
<br />
Shop dress code is another item that's not talked about too much but is a safety gear concern too.<br />
<br />
Briefly, a couple items...<br />
<br />
Wear cotton. It's less flammable than synthetic material and not as prone to melt into your skin if something hot hits it.<br />
<br />
Wear close-toed shoes or boots. Again, hot flying metal or falling off-cuts aren't going to penetrate leather. Never wear sandals or flip-flops.<br />
<br />
Nothing loose. Always short sleeves. Make sure everything fits well and no ties.<br />
<br />
I'd love to hear in the comments what you consider essential safety gear. Did I miss anything critical?<br />
<br />
I'll see you in this video where I talk about 16 safety tips in two minutes.<br />
<br />
And after watching that video, when making things remember...<br />
<br />
Perfection's not required. Fun is!Harley Pebleyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06610309768015904662noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3524603591900062561.post-4161723578865793462019-06-14T06:15:00.000-06:002019-06-16T12:15:00.100-06:00Universal Mobile Base For Table Saw and other tools - Portamate PM-1100<iframe width="560" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/eco8c7wsSM8?rel=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe><br />
<h3>Description</h3>Imagine, what would shop life be like if you could easily move any tool around? In this episode of the House of Hacks, Harley opens, assembles and installs a universal mobile base for table saw. Used in this video is a Bora Portamate PM-1100 kit that is a DIY mobile base for power tools.<br />
<br />
<a href="https://amzn.to/2WwOT2K">Portamate PM-1100 (Amazon affiliate link)</a><br />
<br />
Here at House of Hacks we do tutorials, project overviews, tool reviews and more related to making things around the home and shop. Generally this involves wood and metal working, electronics, photography and other similar things. If this sounds interesting to you, you may <a href="https://goo.gl/0wxKv7">subscribe here.</a><br />
<br />
If you’re interested in learning more about the House of Hacks' values, <a href="https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLWmDBD9SrrwkhVpoZqlHRkQ2SiauhA_eT">here’s a playlist for you.</a><br />
<br />
<a href="https://goo.gl/uVXA8I">And here’s the most recent video.</a><br />
<br />
For a written transcript, go to <a href="https://www.house-of-hacks.com/2019/06/universal-mobile-base-for-table-saw-and.html">Universal Mobile Base For Table Saw and other tools - Portamate PM-1100</a><br />
<br />
Music under Creative Commons License By Attribution 3.0 by Kevin MacLeod at <a href="http://incompetech.com">http://incompetech.com</a>.<br />
Intro/Exit: "Hot Swing"<br />
Incidental: "Riptide"<br />
<br />
<h3>Transcript</h3>Imagine, what would it be like if you could move your larger tools around the workshop?<br />
<br />
How would a universal mobile base for your table saw or other tools change your workflow?<br />
<br />
Would you have more flexibility for storage?<br />
<br />
Would your shop be more space efficient?<br />
<br />
Would your tools be easier to use for different sizes of materials?<br />
<br />
Today at the House of Hacks we’re going to be looking at how to do this.<br />
<br />
About 18 months ago, I went to my Dad’s to pick up some tools that had been my Granddad's. When I got back, I did a video of what I brought back with me and I'll leave a link up here in the cards.<br />
<br />
Recently, I made another trip to pick up a few more things that had been left behind. Most notably was a larger table saw that had been my Granddad's and he'd built a base for it.<br />
<br />
It's going to be a great upgrade to my current small one but it's much larger and won't fit in the workshop the way it's currently organized.<br />
<br />
So I looked at what I needed and what I had and changed my approach to my shop's organization.<br />
<br />
Previously, all my large tools were set and ready to use in fixed locations. This had the advantage of being quick to setup.<br />
<br />
But it has two disadvantages. One is it takes more floor space because you have to dedicate room around the tool in order to work.<br />
<br />
And two, you have less flexibility in your material handling in and out of the equipment.<br />
<br />
In addition to the tools taking up floor space, I also had two 6' snap together utility shelves that contained various supplies and small bench tools.<br />
<br />
I decided to change to a mobile layout where most of the large tools are on movable bases.<br />
<br />
This will allow them to be stored closer together for more compact and efficient use of floor space and it'll give more flexibility for material handling.<br />
<br />
This more efficient use of floor space will allow me to get the larger table saw in the workshop.<br />
<br />
It does come at a cost though of more setup time.<br />
<br />
To accomplish this, I did two things.<br />
<br />
First, I split the two 6' shelf units into four 3' shelf units and then hung them from the ceiling.<br />
<br />
This allows better space utilization closer to the ceiling and it frees up a lot of floor space.<br />
<br />
Second, I converted a number of tools with fixed bases to have mobile bases.<br />
<br />
This conversion is the topic of today's video.<br />
<br />
But first, welcome to the House of Hacks.<br />
