The Smell of Molten Projects in the Morning
Ed Nisley's Blog: Shop notes, electronics, firmware, machinery, 3D printing, laser cuttery, and curiosities. Contents: 100% human thinking, 0% AI slop.
Who’d’a thunk it?
We hung a pine-cone wreath beside the back door (a.k.a. the only door we use), replacing a Welcome sign painted on a slate tile. Of course, the tile had long provided a sheltered spot against the house siding:
Reports from the garden suggest Brown Marmorated Stink Bugs aren’t as damaging as they once were, perhaps because something has developed a taste for them.
We hope whatever it might be eats well this year.
Spotted this under a counter at Panera Bread:
You’re looking downward from the edge of the communal meal countertop at the power and network cable ports in the floor. The cables snake into the counter legs and emerge at the countertop to provide AC power, USB charging, and wired network ports in addition to ubiquitous WiFi: all the conveniences of modern dining.
Alas, down at floor level, the poor cables get kicked against the edge of their cover plates, bent with no strain relief, and seem jammed under the sharp edges of the leg extrusions. I expect the connectors below the hatches also endure a nightly bath of gritty water, with bonus salt during the winter months.
And, yes, the AC power plug sits halfway out of its socket, with the blades exposed.
A discussion of random numbers at Squidwrench brought those gamma ray detectors to the top of the heap, with the observation I probably needed a few more Darlington transistors:
Sorting two lots of 50 transistors by gain kept me out of trouble for a while:
Those are MPSA14 NPN and MPSA64 PNP transistors, with DC gains ranging from around the spec’s minimum 10 k spec all the way up to well over 100 k.
Page views for 2018:
At this late date, the RepRap site has a much better G-Code reference, at least for the weird and wonderful assortment of 3D printer commands.
Given that I’m at best a secondary reference for Toyota Sienna ABS trouble codes, things must be getting grim out there in the minivan crowd.
And, as always, houses (and especially plumbing) are trouble!
As for everything else, well, it’s just me and my shop notes …
WordPress reports 101 k ad impressions per month for 24.6 k “page views”, suggesting most folks see four ads per page. If you’re not using an ad blocker, start now!
Those seem to be the most aggressive (and thus highly desirable to advertisers) video ads, because WordPress pays me a whopping 8¢ per kilo-impression; a few percent of the Youtube rate. The numbers are dropping, though, suggesting ads will never push me into the ranks of the thousandaires.
Now you know.
You can find anything on eBay (clicky for more dots):
The key information:
For that price, I’d expect in-person hand delivery.
Stipulated: ZVNL110A MOSFETs aren’t in production and we’re buying from diminishing inventory, but (as of late December 2018) they’re still available for under a buck apiece in small quantities.
It could be a pricing algorithm corner case, a money laundering scheme, or just a typo that could happen to anyone. As the news sites put it, the seller did not respond in time for this posting …
Perhaps they should just saw off the bollard in the middle of the entrance and be done with it:
Some backstory may be of interest.
I spotted a defunct paper wasp (or, more likely, a hornet) nest on a lawn under a tree:
Call it basketball sized, large enough to raise plenty of wasps:
I vastly prefer encountering those critters after their season is over …
The Smell of Molten Projects in the Morning 