Tales of a modern life

Don't use Maxspot

2012-01-31T06:45:00.000+01:00

(Crossposted from Google+ because it annoys me so much)
I'll never book a Hotel that uses #Maxspot for Wifi again!!!
At least every 5 minutes, sometimes every few seconds they highjack a random HTTP connection to inject
"Sie müssen sich zuerst anmelden um diese Website besuchen zu können!".
Then you must enter your wifi hotspot login and click to get the intended page. Problem: This also happens vor HTTP requests for
.css,
JSON,
XML,
Javascripts,... and it does forget
HTTP-GET and -POST parameters as well as
HTTP-headers.

So any "next" link in a google search or a link to amazon, ebay,... for example forgets what you have been searching for.
This breaks my internet and is completely unacceptable for a hotel's service I'm paying for!!!

Google+ microblogging post

Reversing an RC04

2012-01-22T20:28:00.000+01:00

Dissecting an RC04 remote for a Zoom H4n...
Well labeled inside.
I should record what is transfered on that 3.3V serial bus soon.
Should be easy to syncronously start/stop recording on 2 cameras for 3D and sound with a single button.

Upgrading the ToM

2012-01-22T14:06:00.001+01:00

(I have neglected posting here for a while. Much is posted on Google+ but too short and meaningless for a blog posting.) As the jamming and filament-stalls of the Thing-O-Matic continue, I'm now fed uo enough to mount a new extruder. It did not quite fit but I guess I can make it work. My current suspicion on the jams is that any contact with the ABP belt cloggs up the extruder. The original extruder is very week and cannot overcome that. I would have liked to use an angled drive-bolt extruder like the RepMan uses as I found that to be extremely powerful, back-pressure resistant and reliable. But no such extruder design exists for the ToM and I need to use a ready design to save time. I'm now trying to use a geared down extruder with more force and also replace the plastic belt with titanium. I don't know yet how best to cut the 0,025mm titanium. As Makerbot didn't include any mechanism for tightening the belt, a new belt has to be perfect in length.

3d printed foldable shoulder rig with sound+video controls on handles

2011-12-11T10:48:00.001+01:00

And as promised I added the front support to the foldable shoulder rig I did yesterday. You can detach the support or fold it up and keep it on the rig. I used a leg of a very cheap tripod that broke down to make a support that can be adjusted in length.

I'm back 3D printing

2011-12-10T14:25:00.001+01:00

After many month of trying to find the bug I'm now back to 3D printing. :)

Design of this shoulder rig on Thingiverse

problem in battery grip conversion

2011-11-27T17:05:00.001+01:00

Problem converting a Canon500D battery grip for the Panasonic GH1/GH2.
Powering the GH1 works well for a while now but I'm working on getting the shutter button running. Made a mistake here.
The battery grip has a nice 2-stage button (full press+half press).
My circuit would work...if the full press would not ALSO close the circuit for the half press.
So at the moment you can only focus but not trigger a photo/video to be shot with that button.

So different from this one, I need to attach GND in-between focus and shutter, replace 3KOhm with 5KOhm and replace the 2KOhm with one that gives 2KOhm when used in parallel to a 5KOhm resistor (3.5KOhm).
Problem: That 2KOhm-resistor attaches to a 0.xmm trace on a tiny connector and took me days to get right without shorting any other pathes.

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LED lights for th workshop

2011-11-26T23:25:00.000+01:00

Finally got the PTFE tubes from Makerbot. So I hope I can get the printer back online tomorrow.
Also installed the first LED light-strips to get some shadow-free lights for the workshop tables.
(Having one large light in the middle of the room is not enough here.)

Photos

GH1 battery grip

2011-11-20T17:49:00.000+01:00

Managed to find some minutes for soldering on my GH1 battery grip.
Had to stop because there was no desoldering-wick left in the house.
No breakthrough with the GH2 external power issue (7.2V+crypto or 8.4V).

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shoulder rig modification

2011-11-20T13:07:00.001+01:00

And here is the first and most important step in my ongoing modification of the MultiRigPro -clone. The creation of the missing accessory-adapters. I did film the process any may make a HOWTO-video about it. ...if I get my laptop to no longer overheat while editing video. The original comes with such adaptres for 1/4" UNC camera-mounts, hot-shoe mounts and 3/8" microphone mounts as well as a front support. My first try at a front support failed, so I'll now go back to my original plan and design+3d print one based on one leg of a super-cheap tripod. Better then the original one mine is supposed to stay on the rig, so you can unfold it one-handed without looking when you need it. ...without interrupting the shot that suddenly takes longer then expected.