<br />
If we're just meeting, I'm Harley and I make stuff out of wood, metal and sometimes other materials. And sometimes I talk about other workshop related topics.<br />
<br />
Today, I'm going to be showing the assembly and use of the Portamate PM-1100 universal base kit.<br />
<br />
On my previous trip to Dad's, I picked up a large saw with a base that Granddad had made.<br />
<br />
I didn't have a permanent location for it, so for expedience, I picked up a mobile base with metal rails.<br />
<br />
These metal rails have holes in them in fixed locations for adjustability, but because the holes are in fixed locations, you don't have infinite adjustability.<br />
<br />
And so it didn't exactly quite fit the base that I already had. It ended up being about an inch larger than it really needed to be on both the width and length.<br />
<br />
I looked around and found the Portamate PM-1100.<br />
<br />
This is a hardware kit that has wheels and all the hardware to mount them to a piece of wood.<br />
<br />
The piece of wood doesn't come with the kit. You'd make it whatever size you want.<br />
<br />
So this allows me to have a base that's exactly the right size for the bases that I already have.<br />
<br />
I'll leave an Amazon affiliate link in the description below.<br />
<br />
With this design, there's two corners that are designed for the back of the equipment that only roll in one direction.<br />
<br />
And there's two corners that are designed for the front with castors that allow you to change direction as you're rolling it around.<br />
<br />
The castors are also designed with levers on them so they're up when you're using the tool and it won't roll around and you can push them down, the wheels drop down, lifts the tool off the ground and you can move it.<br />
<br />
You supply a piece of wood to connect them at the desired size.<br />
<br />
Plywood is usually best for strength purposes.<br />
<br />
When I originally bought them, I was planning on just attaching them to the preexisting bases without using any plywood.<br />
<br />
However, when I actually got them and tried putting them on, I realized there were toe kicks on the bases that interfered with the hardware raising and lowering mechanism.<br />
<br />
So in order to put them where that would work, there wasn't enough material left to attach them to so I ended up going with the plywood anyway.<br />
<br />
I cut some plywood left over from previous projects to the desired size, added the hardware to it and attached those assemblies to the bases.<br />
<br />
But I'm getting ahead of myself.<br />
<br />
Let's take a look at what's in the box and how to assemble them.<br />
<br />
In the box are two bright orange pieces that are the levers for the cam activation and two plates to mount the castors to.<br />
<br />
There are also four corner pieces and wheels.<br />
<br />
Two corner pieces are designed for the rear wheels and two are for the front wheels.<br />
<br />
There are also four flat plates that are designed to sandwich plywood between them and the corner pieces to provide extra support.<br />
<br />
And all the needed screws, nuts and bushings are in a little baggie.<br />
<br />
The rear wheel assembly is straightforward.<br />
<br />
Using the appropriate bolt, put it through the axel hole from the inside of the base.<br />
<br />
Place a bushing on it, the wheel, another bushing and then a nyloc nut on the outside.<br />
<br />
Putting the second bushing on is a bit tricky due to the limited space but holding the wheel flat keeps gravity from working against you.<br />
<br />
The front wheel assembly has a few more parts.<br />
<br />
First put in the foot rest.<br />
<br />
This is what will rest on the floor when the wheel is in the up position, keeping the tool from moving around.<br />
<br />
It just screws into pre-threaded holes in the corner piece and is secured with a jam nut once the height is set as desired.<br />
<br />
Then put a carriage bolt through the top square hole.<br />
<br />
Put a bushing on the bolt followed by the orange piece, flat side up, followed by another bushing and pushed through the other side of the support.<br />
<br />
A split lock washer goes on followed by a standard nut.<br />
<br />
Put another carriage bolt through the other square hole and then the grey plate.<br />
<br />
Note that the plate comes pre-lubricated with some grease.<br />
<br />
Be sure to put the grease side towards the orange plate and don’t get it on you.<br />
<br />
Push the screw through the assembly followed by another split lock washer and nut.<br />
<br />
Finally, the castor can be put through the grey plate and secured with its nut.<br />
<br />
This nut has a flanged surface that acts as a lock nut and goes toward the plate.<br />
<br />
Next measure your tool base to determine how big you need to make your plywood and cut it to size.<br />
<br />
The hardware is designed to work with either 1/2” or 3/4” plywood and comes with different length screws for each application.<br />
<br />
Depending on the thickness you use, you’ll have screws left over intended for the other thickness.<br />
<br />
With the plywood cut to the correct size, place the wheel assemblies on each corner and mark the hole positions.<br />
<br />
Then drill the holes.<br />
<br />
I used a drill press but you could use a hand held drill.<br />
<br />
