123-reg For almost 15 years I have used 123-reg to host my website. I started off with a simple static html website which I hand-coded in 2004. Then I moved to a wordpress website with a 123-reg virtual server. After that I moved to a 123-reg dedicated server, and this is the solution that I… Continue reading ** SERVER MOVE **
Installing emacs & org-mode on Windows
Introduction At home I am on LINUX pretty much full-time. I only run Windows inside a VM in some special circumstances. But at work I have to use Windows due to corporate policy, so I regularly face the challenge of finding cross-platform software which I can use both at home and at work. One of… Continue reading Installing emacs & org-mode on Windows
Repair of Samsung LE40M86BD Television (power cycling)
Introduction Recently I have had cause for complaint with our Samsung LE40M86BD LCD Television. It had been working just fine, and then all of a sudden it developed a power-cycling problem. The symptom is as follows: From power-on, the TV works perfectly for around 10 minutes. After a while the TV switches itself to standby,… Continue reading Repair of Samsung LE40M86BD Television (power cycling)
Sorting out the Velleman MK170 Christmas Star
Last Christmas I bought a Velleman MK170 Christmas Star project for my Wife to build. She often shows interest in my various electronics projects and I thought it would be a good way for her to build something that she could show off to friends and family, whilst at the same time teaching her a… Continue reading Sorting out the Velleman MK170 Christmas Star
Flashing CyanogenMod onto Galaxy SII via Ubuntu
Pre-Requsites Install Heimdall Visit the Heimdall home page, select “Linux”, and download the package for your distribution. On Ubuntu variants you want the latest ‘.deb’ package. e.g.: ubuntu13.04-heimdall_1.4.0-0_amd64.deb Note that the “Frontend” packages are not required. Everything can be done easily from the command line. Install Heimdall using dpkg: sudo dpkg -i ubuntu13.04-heimdall_1.4.0-0_amd64.deb Install adb… Continue reading Flashing CyanogenMod onto Galaxy SII via Ubuntu
CDTV 3FFF Problem – Diagnosis & Repair
Diagnosis and Repair of a Commodore CDTV unit which has a strange ‘3FFF’ problem. In the first part, below, I diagnose. In the next part (coming soon, will be added here) I repair. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KtxYHoK8vFg
Simple circuit for controlling LED brightness
Recently I was asked to produce a circuit to create a variable ‘dim’ control for an existing LED based exhibition. I decided to go with a simple 555-timer based design which provides control of the pulse width of an output, whilst keeping the oscillation frequency fixed. The circuit is shown below. It’s an unusual design,… Continue reading Simple circuit for controlling LED brightness
Tasker: Disable Pin Lock Near Home
Introduction If you’re away from home it’s very important to have a pin or password lock on your phone, just in case you misplace it or it is stolen. Typically the modern mobile phone is a gateway to a multitude of private services and data, such as personal photos and videos, cloud based data, social… Continue reading Tasker: Disable Pin Lock Near Home
Install Freerouting on Ubuntu 14.04 – 16.04
Introduction Freerouting was a web application created and maintained by Alfons Wirtz at his website, here. It allowed us to import a design file from kicad and then auto-route the project based on some design preferences. It was basically a free auto-router for kicad. Hence the name! For “various reasons” the author has decided to… Continue reading Install Freerouting on Ubuntu 14.04 – 16.04
Recover Data From Unfinalized DVD RW
Introduction Sometimes you’ll end up having to deal with a DVD which has video recorded on it but the author neglected to finalize the disc. This can be a bit troublesome, because until the disc is finalized it doesn’t contain the necessary data to make it compatible with the DVD standard. Most consumer DVD players… Continue reading Recover Data From Unfinalized DVD RW
rarcrack review
rarcrack I stumbled across a little program called rarcrack yesterday, which provides brute-force cracking of password protected archives. I decided to give it a try and make some general observations about it. An example To set up an example, I created a .rar with a 5 character password. The password consists of upper-case letters, lower-case… Continue reading rarcrack review
New Car! MG TF
It was the dreaded MOT time this weekend and my runabout Fiesta was not giving me promising signs. So I decided to take a look for something else. This MG TF caught my eye and I fell in love! So I snapped her up 🙂
Happy Valentines Day Project
Happy Valentines Day! A few years ago I created a little valentines day project, shown in the video at the end of this post. It’s basically just a multi-vibrator circuit with two groups of LEDs, arranged as an inner and outer heart: The full schematic is shown here, click on it for a full enlarged… Continue reading Happy Valentines Day Project
Adding USB devices in a Virtual Machine
Adding USB Devices in a Windows Virtual Machine with VirtualBox One of the most confusing things for me when I first experimented with VirtualBox was the question of how to add USB devices. I run Linux (Ubuntu) as my main OS now, but sometimes I need to dig around in Windows (e.g. work related stuff)… Continue reading Adding USB devices in a Virtual Machine
Panasonic AE700 Projector Diagnosis & Repair
In the tinkering cave this week we have a Panasonic AE700 HD Projector. These units are pretty old now, but they come highly recommended in many online reviews and the HDMI support means they remain a useful home cinema option. The unit was first presented to me by a work colleague who complained that the… Continue reading Panasonic AE700 Projector Diagnosis & Repair