DIY – Matsumin Valvecaster Overdrive
| 20 Feb ’12 | Posted by amos under Audio, Circuit |
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I discovered this simple vacuum tube based overdrive on a few sites:
http://www.beavisaudio.com/projects/ValveCaster/
http://www.diystompboxes.com/smfforum/index.php?topic=63479.0
Mine sounds like this:
It’s currently housed in a temporary proto-type box made of plastic. Moving it to an old PC power supply chassis soon.
Pics to follow.
DIY – Simple Transistor Overdrive
| 20 Feb ’12 | Posted by amos under Audio, Busy-Work, Circuit |
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This post is an extension of a previous note: http://www.amosisreal.com/wordpress/2012/02/basic-audio-circuits-following-steps-not-creating-them/
Before and after audio:
Follow the link to see the whole circuit.
http://www.instructables.com/id/Make-an-easy-guitar-distortion-pedal-STEP-BY-STEP/?ALLSTEPS
I built mine into an old hair product container.
Small Bear Electronics – Just about everything you need to build guitar pedals.
| 20 Feb ’12 | Posted by amos under Audio, Busy-Work, Circuit |
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Discovered Small Bear Electronics through a diy audio site – they seem to have all the components you need to build your own effects pedals.
Basic Audio Circuits – Following steps, not creating them.
| 12 Feb ’12 | Posted by amos under Audio, Circuit, projects |
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Current interests – audio circuitry, both old and new.
quite curious about vacuum tubes, but working backwards towards them using op amps and transistors. DIY projects that have warnings like ‘Careful, LETHAL voltage’ are something to work up to, not dive in green.
Successfully built the following:
http://www.instructables.com/id/Make-an-easy-guitar-distortion-pedal-STEP-BY-STEP/ - if you create a radio, something is loose.
http://www.instructables.com/id/Simple-overdrive-effect-pedal/step2/The-schematic/ (this one you can connect a small speaker to output rather than inline to a combo amp.)
Working on fuzzface now.
Also working on the Matsumin Valvecaster (http://www.beavisaudio.com/projects/ValveCaster/)
Built a ‘prototyping’ station specific to audio circuits. I use a project board from Radio Shack and the housing from an old netgear router.
Repairing the Acer AL2016W LCD Monitor
| 15 Jan ’12 | Posted by amos under fixed! |
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We had a monitor stop working.
Google indicated that the most likely culprit was failed capacitors.
Using the tutorial from http://www.ccl-la.com/blog/index.php/repairing-the-acer-al2016w-monitor/ , I was able to dissect the monitor, remove the failed components, and replace them with new, good caps, then put the monitor back together.
a few faulty capacitors on a snowflake towel.
Acer AL2016W working once again!
Portal 2 Soundtrack available
| 14 Jan ’12 | Posted by amos under Music |
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Portal 2 fans – you can download the multi-volume soundtrack for free here! Provides low level distraction for performance improvement while working on tests of your own.
http://www.thinkwithportals.com/music.php
by way of Neven Mrgan
Final workday of the year
| 30 Dec ’11 | Posted by amos under Busy-Work |
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Here we are on the final workday of the year. I like to use this time to clean up my desk, clean out files and all the other cruft that has accumulated over the year, and set myself up for a clean start next year.
I like to make time to review my yearly goals, and set up my goals for the following year – to make sure I am staying on track.
Today, however I have not been able to do this. Hrm. Followup later.
Calling technical support
| 15 Dec ’11 | Posted by amos under Networking |
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Attention vendors and service providers, please make it easy for me to find out how to contact you when I need help!
Do not make me:
- Log in.
- Click on tiny tiny links on the bottom of the page.
- hunt through faqs prior to presenting me with a phone number.
By the time I need to call you, I need to call you. Please make this easy.
Shoretel mySQL Query – Identify WAV Files used within Automated Attendants
| 13 Dec ’11 | Posted by amos under Networking |
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Interested in seeing which .wav files are in use on your Auto Attendants in Shoretel?
Query to list all Auto-Attendants, Name, Schedule, Filename, and Prompt text in use within the Shoretel system. This helps you track down which files are *actually* in use and which AA / Schedule they go with.
SELECT dn.DN, dn.Description, timetypes.Description, schedules.ScheduleName, prompts.Filename, submenus.PromptText FROM dn LEFT JOIN submenus ON dn.DN = submenus.MenuDN LEFT JOIN timetypes ON submenus.TimeTypeID = timetypes.TimeTypeID LEFT JOIN prompts ON submenus.PromptID = prompts.PromptID LEFT JOIN schedules ON submenus.ScheduleID = schedules.ScheduleID WHERE dn.DNTypeID=8;
Here is what it looks like when you run it!
All files listed below are stored in "SHORELINE DATA\PROMPTS" directory Ext Description Description ScheduleName Filename 1234 AA-Main-555.1234 On-Hours On-Hours admin-20110105-102001.wav 1234 AA-Main-555.1234 Off-Hours NULL admin-20110105-102506.wav 1234 AA-Main-555.1234 Holiday Federal Holidays admin-20110105-102658.wav 1234 AA-Main-555.1234 Custom Power Outage admin-20110105-102919.wav
How to connect to Shoretel mySQL Configuration Database
| 12 Dec ’11 | Posted by amos under Networking |
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As of Shoretel version 8, the configuration database has been transitioned from MS Access to MySQL. Here is how you can access MySQL and create a read-only user that can be used for SELECT queries in the database.
Shoretel Configuration Database: shoreware
Default Username: root
Default Password: <check with your Shoretel partner>
Connect to mySQL
- Open a command prompt.
- CD to mySQL Path.
- Launch mySQL.
<driveletter>:\Program Files\Shoreline Communications\ShoreWare Server\MySQL\MySQL Server 5.0\bin>
mysql –user root –password shoreware
Add a read only mySQL user
Enter the following at the mysql> prompt
> grant select on shoreware.* to ‘username’@'%’ identified by ‘password’;
eg. > grant select on shoreware.* to ‘testuser’@'%’ identified by ‘n3wpassw0rd’;
Enjoy!