3d model on Thingiverse
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shoulder rig used ($74+customs, no shipping)
part used to build the attachment-adapters ($6.5 each)
adapter used to mount the microphone ($8.8)

Update: Found a nice red button to have controls for shutter+focus on the right handle.

modified stage box

2011-11-20T12:56:00.001+01:00

As planned I modified a 6xXLR stage-box. Replacing 4 of the 6 XLR-plugs with XLR+6.4mm ones to make it more universal and adding 2 1/4" UNC swivel-mounts for 2 microphones or cameras. (Since a stage-box is already near the stage, this would be the perfect place to mount such a thing to complement the microphones already using the box.)

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the Thomann SSSNAKE SXX8030 stage-box used
The swivel-mounts used ($3.7 each, no shipping, no customs because of the low value)

New Zoom RC04 holder RC2

2011-11-09T19:18:00.001+01:00

Designed version 0.2 of my new Zoom RC04 holder. It uses small M3x16 bolts because the original, larger design would not work out when folding up the clone of the DVtech MultiRigPro.

Design files on Thingiverse (coming soon)
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5V USB power output for camera battery grips

2011-11-05T15:39:00.002+01:00

I think I found the right part to add a 5V USB power-output to the DIY battery-grips I am making for my cameras. The idea is to hide this regulator in the dummy-batteries, so they don't take up precious space in the cramped battery-grips. http://www.hobby-hour.com/electronics/lm2576-step-down-switching-regulator.php

Tests for DIY battery grip for the Panasonic GH-2 camera

2011-11-03T07:00:00.000+01:00

Got myself a good lab power-supply and a big illuminated, table-mounted magnifying-glass and a heated *de*soldering-iron for the workshop last weekend.
Last night the cables for the power supply.

Now I can see if it's possible to power the Panasonic GH2 cameras with modified Canon 550D battery-grips (7.2V) like I did with the GH1 model.
It looks like they tried to lock out 3rd-party batteries way stronger then with the GH1.
So if the power supply can't identify itself as Panasonic it *may be* that a higher voltage is required.
Then again, maybe it's just 2 hidden resistors in the fake battery used to attach their power supply.

If this fails, one of he cheap chinese battery-copies died on me last weekend.
So I may be able to simply gut that and use it's coulomb-counter+crypto chip but get the actual power from a battery-grip.

New Zoom RC04 holder

2011-11-02T06:42:00.000+01:00

Based on my "remote audio controls for camera rig" (a 3d printed part to attach the RC04 remote control unit of a Zoom H4n audio recorder to the handle of a camera rig) I designed the first draft of an updated version. It's far easier to print, holds the remote more securely and attached to the thicker, padded handles of the Chinese copies of the DVtec MultiRigPro. (A very cool shoulder rig that is foldable and thus fits into a small camera bag.) It's untested and thus not finished because I'm still struggling with my Thing-o-Matic.

Original Design files on Thingiverse
Design files on Thingiverse (coming soon)
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Resurrecting Thing-a-Matic

2011-11-02T05:57:00.000+01:00

I just returned from a short vacation and had the nozzle and PTFE -tube sunk in Acetone. This worked very well. The ABS and PLA expanded and became rubbery. It disloged from any surface and floated around. I could pull a large, expanded tube of PLA from the PTFE-tube and I can actually see light through the 0.4mm hole in the nozzle. Sadly there was not enough time to do a test-print. Hopefully I can do that on friday night. With lots of luck printing PLA will work out this time and I can get back to create all the designs that have been piling up here.

Makerbot still failing

2011-10-27T22:43:00.001+02:00

I tried the Thing-o-Matic again. 5 perfect layers, then suddenly skipping, only thin, uneven streams filament dripping out every now and then and jut utter chaos. I'll clean nozzle and PTFE-tube with acetone for 4 days. Then try again. I suspect my PTFE-tube to be too wide for this filament. As the print progresses the heat travels up and the filament widenes as there is room for it to widen. Will try again on tuesday night.

Projects in wiki

2011-10-27T18:00:00.000+02:00

I updated the wiki that I use to keep notes. It now reflects the projects I'm currently actually working on and their links and notes. I don't want anything to get lost. ;) I was looking forward to building the new shoulder rig, however the chinese parts I wanted to start with have just been returned because of "unsuccessful delivery" after 14 days in customs. (I did not get a notification from customs or postal services and without such notification I can't show up at customs because it contains the required code-number of the delivery.)

The Wiki
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printers out of order

2011-10-25T17:00:00.000+02:00

In case anyone is wondering, why I don't post any new 3D designed objects lately: Both my printers are currently out of order. With the Thing-o-Matic something is wrong with the nozzle and I'm trying to clean it. My Repman's heated build platform MK2 has not survived moving into the new house but I haven't started building an MK3 yet. I do have a number of ideas and untested designs but I'll not post them until I have actually build and tested them.