Just be sure to get them as straight as you can since there’s another metal piece that needs to match up on the other side.<br />
<br />
There is some room for play, so it doesn’t have to have super tight tolerances.<br />
<br />
But the closer you can get it, the easier it’ll be to get everything lined up.<br />
<br />
Once all the holes are made, it’s time to attach the corner assemblies.<br />
<br />
Put the corner piece with the wheel in place, put a flat triangle piece on top with the countersink side up and attach them with the appropriate screws.<br />
<br />
Note that the bottom piece has a pre-tapped hole so no nuts are required for this operation.<br />
<br />
Get all the screws started first, then make sure the corner assembly is tight to the wood before tightening the screws down.<br />
<br />
Repeat this process for all four corners and the base is ready to attach to your tool.<br />
<br />
How this is done will vary, depending on your tool.<br />
<br />
In my case, I just used grabber screws to attach from the bottom of the plywood up into the bottom of the tool’s case.<br />
<br />
My Granddad used 2x4 construction for the base’s frame, so there was plenty of wood to attach to.<br />
<br />
You’ll have to figure out the best means of attaching this for your situation and provide your own hardware.<br />
<br />
Once it’s attached, all that’s left to do is adjust the rubber feet on the front.<br />
<br />
You want to adjust them so they support the weight of the equipment when the wheels are in the up position but are lifted off the ground when the wheels are in the down position.<br />
<br />
Once in the desired position, tighten the jam nut so they will stay in place.<br />
<br />
And, they’re ready to use.<br />
<br />
I’ll see you in this playlist of other shop organization ideas.<br />
<br />
And when making things, remember…<br />
<br />
Perfection's not required. Fun is!Harley Pebleyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06610309768015904662noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3524603591900062561.post-69181477323249870632019-06-10T07:00:00.000-06:002019-06-15T23:49:08.927-06:00Installing a Fire Extinguisher - Fire Safety in the Shop<iframe width="560" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/WBvmFCgMkwY?rel=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe><br />
<h3>Description</h3>June is National Safety Month. In this episode of House of Hacks, Harley shows how to install fire extinguisher to help increase fire safety in the shop. In addition to fire extinguisher installation, he'll take a look at the classes of fire extinguishers and see how well some old extinguishers work even though they expired years ago.<br />
<br />
<a href="https://amzn.to/2K4WAvh">Four pack of fire extinguishers (Amazon affiliate)</a><br />
<br />
References:<br />
<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fire_class">Wikipedia page discussing fire classes.</a><br />
<a href="http://www.strikefirstusa.com/2016/05/five-classes-of-fires-fire-extinguishers-stop-them/">Describes how the different classes of extinguishers work.</a><br />
<a href="https://www.nationwide.com/fire-extinguisher-safety.jsp">Contains the PASS acronym.</a><br />
<br />
Here at House of Hacks we do tutorials, project overviews, tool reviews and more related to making things around the home and shop. Generally this involves wood and metal working, electronics, photography and other similar things. If this sounds interesting to you, you may <a href="https://goo.gl/0wxKv7">subscribe here.</a><br />
<br />
If you’re interested in learning more about the House of Hacks' values, <a href="https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLWmDBD9SrrwkhVpoZqlHRkQ2SiauhA_eT">here’s a playlist for you.</a><br />
<br />
<a href="https://goo.gl/uVXA8I">And here’s the most recent video.</a><br />
<br />
For a written transcript, go to <a href="
https://www.house-of-hacks.com/2019/06/install-fire-extinguisher-fire-safety.html">Install Fire Extinguisher - Fire Safety in the Shop</a><br />
<br />
Music under Creative Commons License By Attribution 3.0 by Kevin MacLeod at <a href="http://incompetech.com">http://incompetech.com</a>.<br />
Intro/Exit: "Hot Swing"<br />
<br />
<h3>Transcript</h3>Fire extinguishers are a great thing to have around both the home and workshop.<br />
<br />
Today at the House of Hacks I'm going to see how well these old fire extinguishers still work and install some new ones.<br />
<br />
In the process I'll also talk about the different types of fire extinguishers that exist and what I choose to replace my old ones.<br />
<br />
Welcome to the House of Hacks!<br />
<br />
If we're just meeting, I'm Harley and I make things out of wood, metal and other materials. I also talk about other workshop related topics.<br />
<br />
Since June is National Safety Month, today I'm going to talk about fire safety in the workshop.<br />
<br />
I have these old fire extinguishers that I've had for a number of years that tend to float between the workshop, the garage and the utility room depending on where I'm working.<br />
<br />
But they have a few problems.<br />
<br />
First, fire extinguishers are only good for so long. The contents in them have a tendency to compress over time and make them less effective. These fire extinguishers are over twenty years old so they're long past their expiration date.<br />
