Solar Eclipse

Last July 22nd the longest solar eclipse for this century occurred, although it would be only a partial eclipse from my location. Tsk,tsk, if I were still in Taiwan the maximum obscuration would've been 82%, as it is only around 35-39% of the Sun would be blotted out. However this would be my first eclipse of which I'll be using a digital camera. But after days of spotty weather (sudden drizzle or outright rain) I was not so enthusiastic of setting up the telescope, so I just got out the old solar filter on the 20th and tried some shots just using a 100mm lens. Tests were good so I re-updated it that night, and did further tests the next morning. On eclipse day, I awoke earlier than what I set the alarm to. The weather was great! and I was thinking - I really should've set up the scope. Anyway while waiting for the sun to clear the neighboring building, I did my morning duties. Then went back up to take some test shots, and finalize the camera settings before doing cashier duty. While waiting to pass the cashier's baton I was wishing I had set up the scope OR at the least readied the adapters to attach the DSLR to it. So when I got off, I ran upstairs took some shots, seeing the weather as it is, I decided to GO FOR IT...grabbed the T-ring and an adapter and head on to my uncle's house, set up the scope, pulled out the EP adapter,and tried to screw on what I had - it's too SMALL!! and so there goes my chance to shoot ANYTHING thru prime focus for the first time. Quite a lesson for the unprepared.I had to settle for the 100mm f/2.8 macro and this pic is probably the best of the bunch...

Until next time... :-)

bad printer...Bad, BAD Printer! among other things

Arghhh, damn Epson T10 wouldn't want to work anymore. So my PCBs were coming out better and better, then it was time to change the yellow cartridge (after the magenta and black). But then I get this dreadful 'Ink cartridge cannot/are not recognized' message - for all FOUR of them cartridges. So off I go online to figure it out and WTF, lots of ordinary people are very angry at epson for this same problem. Man, the same brand of printer that should've finally given me a chance to make very good PCBs turns out to be quite a headache.

Meanwhile I found some nail polish solvent which I think could be useful to plug or re-melt those micro holes in them laser toner transfer PCBs. But current tryouts weren't encouraging. So I'm again in the doldrums, can't make good PCBs for any projects. Stuck in the same full-of-stuff-I-want-to-try-but-can't state.

Also have the bad throat syndrome again.

Direct Inkjet Print to PCB

I always had problems with the laser toner transfer method to PCB, my Samsung laser printer 'should' be able to do it as there are people out there that have been successful. The problem most have is that the Samsung toner requires a higher temperature to fuse to the board. But my problems were:

1. I had maxed out my laminator's temperature setting, my multimeter with temperature probe reads 184-190 Centigrade.
2. Using transparencies, most of the toner adheres to the board but there's always micro-holes/fractures throughout the toner.
3. Using the paper backing of labels, ALL the toner adheres to the board but still the micro-holes/fractures remain.
4. I tried using a clothes iron at a hotter temperature than the laminator to melt it more, but I tend to smudge the traces or if not, it doesnt have much of an effect. I was already deforming the transparency and pretty much started burning the label backing doing this.
5. When I make a mistake and try to remove the toner I use acetone, recently I can't find acetone anywhere anymore. Lacquer thinner could remove the toner but it requires a lot more elbow grease.

So I looked around the web and found out about direct-to-PCB inkjet printing on the CNCZone forums. A popular choice for modding was Epson branded printers as the Durabrite inks could withstand th etching process. I read all the posts on that particular thread and came across someone modding an Epson T20 (also here). Now this printer's sibling is available I my area and it was dirt cheap, so I bought one last week and after testing to make sure it works, I proceeded to tear it apart. I have just finished it a couple of days ago and a test print on paper came out well and good. I'll post some pics of my modded printer later on (for modding instructions see the link above) and PCB results.

Acetone, where art thou?

I just don't get it, where the hell did all those bottles of acetone gone? Can't find it the supermarket, drugstore/pharmacy nor hardware store. I even asked my sis in the big city to look and so far none came up. Did the company making it gone bust? Did some nut swallow gallons of it and got poisoned so it was pulled outta shelves everywhere? I need it to wipe off laser toner off my printed circuit board coz its easier to use than anything else. But now where can I buy it? Not in this country? Sheesh.

