(no subject)
Ooops, didn't post yesterday. I guess I didn't do much yesterday (double oops). Anyway, in no particular order, stuff I did today:
* Tidied the fuck out of the front room, under the pretence that it was for my mum's visit tomorrow. Really, I'm just trying to get the place tidier so I can work - I had let it get so messy that it was physically difficult to do any work. You know when you do one thing, and it entails an avalanche of other stuff? It really saps you. Anyway, that's how things were - hopefully less so now. I want to make some more furniture, which would make things nicer, tider, and less 'frictional'. B&Q deliver for a fiver, apparently.
* Also would like to make a shoe rack for Kat. Need to not forget that.
* The big scope is broken again! I need to take a long hard look at the motherfucking boat the PSU in it and work out what's going wrong. Really annoyed by this!
* Started to use my 4ch Telequipment analog scope again. This scope has a zillion niggling mostly-intermittent faults, so I brought it to Manchester to fix it - but it looks like I'll be using it instead, at least in the short-term.
* Plopped a new laser in the Denon. Thing is aaaaalmost playing OK, but not quite. I suspect the spindle motor, but I'm not 100% sure - according to the service menu it's only just focussing. Tempted to blame the loading mechanism - apparently they can cause this if they hold the disk too far away/too close (for obvious reasons). I'm trying to read the eye pattern of the raw signal out of the signal processing block - the 'HF' point - but not having much luck with the DSO. Apparently an analog scope is much better for it.
UPDATE: Aha, I think I've got it working! I checked out the HF eye pattern on the analog 'scope (my scope is almost too slow - at 0.2us/div the waveform is only just viewable) and twiddled some settings (not many to tweak - the tracking offset and focus gain are all I can modify). Hopefully it's working now - it's running a burn-in test so let's cross our fingers, eh! I've got the focus error on the scope and am watching it refocus the laser every so often - clever stuff).
Also, anyone recommend any audio servicing books, or books that explain how a CD works? ta.
* When do I use 'analog' vs 'analogue'? Hm. Best google that.
* Amy tells me that another YakYak'er - DJ Skitz - has passed away. I don't recall speaking to him, but thought I'd spread the word.
* Decided that I need to make a concerted effort to become less unfit. Jawdy - a fitness-oriented martial artist/games dev I know - has offered to guide me along a bit, and a lot of people have suggested I buy a cheap bicycle and ride around. Not 100% sure if I should - roads scare me - but we'll see.
* Mum's coming down tomorrow, which should be nice! She's got two weeks off work and is apparently relaxing lots. Good - she needs it :)
* I'm entertaining a lot of AR-based ideas at the mo, and some image recognition stuff. Anyone know how Augmented Reality is these days? I've seen some cool stuff on the iPad/iPhone.
* A close friend is having some trouble at work. Don't want to say a lot about it, but I really hope stuff clears up quickly for them. Best of luck to this anonymous friend! ;)
* Tidied the fuck out of the front room, under the pretence that it was for my mum's visit tomorrow. Really, I'm just trying to get the place tidier so I can work - I had let it get so messy that it was physically difficult to do any work. You know when you do one thing, and it entails an avalanche of other stuff? It really saps you. Anyway, that's how things were - hopefully less so now. I want to make some more furniture, which would make things nicer, tider, and less 'frictional'. B&Q deliver for a fiver, apparently.
* Also would like to make a shoe rack for Kat. Need to not forget that.
* The big scope is broken again! I need to take a long hard look at the motherfucking boat the PSU in it and work out what's going wrong. Really annoyed by this!
* Started to use my 4ch Telequipment analog scope again. This scope has a zillion niggling mostly-intermittent faults, so I brought it to Manchester to fix it - but it looks like I'll be using it instead, at least in the short-term.
* Plopped a new laser in the Denon. Thing is aaaaalmost playing OK, but not quite. I suspect the spindle motor, but I'm not 100% sure - according to the service menu it's only just focussing. Tempted to blame the loading mechanism - apparently they can cause this if they hold the disk too far away/too close (for obvious reasons). I'm trying to read the eye pattern of the raw signal out of the signal processing block - the 'HF' point - but not having much luck with the DSO. Apparently an analog scope is much better for it.
UPDATE: Aha, I think I've got it working! I checked out the HF eye pattern on the analog 'scope (my scope is almost too slow - at 0.2us/div the waveform is only just viewable) and twiddled some settings (not many to tweak - the tracking offset and focus gain are all I can modify). Hopefully it's working now - it's running a burn-in test so let's cross our fingers, eh! I've got the focus error on the scope and am watching it refocus the laser every so often - clever stuff).
Also, anyone recommend any audio servicing books, or books that explain how a CD works? ta.
* When do I use 'analog' vs 'analogue'? Hm. Best google that.
* Amy tells me that another YakYak'er - DJ Skitz - has passed away. I don't recall speaking to him, but thought I'd spread the word.
* Decided that I need to make a concerted effort to become less unfit. Jawdy - a fitness-oriented martial artist/games dev I know - has offered to guide me along a bit, and a lot of people have suggested I buy a cheap bicycle and ride around. Not 100% sure if I should - roads scare me - but we'll see.
* Mum's coming down tomorrow, which should be nice! She's got two weeks off work and is apparently relaxing lots. Good - she needs it :)
* I'm entertaining a lot of AR-based ideas at the mo, and some image recognition stuff. Anyone know how Augmented Reality is these days? I've seen some cool stuff on the iPad/iPhone.
* A close friend is having some trouble at work. Don't want to say a lot about it, but I really hope stuff clears up quickly for them. Best of luck to this anonymous friend! ;)