<br />
Secondly, they're really small. Even in their prime when they were brand new, they wouldn't have put out much of a fire.<br />
<br />
And finally, they're not rechargeable. This means that, since they're expired, they just have to be thrown away.<br />
<br />
To remedy these issues, I got a four pack deal of these new fire extinguishers off Amazon. I'll leave a link below in the description if case you're interested.<br />
<br />
These are 1) new, 2) rechargeable and 3) much larger.<br />
<br />
By getting a four pack, I'm able to place them strategically around the property in places where fires are most likely to occur.<br />
<br />
As DIY projects go, installation is pretty simple.<br />
<br />
One thing of note though, the Amazon description says they come with wall hangers.<br />
<br />
This isn't quite true. They have a loop on the extinguisher to hang them from but no actual wall hardware.<br />
<br />
So I went down to the home improvement store and picked up a pack of simple hangers to hang them from.<br />
<br />
Here in the shop, I'm going to put it here on the wall with other personal protection gear.<br />
<br />
One right here easily accessible from the stairs, next to the furnace in the utility room.<br />
<br />
One here in the utility room that's immediately adjacent to both the kitchen and the garage behind me.<br />
<br />
And conveniently, there's a stud located right in the middle of the wall.<br />
<br />
And here in the garden shed, I was thinking of putting one right here next to the door.<br />
<br />
Here in the shed we have fuel and oil and grass clippings and hot engines.<br />
<br />
Seems like a really bad combination and a great place for a fire extinguisher.<br />
<br />
There are 5 classes of fire that extinguishers might be designed for.<br />
<br />
Class A fires are normal combustibles. Things like trash, wood, paper, and plastic.<br />
<br />
Class B fires are where the fuel is flammable liquids or gas. Around the workshop, petroleum based products are the common combustable.<br />
<br />
Class C fires are where electrical components are the source of ignition. Things around the workshop include sparking motors, transformers and extension cords.<br />
<br />
Class D fires where a combustible metal is actually burning. Examples of these types of metals are things like magnesium, titanium, and aluminum. The latter being what would most commonly be found in the workshop.<br />
<br />
And the last class is K where combustion is in the kitchen from a liquids used in cooking. Fats, greases and oils are the typical examples. This is actually a special case of class B that was created for the special and unique properties of kitchen fires in the commercial environment.<br />
<br />
The new fire extinguishers are designed for classes A, B and C since these are the most common combustables that are going to be found around the home. I figure we're not going to need anything specialized for the kitchen since we're not in a commercial environment where we have the large quantities and specialized equipment that that class was designed for.<br />
<br />
Let's head outside and see how the old fire extinguishers work.<br />
<br />
OK, we're out here in this controlled environment: the fire pit.<br />
<br />
The fire's starting to go and we're going to test out these old fire extinguishers.<br />
<br />
I've never actually used a fire extinguisher, so I've don't have any personal experience with it but there is a handy acronym that's used to describe how you're supposed to use them and it's PASS.<br />
<br />
P is Pull the pin.<br />
<br />
A is Aim at the base of the fire extinguisher.<br />
<br />
S is Squeeze the handle.<br />
<br />
And the other S is Sweep across the base of the fire.<br />
<br />
The idea is you want to aim at the fuel that's providing the fire, not the flames themselves.<br />
<br />
So let's let this get going a bit better and we'll give it a try.<br />
<br />
Well, the smaller wood seems to be going really well. I don't know if the big wood is actually going to catch fire. It's large enough, it's kind of getting charred but I don't know that it's actually going to combust itself.<br />
<br />
So, let's give this little small guy a try.<br />
<br />
So, I pull the pin. It's got a little lever here on this particular one.<br />
<br />
And the idea is we aim at the base of the fire and squeeze the handle here and sweep across.<br />
<br />
So here goes nothing.<br />
<br />
Well, there you can see. Even though that 20 year old fire extinguisher worked fine on this little, tiny small fire of course. <br />
<br />
It's still a little bit warm. It didn't cool it down, but it did extinguish it and I can still hear the wood kind of popping a little bit, but it does seem to work.<br />
<br />
Like I said, that was for a small fire. It was... so like on a kitchen, it'd probably work fine. You saw that it only lasted for a couple seconds, so I don't think it would have done a real good job for anything of any significant size.<br />
<br />
At this point, I'm not going to use the other one because I'm guessing it's probably still fairly decent shape and I'll end up putting it somewhere just as a backup.<br />
<br />
I’ll see you in the playlist that's on the screen right now of tips and tricks for the workshop.<br />
<br />
When making things, remember...<br />
<br />
Perfection's not required. Fun is!<br />
