DIY Cat5 UTP Speaker Cables  - april 09, 2010 11:56am - 64

This material makes a great speaker cable because it's super inexpensive, it has very low resistance, capacitance, and inductance values, and you might already have some laying around.
Price and RLC values are the only things you need to consider, as everything else is
snake oil marketing aimed at clueless audiophiles -- some of whom spend hundreds or thousands of dollars PER FOOT on speaker cables. Don't do that.

This project is worth doing because you get a very high quality speaker cable for a
lower cost ($0.114/ft) than even standard 12AWG stranded speaker wire ($0.23/ft)
even with the added 'features' of being twisted pair and sorta litz-ish wire, even though those
qualities don't matter at all for the application of a speaker cable.
The main draw of this project for me was having the banana plugs at each end for
easy connections. If you've used the screw terminals on a receiver, you'll understand.

RLC Measurements of various DIY cable materials:
http://www.audioholics.com/reviews/cables/diy-speaker-cable-faceoff

Supplies:
- Cat5e UTP Bulk Cable
   $57 from Monoprice for 1,000ft (buy less elsewhere or share with a friend)
- Two Pair of Banana Plugs per Cable
   $4.20 from Monoprice (again, per cable)
- 1/2" Heatshrink (Optional)
- Super Glue (Optional)

Tools:
- Wire Strippers or a Utility Knife
- Blowtorch or Soldering Iron, Rosin-core Solder (Optional)

Procedure:
1) Pull two equal lengths of Cat5 (mark both ends of one cable, or
     have a multimeter available), then twist the two lengths together.
2) Strip about 1.5" of outer insulation from both ends to reveal
     eight insulated wires, then also strip about 1" off all eight wires. (Example)
3) Disassemble the banana plugs so you're left with the male plug end,
     the color band, and the wire receptacle bit.
4a) If soldering, twist all the ends of one cable together and solder them into
     a receptacle bit, using a blowtorch or soldering iron. Let cool, and assemble. (Example)
4b) Without solder, push the untwisted bare wires through a receptacle bit, fold
     the ends over the top internal edge, evenly dispersed, and screw down the
     male plug end, which will crimp the wires in place. (Example)
5) (Optional) Place a 1-3" piece of heatshrink over the banana plug and Cat5, and
     use the blowtorch (or heat gun, if you have it) to shrink. (Example)
6) (Optional) Apply a small amount of super glue to both ends of
     the formed heatshrink to give it extra strength to withstand future abuse.

     

 Aftermarket Wheel Install  - july 24, 2009 01:44am - 63

I finally decided to order Konig Feather 17x7 Wheels with Yokohama S.Drive 225/45R-17 Tires to replace the fugly stock wheels on my 2006 Corolla S.
Went to Harbor Freight and picked up 3 ton jack stands and a 2 ton jack -- unfortunately they were out of the 20" lift height jack I originally went in for.
Also grabbed a 21mm socket and a 3/8" to 1/2" adapter at Lowes.

The stock lug nuts felt about 25% over the recommended torque -- the impact wrench that a neighbor lent couldn't budge them. Then later on in the process after the new wheels were placed, I finger tightened the lug nuts, lowered the car slightly, then torqued all lug nuts to 76ft/lbs, slowly tightening using a star pattern over several passes.
Later that night, I made a half-assed attempt to peel out near Alderwood, and the tires just said NOPE.. *grip*. I'm always amazed with the difference in handling that a set of aftermarket wheels and tires provide.

   

 Edmonds Waterfront Ride  - june 10, 2009 12:47am - 62

Biked over to Edmonds last Sunday and took some photos (shot from here). On the way home, the hill on Main St that borders Yost Memorial Park is really, really brutal. I'm going to conquer it without stopping one of these days.

Here's the panorama that turned out the best.

 Wallace Falls Hike  - may 10, 2009 11:02am - 61

Hiked to upper Wallace Falls yesterday with Kelly and Andrew, and finally got to put my Kelty 3950 pack to use, although it was overkill for this day hike.

Since I had heard of Windows Live Photo Gallery and its ability to stitch photos, I decided to take several shots from the middle falls. These photos all had varying levels of white balance and contrast, but the software stitched them together quite beautifully. I cloned the logs and cleaned up in GIMP.

  

 Car Stereo to Home Conversion  - february 22, 2009 09:52pm - 59

Finished my car stereo home enclosure a couple days ago, and I'm really happy with the result.

I decided that I wanted something more pleasant to wake up to in the morning than a single 4" full range driver in an AM/FM clock radio, and I had a nice Panasonic car stereo collecting dust -- so instead of buying some $100-200 bookshelf system, I built my own.

Also, my project logs page received a massive overhaul and now includes loads of thumbnails.

 TVersity  - february 04, 2009 11:12pm - 57

TVersity is a free transcoding package that allows you to play DivX, Xvid, and a whole mess of other formats on your PS3 (and many other consoles/devices). Since I already had a WHS server (this'un) sitting in a closet, I installed the TVersity package, and pointed it to my movie and music collections.

Minutes later, my PS3 discovered the new media server, and was streaming Xvid movies and FLAC music over my network. Very slick. To play FLAC music files in TVersity, you need to install these filters and restart your machine.

It's nice to see they're polishing the product, as I had tried the package several months ago and my PS3 would falsely complain of "corrupted data". Also, the TVersity team has made some popular streams/video podcasts available via the UI, such as G4 shows.. ..and MacGyver!

 Off-The-Air HDTV  - january 30, 2009 03:25pm - 55

The quality of OTA HDTV is amazing.
I'd say better than cable. Flawless 1080i/720p with 5.1 dolby digital surround.
Zero ghosting, snow, or compression artifacts! This is not the rabbit ears reception of yesteryear.

The best part is that the programming is free, and if you live near (~20mi) downtown and own a HDTV, you may only need a ~$30 antenna to get it. Currently available channels include:
ABC (KOMO 4.1), NBC (KING 5.1), CBS (KIRO 7.1), PBS (KCTS 9.1)
CW (KSTW 11.1), FOX (KCPQ 13.1), TBN (KTBW 14.1), and KMYQ 22.1.
There are several other independent channels (and a dozen sub channels, like 5.2, etc) that are available, but usually horrible, with the exception of PBS:Create on 9.3 (and unfortunately in 480i).

If you're like me, and have a tunerless HDTV, grab the awesome Samsung DTB-H260F tuner.
Then, grab the AD-DB4 antenna, and if you're going for an attic/remote install, the AD-P18 pre-amp.
I built a simple indoor mast (~$7 in 1/2" galv pipe at Home Depot, and scrap wood) to test aiming.
Make use of AntennaWeb.org. It's a great resource.

I was surprised that the Samsung tuner had a channel guide that's populated from OTA info. It contains program names and time slots, just like cable.
If you cancel your cable service, the antenna, pre-amp and tuner will pay for themselves in about four months -- I'm going to grab occasional Adult Swim, Discovery, Food Net, Sci-Fi, and Comedy Central shows from a torrent site. A small inconvenience to save nearly $60/m.
For discussion of OTA programming and the DTV transition in the Seattle area: The AVS thread.

 New Heatercore  - january 13, 2009 12:51am - 49

Originally, I had re-used the heatercore from my old build as seen here, but it developed a very slow leak that would follow a path down the heatercore fan wire, and evaporate before it dripped.

I went to Shucks and bought a '68 Chevette (I think) heatercore, soldered on some 1/2" copper elbows, made a new shroud for the 140mm fan, and mounted it with a much more flexible scheme, that uses bolts instead of cable ties, heh.

It's the top heatercore, pictured here:

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