Adobe & Xerox blues..

I had to stick with Acrobat Reader 9 on a Win 7 64bit laptop as the printing of PDF’s to a Xerox Phaser 8400, was coming out as half pages or worse hanging with odd PS errors, after upgrading to Reader X then XI.
After some bother, I found that using the latest Xerox recommended driver package Xerox Mobile Express (X-MED_x64_5.303.16.0.exe) fixed the problem. YMMV.. Wasted a lot of paper on this one.

Old Laptops; a tale of junk…

Have some more stories about lappies coming..

Repairing and restoring old electronic stuff – Pt 4

The faulty Fluke 1900A counter had a power supply fault, one diode in a bridge rectifier gone bad and the main filter cap. open circuit.  replacing the bridge with 1N4004 diodes (there were existing hole in the PCB for them) and a new capacitor and a quick cal. check:  we now have  another working unit.

Bought an OWON PDS6060 DSO on eBay with a faulty screen. Was able to source a replacement and once fitted the unit worked, and after a bit of PCB cleaning and joint rework, the traces were in spec and looking good..

Update: both these units sold on eBay quite quickly

NinjaBlocks

I backed this project on KickStarter:
http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/ninja/ninja-blocks-connect-your-world-with-the-web/widget/video.html

With the web connection, you could drive them from anywhere in the world..and they look cute!

Repairing and restoring old electronic stuff – Pt 2

On further investigation, the main AC line wiring is not really safe enough for 230 Vac, so I will fit a 2pole switch (C & K 7201) which will fit the space and keep the same external look of the front panel. The Neon power indicator will need rewiring ro the rear of the unit. Maybe a red led in the neon bezel would be better.

Repairing and restoring old electronic stuff

Have recently acquired an elderly Systron-Donner 100A pilse generator. It appears to be in fair condition but needs setting up for 230 Vac and electrolytic cap. replacement. more soon..

The Arduclock is now the GerbClock..

The protoboard is finished – with sockets for the wiring to the LCD panel. The project is now the GerbClock – all I need is a case to put it into!

almost ready to go - much neater...

another year gone!

Well, it’s almost Xmas time again! Not much has happened on the GerbClock or Gerbot recently. Gerbot pix soon. Arduino has gone from strength to strength spawning any number of clones, work-alikes and enhancements. Even Microsoft are getting in there with their Netduino! I bought 3 very nice smallish Stepper motors on eBay recently – a 3axis mill or 3D printer…haven’t decided yet.

Gerbil plague!

http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2009/03/26/2526701.htm?section=justin

Yes, folks: from the ABC news – gerbils are a new eco-horror in china!! Maybe they could catch them and turn them into sweet and sour gerbils, lemon gerbil, gerbils in black bean sauce…

[yes, yes, I know it's not technology...]

WordPress on Ubuntu 7.10 Server

After some stuffing around trying to get the wordpress pkg installed on Bungalow for the Gerb to have a local blog engine, I have decide to do a remote (from here, that is)  one at wordpress.com.  I found several  posts  via Google that purported to tell  you how it is  done, but to no avail. Wonder why Ubuntu elected not to use WordPress install default locations??