Harley Pebleyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06610309768015904662noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3524603591900062561.post-82526976313790084552019-05-24T05:00:00.000-06:002019-05-24T05:00:15.850-06:00How To Make Gardening Tools At Home: Handheld Dibber<iframe width="560" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/n9-DKZnVGAw?rel=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe><br />
<h3>Description</h3>Interested in how to make gardening tools at home? Need a seedling planter for your garden? Want to make a simple DIY project for your gardening enthusiast? In this episode in the House of Hacks series' on DIY gardening tools, Harley shows how to make a handheld dibber, also known as a dibbler. Springtime is upon us and making homemade gardening tools can be an easy workshop project for either yourself or a loved one. The dibber is an especially easy-to-make DIY tool to help plant seeds and seedlings that requires minimal tools and time and is particularly suited for kids and beginners. These simple tools make great gifts for the gardener in your life.<br />
<br />
Previous video gardening tool video: <a href="https://youtu.be/O5mQRSur7z0">How to make a long dibber</a><br />
<br />
Inspired by <a href="https://youtu.be/vFqHe9qqZwU?t=1068">this Charles Dowding video</a> and <a href="https://www.charlesdowding.co.uk/product/charles-long-handled-dibber/">this blog article</a>.<br />
<br />
Here at House of Hacks we do tutorials, project overviews, tool reviews and more related to making things around the home and shop. Generally this involves wood and metal working, electronics, photography and other similar things. If this sounds interesting to you, you may <a href="https://goo.gl/0wxKv7">subscribe here.</a><br />
<br />
If you’re interested in learning more about the House of Hacks' values, <a href="https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLWmDBD9SrrwkhVpoZqlHRkQ2SiauhA_eT">here’s a playlist for you.</a><br />
<br />
<a href="https://goo.gl/uVXA8I">And here’s the most recent video.</a><br />
<br />
For a written transcript, go to <a href="https://www.house-of-hacks.com/2019/05/how-to-make-gardening-tools-at-home.html">How To Make Gardening Tools at Home: Handheld dibber</a><br />
<br />
Music under Creative Commons License By Attribution 3.0 by Kevin MacLeod at <a href="http://incompetech.com">http://incompetech.com</a>.<br />
Intro/Exit: "Hot Swing"<br />
Incidental: "Chipper"<br />
<br />
<h3>Transcript</h3>Are you looking for an easy to use gardening tool to plant seedlings?<br />
<br />
Do you need a simple to make gift idea for the gardener in your life?<br />
<br />
In today's episode of how to make gardening tools at home, we're going to make this handheld dibber.<br />
<br />
With spring in full bloom, DIY gardening tools are a popular project for either your own use or to give as gift ideas.<br />
<br />
In an earlier House of Hacks episode, I showed you how to make a long dibber out of a rake handle.<br />
<br />
A long dibber is useful when planting seeds and seedlings in large beds at ground level.<br />
<br />
This handheld dibber is useful in smaller areas, such as raised beds.<br />
<br />
Before making the long dibber, I cut off about 12 inches from the end of the handle in order to make this smaller handheld dibber.<br />
<br />
Conceptually the idea is the same.<br />
<br />
We're going to be putting a rounded point on the end to make holes in the soil for seeds and seedlings but we're going to be adding a few extra features to this one.<br />
<br />
In this project I'm going to use a lathe, just to show a different way of doing the same thing, but if you don't have access to a lathe, you could do the same thing as I showed before with a sanding station, or by hand with sandpaper, files or a rasp.<br />
<br />
Today, I'll also be connecting two round objects to each other at 90 degree angles. <br />
<br />
Stick around to see how I do that.<br />
<br />
Welcome! If we're just meeting, I'm Harley and this is the House of Hacks where we make stuff out of wood, metal, electronics and other similar materials in order to inspire you on your creative journey.<br />
<br />
For this project, to start, I'm going to cut off about 4 inches from the end of this wood.<br />
<br />
I'll set it aside and use it later on this project.<br />
<br />
Then I chuck the remainder in the lathe and start cutting it down.<br />
<br />
The idea is to reform the end from the slight taper to more of a point with a rounded end.<br />
<br />
Once I have it to the shape I want, I'll use the marks on the tool rest to inscribe a couple lines an inch apart.<br />
<br />
These allow the user to gauge the depth of the hole they're making.<br />
<br />
The last lathe operation is a bit of sanding to make everything smooth.<br />
<br />
Remember that 4 inch cut-off from earlier?<br />
<br />
That's going to be a handle for this piece.<br />
<br />
I used the sanding station to put a slight chamfer on each end.<br />
<br />
So now that I've taken the dibber out of the lathe, the next operation is to attach the handle.<br />
<br />
Originally, I was going to use a hole saw and put a radius on this end for this to sit down inside.<br />
<br />
But I don't have a hole saw the right size for this radius and so the next idea I came up with was to use a Forstner bit to put a flat on here and a dowel to join these two together like so.<br />