Recent buy

Bought a multipurpose bench for exercise during a recent midnight sale:

It's an Impex Marcy SB240. The two small foam handles seem to be a nuisance but I understand their purpose, they're there to grab onto when doing leg raises. I do wish there was an additional stop between the topmost and mid position settings. I couldn't buy a more substantial bench, i.e. one which could hold a barbell since my residence is an old wooden house and a heavy bench could collapse the thing, so this would do. Used this last night and it was good.

Sports

Congratulations to the Pacman and the Celtics in winning their respective matches recently.

Wifi-ed Smart Bro a.k.a Smart Bro Share it

Saw this in the papers today. Nice but only postpaid at the moment and dunno if its a ZTE or Huawei unit. Most probably the former.
UPDATE: It's pretty much looks like a Huawei B933 or B932 from the huawei site. ZTE site doesn't show anything like this.

Improved after firmware update.

So its been more than a week since I updated the firmware of my E160s which I found through this site. Previously, I had disconnects after 30-40 minutes, erratic signal strength reporting (it wouldn't connect at 90% signal but would connect at no signal!) , and the dongle itself would get hot, yeah, really hot! But after the update it's been smooth sailing. I know that there are E160s shipped with this firmware installed and I know there are other places where one could get the same firmware, but the mentioned site is the first to confirm that this update does not re-lock the dongle to a particular service provider.
Now people may recall that the Huawei E220 could be unlocked with a firmware update and using the unbranded Huawei Mobile Partner software. Since I also have a locked E160, I tried updating it with the above firmware and swapped SIMs, result -- no juice, updated but still locked.

Huawei E160 internals...

Hmm, I bought another (locked to Globe Telecom) E160 after the earlier one seemed to be slower than my Nokia 6120c. Remember, I unlocked the first one so the warranty was void so there was no use returning it. This time on Globe it was faster and cooler even after several hours of use. So I'll just use this and if the network goes down I'll switch to Smart using the Nokia. The thing got cheaper too since I bought the first one and I was curious so I decided to open it (and possibly make an antenna for it). I tried not to mar the casing as much as possible. Here's how I did it -- Using a ViseGrip, align it such that it bites about half the cross-section, then turn the screw at the end of the handle. One can see the case open up a bit...

...insert a jeweler's screwdriver into the opening, prying it open...


...pry it some more...

...and here's the E160 disassembled...

...there are two PCBs in there...

...the E160 employs a diversity antenna, which means there are more than one antenna inside the device, I suspect here is one. It looks like a chip antenna similar to one inside my usb wifi dongle, however this is waayyyy bigger...or I could be wrong on this...

... a small connector (probably for test)...

...here is the antenna or is it?...

...its other side...wait-a-minute, there's only one lead on this!!

...the proprietary CRC9 connector...

...another view of the connector...using a multitester I found that the leads are all shorted together, unless one inserts something through the hole, in which case only one lead is live. Where that live connection goes I have no idea.

New Huawei E160 3G modem

I just bought a Globe Visibility Prepaid pack for P2500 a few days ago. I had my sis look for the E220 model in the big city but she couldn't get one. So I just got the E160. Unfortunately while I could connect to Globe at HSDPA speeds, in reality the data transfer left much, much to be desired. Ping rates were 2000ms or longer and the thing sped up only after being connected for 40 minutes, then after 10 minutes died off. There's also what I thought was the 'Huawei disconnect' problem but right now think it's more due to the long usb extension cable I'm using.

Since I wasn't satisfied with Globe's signal, I had the thing unlocked via DC-Unlocker (also unlocking any form of a warranty :-) ) and am now back on the Smart network, here is the Mobile Partner connection software screenshot...


...man, I just had the signal just died on me again, though it didn't disconnect - it went to zero and stayed there! But wait, look at the lower left corner - two bars and yet I'm getting 100Kb/s, but the zigzagging is not ideal. Maybe an external antenna would solve that so I'll be on the look out for one or make one.