The Summer of Chuff - Chufftober 2014 - PBJ'S Moldy Meat

[Howard_Casto]

*rimshot*

Well flashlights still take C's..... not really D's anymore because even most flashlights now have leds in them. 

[Vigo]

Have some kids, you will find tons of worthless crap that take C's and D's.

[Louis Tully]

.

[eds1275]

Have some kids, you will find tons of worthless crap that take C's and D's.

....no

[ChadTower]

I don't know that my kids have anything that takes C or D.  We used to go through like 100 AAs and AAAs a month, though.  And now that they're older most of their stuff comes with embedded rechargeables.  I can't remember many toys my kids had, even going back 13 years, that had C or D.  Maybe a Glo Worm or talking Bret Hart.  Or stuff that was old then that we got from yard sales.

[TopJimmyCooks]

This needs to be the first song you play when you get it working:

My Radio

[yotsuya]

This needs to be the first song you play when you get it working:

My Radio

Will do, with posted video. 90% complete on that project, BTW.

[Nephasth]

[yotsuya]

One of my favorite quirky 80s songs, bro.

[Vigo]

This makes me want to play some ghetto blaster for the commodore.

[yotsuya]

Chuff-date:

The internals should be good to go by Wednesday. Word.

[Generic Eric]

[yotsuya]

And on the last day of the Summer of Chuff for ME (I go back to work officially tomorrow), I give you the completed Boombox conversion project!

[Malenko]

kudos, I love it

[HaRuMaN]

That claw machine looks familiar...   

[yotsuya]

That claw machine looks familiar...   

Some a-hole made me take it in a trade!

[HaRuMaN]

That claw machine looks familiar...   

Some a-hole made me take it in a trade!

You're just mad the wife won't give up the Popeye...

[yotsuya]

She's firm on that one, right?

[HaRuMaN]

She's firm on that one, right?

Yup.  And my daughter seems to like it, too.  Heh.

Sweet boombox, though.  Now you just need to get a payphone in there.   

[yotsuya]

She's firm on that one, right?

Yup.  And my daughter seems to like it, too.  Heh.

Sweet boombox, though.  Now you just need to get a payphone in there.   

Naw, the gameroom is packed to the gills. Once I finish my Vs. Unisystem, I won't have room for anything else.

[yotsuya]

Once of the things I want to do with the Wi-Fi Hi-Fi is have sound-reactive lights. I burned out two sound-reactive t-shirt modules using a 5v wall wart, even though in theory that should have worked just fine. Some wires got crossed and apparently shorted stuff out, but that's because of the way the original LEDs were wired. So today at Fry's, I picked up a Velleman's Sound-To-Light kit. I know Velleman makes a lot of fun soldering kits, so for $5 I decided to give it a try.



It was fun putting it together, and definitely good soldering practice. I did one hack, installing wires in place of the LEDs so I could hook them up to the existing lights in the radio. One issue, though - the system uses 9v, and I have 5v running in the radio. I hooked it up to a 5v test wart I have, and nothing worked. I then used a 9v battery and it worked perfectly. I really don't want to use a battery, nor do I want to add another wall wart inside. Anyone have any suggestions? If I swapped out a cap or resistor(s), do you think I could get it working with 5v? Here's a link to the manualthat shows the components used.]

BTW, these kits are pretty sweet. I might pick up another one just for kicks.

[Malenko]

Welp, I had a new reason to get all chuffy.

Thanks to Santoro:
http://forum.arcadecontrols.com/index.php/topic,140321.0.html

I have a practically brand new monitor (with the most beautiful picture Ive ever seen) to put in my MKII. As seen here:


That allowed me to pull the monitor out of my MK3 that had this anomaly from the chassis:


So I took the good chassis from my MKII and put it on the good tube from my UMK3:

these are actually the 2 left over parts(white line chassis, burn in tube), Im going to put them together and give them away sometime this week. Nothing wrong with the tube, just had an opportunity to get rid of the screen burn so I took it!

loaded up the new hybrid monitor in my MK3 and Im quite chuffy still:



Also a big shout out / thank you to MK3Fan for educating me on how to swap chassis between monitors/tubes.