<br />
Overall I think this is going to be a much easier operation.<br />
<br />
All that's left is a bit of oil to protect the wood.<br />
<br />
It's ready for use.<br />
<br />
I'll see you over here in this video where I show you how to make the longer version of this tool for use standing up.<br />
<br />
And when making things, remember...<br />
<br />
Perfection's not required.<br />
<br />
Fun is!Harley Pebleyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06610309768015904662noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3524603591900062561.post-40443970697039178132019-05-10T05:00:00.000-06:002019-05-10T05:00:03.397-06:00How To Find A Lost Digital Camera - Unique color codes (Part 4)<iframe width="560" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/fnIfVwq6iqM?rel=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe><br />
<h3>Description</h3>Ever lost a camera or other photo gear? Looking for ideas for how to find lost camera (digital)? This is the fourth in a series where Harley shows ideas that can help a lost camera find its way back home. These travel tips and hacks can help someone who has found a lost camera return it to you.<br />
<br />
Buy online (Affiliate links):<br />
<ul><li><a href="https://amzn.to/2ThkrZB">Colored electrical tape</a></li>
<li><a href="https://amzn.to/2Wjzcx3">Model paint kits</a></li></ul><br />
Here at House of Hacks we do tutorials, project overviews, tool reviews and more related to making things around the home and shop. Generally this involves wood and metal working, electronics, photography and other similar things. If this sounds interesting to you, you may <a href="https://goo.gl/0wxKv7">subscribe here.</a><br />
<br />
If you’re interested in learning more about the House of Hacks' values, <a href="https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLWmDBD9SrrwkhVpoZqlHRkQ2SiauhA_eT">here’s a playlist for you.</a><br />
<br />
<a href="https://goo.gl/uVXA8I">And here’s the most recent video.</a><br />
<br />
For a written transcript, go to <a href="https://www.house-of-hacks.com/2019/05/how-to-find-lost-digital-camera-unique.html">How To Find A Lost Digital Camera - Unique color codes (Part 4)</a><br />
<br />
Music under Creative Commons License By Attribution 3.0 by Kevin MacLeod at <a href="http://incompetech.com">http://incompetech.com</a>.<br />
Intro/Exit: "Hot Swing"<br />
<br />
<h3>Transcript</h3>Ever lost camera gear before?<br />
<br />
Looking for ideas for how to recover camera gear if it's been lost?<br />
<br />
Today at the House of Hacks, I'm going to show you a strategy to help your lost camera gear find its way home.<br />
<br />
I belong to a local photography Facebook group where sometimes somebody will find photography gear that was accidentally left at popular shooting locations.<br />
<br />
Generally, a post goes out to alert people that gear has been found and who to contact to retrieve it.<br />
<br />
Many times the gear can be reunited with its owner.<br />
<br />
Inspired by these posts, this is the fourth in a series of ideas to help your gear find its way home if it gets lost.<br />
<br />
The other videos in the series can be found in this playlist.<br />
<br />
The previous ideas help if your gear is found by a random stranger.<br />
<br />
Today's idea helps your gear stand out from the rest, that may be very similar, when you're in a group.<br />
<br />
Hi! If we're just meeting, welcome!<br />
<br />
I'm Harley and this is the House of Hacks where we do things related to the workshop like metal, wood and electronics projects and other things of that nature.<br />
<br />
Today we're talking about photography gear.<br />
<br />
When you're with a group of photographers, many times people have either the same or very similar gear and if things get jumbled up, sometimes it's hard to figure out who's is who's.<br />
<br />
To help in this situation, select a three or four color combination and get paint or tape in these colors.<br />
<br />
Multi-packs of electrical tape and model paint kits are great sources to get multiple colors of each.<br />
<br />
Electrical tape can be found at home improvement stores and model paint kits can be found at craft stores.<br />
<br />
Or, they're both available on Amazon. I'll leave affiliate links to searches for multiple products of each down below.<br />
<br />
Using tape or paint, depending on the equipment and your preference, put your color code on all your equipment.<br />
<br />
This makes it easy to identify your equipment when it's combined with the same equipment from other photographers.<br />
<br />
If you have friends that do the same thing, be sure to coordinate with them so you don't use the same or similar color combinations.<br />
<br />
I'd love to hear in the comments below if you have any strategies for identifying your equipment.<br />
<br />
And remember, it's a good idea to have a multi-pronged approach and identify your equipment in multiple ways.<br />
<br />
I'll see you in one of these videos that YouTube thinks you'll enjoy.<br />
<br />
And when making things, remember...<br />
<br />
Perfection's not required.<br />
<br />
Fun is!<br />
<br />
