Book Review Sllivan's Way

Great book to buy and read,   http://www.amazon.com/review/R2LUIKFYH723V7

Cool looking site

While poking about the net I found this page/blog 

  http://arduinotronics.blogspot.com/2014/05/free-circuit-design-and-simulation.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+arduinotronics+%28Arduino+Your+Environment%29&utm_content=FaceBook

If you like tinkering with electronics take a look. 

Blake

great book

http://www.amazon.com/Heart-Forever-Wild-An-Everlasting-ebook/dp/B00J9P6UW4/ref=cm_cr-mr-title  

the link is to a great book click the link read the reviews and decide for yourself.

Home made pizza

So today we made our second home made pizza.  the crust was made with Greek  yogurt and self rising flour.  Equal parts of each, the toppings are usual pizza toppings,  we precook the crust for 10 minutes at about 425,  and then baked the completed pizza for another 15 minutes. 

So we threw together a garden salad, and dinner.   So if you have questions shoot them to me. 

Blake.

Garden prep

We started out seeds in doors this year, and Annalu  has had a great time.  Almost all the seeds have popped out and are growing fanatically. 

Here are the first tomatoes, She moved them into larger pots about 10 days ago, and they have nearly out grown them.  in a couple more weeks they will go to their beds.

Thanks to everyone,

 A few days ago, i signed a contract with 5 Prince Publishing.  "The Impoverished Homesteader Volume 1" will be organized a bit better   Volume 2 is being worked on and should be ready in a couple of months.  So I want to thank everyone for the time they spent reading, building, or sharing.   heres is the link to the Author page,    http://www.5princebooks.com/blake-holliday.html   Blake.

Tenkara Dragontail

Last Oct i entered a composition in a writing contest,  one of the prizes I won was a fly rod.  A Dragontail from Tenkara,  After reading and studying about the the rod I was ready to slay fish! So Thursday was the first time it was in the water.   Got a hit right and and then horror of horrors, a section broke! I lost 2 sections with the fish and had a piece of the third.   Now granted this was a prize in a contest, so i did nor pay out the 125.00 dollar (US) price.  But I really expected more from all the hype I've read about these lightweight allegedly great rods.   I sent an email to the company and to date have received no response.  However I did see on the website where new sections could be purchased at the nominal price of 14 dollars each plus shipping.  So to repair what is apparently a piece of crap rod will cost me 40 dollars!  A bit of cost analyst,  a Shakespeare kit from a box store is only 17.00 dollars,  I have one that has caught quite a lot of fish and even though it is cheap it DID NOT BREAK the first time in the water.  A Zebco 33 is a bit more and is much better than the Shakespeare, or at least in my opinion.  So my frugal based recommendation is to skip over the Tenkara product line,  and get a known quality fishing rod.

Also the customer service at Tenkara is as crappy as their fly rods.  I have yet to receive an answer about their replacement / repair policies.  I've never had such a problem with Zebco.

So y'all have great fishing days now that spring is here, catch lots of fish!

See ya on the creeks!   Blake

Stereo Repair

My hobby is electronics and the repair of most home appliances. Doing repairs “Under the table” nets me a nice income, really all those years of training paid for by Uncle Sam should be used, and I do enjoy a challenge from time to time. Well My most recent challenge is a Stereo Amplifier, It Is a Knight KA-40.

This piece was given to me to keep from having to pay for it to be recycled. It came with with several large boxes, with other items and parts.  I really did not want it in the beginning.

The Knight KA-40 was sold from the mid 60's to the early 70's as a kit, the buyer assembled and then used the amp. Considering that this is 50 years old, came from an attic, was a kit, and has vacuum tubes in it finding parts would be difficult. The common ailment I found while researching this model was the voice coils would burn out.

So I opened the case and find the fuse is still good, I used my home made ESR Meter to test the capacitors in the power supply and they are long dead. I checked the voice coils, and found one was open. There is not a chance of finding another coil available, The options at this point is to try to repair the coil, wind a new coil, or hope to find a replacement......

I decided to gently unwind the outer wrapping of the coil. On the 3^rd turn I found a break! I tested with my multimeter and had continuity! This coil was repaired! So after a good cleaning, replacement of all the electrolytic capacitors, and replacing a few screen resisters Also I found about 80 cold solder joints from either age or was just bad to begin with. I replace the fuse, plug the unit into my Variac, set the voltage low and turned the power on. Slowly I increased the voltage and the amp came to life. Plugging in an older Cassette player I soon had music drifting through the shop. Some work on the cosmetics and I'll have a good Stereo Amp. Sometimes we are just fortunate to have simple repairs.

The pictures are the before  repairs started pics.  I still need to work on cosmetics.   Total cost to repair this Amp was  15.75$ US. 

McDonalds Meal

This evening I stopped at a local McDonald's  for dinner and some Wi FI time.  So i ordered 2 burgers and a large Tea.  The first burger was the 1.00 buffalo thing, it was quite good, the second was the grilled onion and cheddar burger.  When I picked it up and unwrapped it I though it felt light.  I bit into it and chewed, and chewed some more. yep cheese, onions, and bread, but no beef that I could taste.  I opened the bun and there was no burger patty.  What!  I looked at it for a moment, then went to the counter,  the crew leader asked if there was a problem.  Well, I said,  I ordered the burger and it does not have a patty in it.  and held it out to show her.  She snatched it and said she would fix it.  I was trying to joke about the value menu the worker was having none of the conversation, but other customers pipe in.   And these are people that want a 15.00 dollar an hour minimum wage?   Well they made another burger and it was complete. 

another day in my paradise.   Blake.

Wireless keyboard repair

Recently I stopped by a friends home, while there the conversation swung around to their wireless keyboard had quit working. Knowing that I have a Amateur Radio license they asked if I would look it over. So I sat at the desk and listen to them explain how it is suppose to work. Pressing buttons I saw none of the leds like up. I picked up the keyboard, looking for the power cord. There is not one. So I turned it over to check for a battery compartment. I found and opened it, out came 2 AA batteries. I took 2 from my tool box and replaced them. Still no power. I checked to see if I may have installed them backwards, nope they were in correctly. So I looked for a power button. All I could find was a channel open button. I pressed it and the keyboard functioned properly.

I have found most repairs are just very simple items that are sometimes overlooked because they are so simple. My friend do not have to buy a new keyboard, so they saved a handful of cash. Also on the other hand I found that 95 % of all electrical items that are in the dumpster work well, Of that 5 % only 98% of those only need a fuse or a minor part replacement. Often the cost of the part/s is under 10 dollars.  So if you want to save some money check the item before you toss it or have someone look at it.   Blake.

Color Burst Liberation Army

A change in writing, A new "club" was been created with the express interest of promoting ham radio and Morse Code.  You guess it, The Color Burst Liberation Army!

So my creation is a scratch built transmitter from "junk" the output is about a third of a watt.  Each component was salvage from a tossed out consumer appliance except for the crystal socket.  It is available from Kf4tap.

For building details look up Michigan Mighty Mite.