Stage box

2011-10-21T19:13:00.000+02:00

And the final thing I took apart tonight:

A simple stage-box with 6 XLR female connectors, one thick 10 meter cable ending in 6 XLR male connectors.

The idea here is to replace 4 of the XLR female connectors with combined XLR+6.3mm ones to make this more versatile and to add 2 1/4" swivel-heads to mount microphones or a camera directly onto the box.
(You get these heads for cheap as mountings for security cameras.)
The swivel-heads shall double as a helper to keep the cable organised when not in use.

...maybe I'll come up with something to put into the mostly empty box.
Lots of wasted space that can be put to good use.
Maybe store adapters in there or batteries.

(click on the photo to see more.)

Update: the finished modification

Thomann SSSNAKE SXX8030 stage-box

E27 230V camera -flash light bulp

2011-10-21T19:08:00.000+02:00

And the next thing to take apart today....

These devices are cheap and often included if you buy a light-stand or umbrella on ebay.
They have a number of problems that I am trying to solve by modifying it:

The light-sensor can't be switched off, so this thing flashes when other prople then you try to take a photo with a flash. => I'll add a switch for that.

You can't control the brightness. => I'm trying to come up with a way to do that. Have to talk with some people on how to do this.

Your equaly cheap RF receiver will dangle off the side => I'm trying to include the PCB of these wireless flash triggers into the case and add a hot-shoe to the case in the process.

The PCB seems to be well labeled and the parts trivial to identify and large enough to solder.
I just need to be careful about all the traces that carry 230V.

(click to see the other photos) Looks like 130V AC is fed through diodes and a 0,2KOhm resistor (left side on this photo) labeled "200RJ" and "10 Watt" into 3x 275V 220uF capacitors. I guess replacing that giant resistor with a variable one that I can control with a knob could allow me to reduce the power in the capacitors and thus the power of the flash.

MicPlugUSB

2011-10-21T19:02:00.000+02:00

Tonight is the night of taking-things-apart. :)
I started with a T.Bon MicPlug USB that I got in an already opened packaging cheaper then the original low price tag.

It's not intended to be taken apart at all. That much is obvious.
But my plan here is to scrap most of the electronics anyway.
I want to keep the USB 5V to 48V phantom -power supply,
add a second XLR-connector to the end that formerly held all the cables,
move the USB-port to the side and
attach an unbalanced cable with a 2.5mm stereo to the side.
(Without the buttons there are enough holes for that.)

The resulting tube shall then allow me to connect 1 or 2 phantom powered microphones to my digital camera.
The USB-power shall come either from a battery-grip or one of these cheap USB-battery-packs.
(USB has emerged as the one universal power connection that is always avaliable.)

(Click the photo to see all the other photos.)

more progress in wprkshop

2011-10-16T13:27:00.001+02:00

I did some more progress in the creations of my workshop. The hole-boards are now mounted. (Easy to notice as only half as many tools are now lying around.) They don't attach to the wall but to the table because drilling holes into *this* wall is a nightmare. I also finalized the electrical work. The outlets are now neatly seated along the walls. I have no clue how to mount my 3 sets of hex-keys to the wall yet. (metric, imperial and torx)

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Workshop

2011-10-15T17:49:00.001+02:00

I'm slowly making progress in building my workshop.
After installing the Basotect foam via Power Strips failed, I now tried nails.
They sort of work but it's not very good.
I also found a cheap compressor+limiter+expander+de-esser on eBay and modified the 19" mounting to mount it below the table in the "documentation" corner.
(Just between the "electronics" and the "mechanics" section of the workshop. ;)

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sound proofing my workshop

2011-10-14T17:16:00.001+02:00

I want to line the walls of my small workshop with Basotect -foam. The plan was to use Tesa Power-Strips to attach them to the walls and be able to remove them 10 years later. Problem: It looks like the Power-Strips/Poster-Strips dont stick to the foam. They work fine on any other surface in the room but not the foam. :/

converting an XLR stage box

2011-10-12T14:58:00.004+02:00

I think I'll attach 2 small swivel -mounts designed for security cameras to stage-box (a small box with 6 XLR-sockets attached to a single 10m cable that ends in 6 matching XLR-plugs. Designed to reduce cable-clutter on a stage). That way I can mount 2 shotgut-microphones or one camera and a microphone directly to that box. I would be at the back (at the other end of the 10 meter cable or with some extension-cord inserted) with a camera and sound recorder while the microphones face the scene and are not as much in the way as 2 small tripods and lots of cables would be. Maybe also exchange 2 of the XLR sockets by combined XLR/6.3mm sockets. More options when hunting for a cable....

camera-mount
the stage box
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