Harley Pebleyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06610309768015904662noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3524603591900062561.post-16278005828375341232019-04-26T05:00:00.000-06:002019-04-26T05:00:05.743-06:00How To Make Gardening Tools At Home: Long Dibber<iframe width="560" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/O5mQRSur7z0?rel=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe><br />
<h3>Description</h3>Interested in how to make gardening tools at home? Need a seedling planter for your garden? Want to make a simple DIY project for your gardening enthusiast? In this episode in the House of Hacks series' on DIY gardening tools, Harley shows how to make a long dibber, also known as a dibbler.<br />
<br />
Springtime is upon us and making homemade gardening tools can be an easy workshop project for either yourself or a loved one. The dibber is an especially easy-to-make DIY tool to help plant seeds and seedlings that requires minimal tools and time and is particularly suited for kids and beginners. These simple tools make great gifts for the gardener in your life.<br />
<br />
Inspired by <a href="https://youtu.be/vFqHe9qqZwU?t=1068">this Charles Dowding video</a> and <a href="https://www.charlesdowding.co.uk/product/charles-long-handled-dibber/">his website</a>.<br />
<br />
Here at House of Hacks we do tutorials, project overviews, tool reviews and more related to making things around the home and shop. Generally this involves wood and metal working, electronics, photography and other similar things. If this sounds interesting to you, you may <a href="https://goo.gl/0wxKv7">subscribe here.</a><br />
<br />
If you’re interested in learning more about the House of Hacks' values, <a href="https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLWmDBD9SrrwkhVpoZqlHRkQ2SiauhA_eT">here’s a playlist for you.</a><br />
<br />
<a href="https://goo.gl/uVXA8I">And here’s the most recent video.</a><br />
<br />
For a written transcript, go to <a href="https://www.house-of-hacks.com/2019/04/how-to-make-gardening-tools-at-home.html">How To Make Gardening Tools At Home: Long Dibber</a><br />
<br />
Music under Creative Commons License By Attribution 3.0 by Kevin MacLeod at <a href="http://incompetech.com">http://incompetech.com</a>.<br />
Intro/Exit: "Hot Swing"<br />
Incidental: "The Whip"<br />
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<h3>Transcript</h3>Need a dibber to plant seedlings in your garden?<br />
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Want to make a simple DIY for your gardening enthusiast?<br />
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With spring coming upon us, we're going to make a long dibber out of this rake handle.<br />
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The dibber is an ancient tool that's been around since Roman times. It's also called a dibbler, with an L in it and it's used to plant seeds and seedlings.<br />
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It's a simple tool to make and we're just going to be using a belt sander primarily, after sawing off a piece of this wood for another project.<br />
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Hi and Welcome! If we're just meeting, I'm Harley and this is the House of Hacks where we use our God-given creative skills, talents and interests to make things here in the shop out of materials like metal, electronics, photography and in this case, wood.<br />
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In a future episode, I'm going to make another gardening tool out of this cut off that I just took from the longer rake handle.<br />
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If you're interested in something like that, hit the Subscribe button and then hit the bell notification icon and YouTube will let you know next time that video is released.<br />
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I've got the rake handle here with the end cut off for a future project and I'm just going to mark about a hand width's circle all the way around this piece to give me a guide line to work from.<br />
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And now I'm going to use the belt sander to just grind down to the line and make a rounded point on the end.<br />
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This was about 10 minutes worth of grinding on the belt sander here and I'm going to put a coat of oil on it to kind of seal it and that can be reapplied each year as needed to kind of keep the toxicity down rather than trying to use Varathane or some other synthetic material like that.<br />
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Well that's a simple tool that should be useful for years to come.<br />
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I've got some veggies to plant and while I do that, YouTube has some videos over here that it thinks you'll enjoy.<br />
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And remember when making things...<br />
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Perfection's not required.<br />
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Fun is!<br />
Harley Pebleyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06610309768015904662noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3524603591900062561.post-54914415068470057262019-04-12T05:00:00.000-06:002019-04-12T05:00:10.045-06:00How To Find Lost Camera (Digital) - Use pet tags (Part 3)<iframe width="560" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/x6fsPJf6SRo?rel=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe><br />