[pbj]

One issue, though - the system uses 9v, and I have 5v running in the radio.

Stick a 9V wall wart in there, run your sound to light thing off that.  Then have another tap coming off that wall wart and use resistors to drop the voltage down to 5V for your radio....

http://www.electronics-tutorials.ws/resistor/res_3.html

Scroll down to voltage divider network.

[yotsuya]

One issue, though - the system uses 9v, and I have 5v running in the radio.

Stick a 9V wall wart in there, run your sound to light thing off that.  Then have another tap coming off that wall wart and use resistors to drop the voltage down to 5V for your radio....

http://www.electronics-tutorials.ws/resistor/res_3.html

Scroll down to voltage divider network.

Hah! You're the best, James!

[pbj]

At 9V, a couple of 100 Ohm resistors should do it.  Frankly, I'd just start slapping resistors around until I got something close. 

Anything between 4-6V would probably work fine.

 

[Slippyblade]

PBJ's got the right idea.  Voltage dividers are the answer to a lot of problems.  If you know Ohm's Law than they are about 20 seconds of math to make.

[yotsuya]

At 9V, a couple of 100 Ohm resistors should do it.  Frankly, I'd just start slapping resistors around until I got something close. 

Anything between 4-6V would probably work fine.

PBJ's got the right idea.  Voltage dividers are the answer to a lot of problems.  If you know Ohm's Law than they are about 20 seconds of math to make.

Thanks for the feedback, guys.

So based in what you've said and what I read in PBJ's link, would I wire up the 9v transformer like in the attached photo? Do I put a transistor on each line going to the 5v device?

[pbj]

 



9V wiring is obviously fine.

For the 5V:

For ground - one unbroken connection to ground from your power source to the device. 

To get the 5V, join two 100 ohm resistors end to end between ground and your 9V line.  Tap into the connection between the two resistors and run that to your device.

Measure all this out before you hook things up.

[yotsuya]

So then below is what you suggest, James?

BTW, should I use 1/2w or 1/4w resistors?

[HaRuMaN]

100 watt!



1/2w should be good.

[Slippyblade]

If you wanted to get all technical you could always build a regulator circuit.

http://www.instructables.com/id/5v-Regulator/

But that's serious overkill for this project.  Go with the voltage divider.

[pbj]

Could also just string together a bunch of diodes.  Not that you know anyone that did that for years before he found out about voltage dividing.

 

[pbj]

Back on topic, after being startled from my couch slumber, I was quite chuffed to find out that Amazon delivers on Sundays now.



Dinner is served.

 

[yotsuya]

Yeah, it's cool getting unexpected packages on Sunday! 

[Howard_Casto]

Malenko:  Every time you post your MK cabs I want to punch you in the face.  It's totally cab envy though... I still love ya man. 

PBJ:  Ok I know I'm going to regret asking, but .... you bought beef jerky and oreos online?  Is there a story behind that?

[pbj]

PBJ:  Ok I know I'm going to regret asking, but .... you bought beef jerky and oreos online?  Is there a story behind that?

Yeah - it was super cheap.  2lbs of jerky ran about $21, and 4 packages of Oreos were $2 each.  Shipped.

 

(and, of course, no actual money was spent on any of it)

[Howard_Casto]

Cool.  Just do me a favor and don't start posting food sales on the net.  I'm big enough as it is, but getting stuff delivered to my door. 

Yeah you'll find me one day dead from a heart attack in my office chair.  

[Slippyblade]

(and, of course, no actual money was spent on any of it)

He's been dropping hints about his crap all summer.  What are you up to PBJ?  Between food on Amazon and insane deals for your PS collection, what are you up to?  I'm starting to think the FBI might be knocking on your door in some RICO sting...

[Howard_Casto]

eh there are ways to get free money on the net, particularly gift cards.  Bing rewards come to mind.  I haven't paid full price for anything on amazon.com in years. 

[pbj]

This will probably kill me around the holidays.  Please mark your calendars and make preparations to send my corpse off around thanksgiving.

Amazon got tired of offering me an extension of my "student" prime account and gave me a "free" month.

They will regret this.  Stay tuned.