<h3>Description</h3>Ever lost a camera or other photo gear? Looking for ideas for how to find lost camera (digital)? This is the third in a series where Harley shows ideas that can help a lost camera find its way back home. These travel tips and hacks can help someone who has found a lost camera return it to you.<br />
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<a href="https://amzn.to/2Tfk029">Engraved pet tags on Amazon</a> (Affiliate link)<br />
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<a href="https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLWmDBD9SrrwmM3vByl3xvgwNHKcChLXjG">Other videos in this series.</a><br />
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Here at House of Hacks we do tutorials, project overviews, tool reviews and more related to making things around the home and shop. Generally this involves wood and metal working, electronics, photography and other similar things. If this sounds interesting to you, you may <a href="https://goo.gl/0wxKv7">subscribe here.</a><br />
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If you’re interested in learning more about the House of Hacks' values, <a href="https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLWmDBD9SrrwkhVpoZqlHRkQ2SiauhA_eT">here’s a playlist for you.</a><br />
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<a href="https://goo.gl/uVXA8I">And here’s the most recent video.</a><br />
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For a written transcript, go to <a href="https://www.house-of-hacks.com/2019/04/how-to-find-lost-camera-digital-use-pet.html">How to Subtract In Binary Using 2'S Complement</a><br />
<br />
Music under Creative Commons License By Attribution 3.0 by Kevin MacLeod at <a href="http://incompetech.com">http://incompetech.com</a>.<br />
Intro/Exit: "Hot Swing" <br />
<br />
<h3>Transcript</h3>Have you ever lost your camera gear?<br />
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Are you looking for ideas about how to recover your camera gear if it ever does get lost?<br />
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Today at the House of Hacks, I'm going to show you a strategy to help your camera gear find its way home if it gets lost.<br />
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I belong to a local photography Facebook group and occasionally people in that group will find camera gear that was left at popular shooting locations. Generally what happens is the person that finds the gear will post where it was found and who to contact to get the gear back. And many times the owner is a member of the group, sees the post and is able to get their equipment back.<br />
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Inspired by these posts this is the third in a series of ideas to help you get your camera gear back if it ever gets lost. The other ideas can be found in the videos in <a href="https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLWmDBD9SrrwmM3vByl3xvgwNHKcChLXjG">this playlist.</a><br />
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Hi! If we're just meeting, welcome I'm Harley and this is the House of Hacks where we talk about workshop related items. Things made out of wood metal electronics and other things of that nature.<br />
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Today we're talking about photography gear.<br />
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The previous two tips were a bit on the technical side and required knowledge of the finder to go look for the information and they only worked for your camera and memory cards.<br />
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Today's tip is less technical and more obvious for the finder.<br />
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And it's this: go get pet tags for your gear.<br />
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You can go down to your local pet store and they have engraving machines where you can have anything engraved on little tags. You can then put these tags on your camera gear. At a minimum you probably want one for your camera and your bag but you can get one for any gear that you want to put it on. However you can't put much information on them. Just your name, phone number and maybe an email address.<br />
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Another place to get them is on Amazon they have a bunch of different vendors with a bunch of different styles. I'll leave an affiliate link below to a search query showing those different options.<br />
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I'd love to hear in the comments below if you have any strategies you use for identifying your equipment.<br />
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And remember it's a great idea to use a multi-pronged approach to identifying your gear. For example this way, while it helps for a lot of your gear, doesn't work for memory cards.<br />
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I'll see you in one of these videos that YouTube thinks you'll enjoy.<br />
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And when making things, remember, perfection's not required. Fun is!<br />
Harley Pebleyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06610309768015904662noreply@blogger.com