Blogs

In May 2012, the end of my junior year of high school, I began to develop great interest in a personal CNC machine. A CNC machine is a beautiful thing, and the process of homebuilding a CNC machine emcompasses design, building, and utilization. The design demonstrates creativity and planning, building demonstrates an understanding of mechanics and craftsmanship, and utilization restarts the process at design again. A tool to make new things, limited mostly by one’s creativity. ...

The idea is simple, take the scrolling mechanism out of a mouse, and move it to a large, heavy spinning wheel of some sort. The benefits of this, scrolling long webpages and folders is tireless and editing video is a quicker process, as you are able to scrub easily and quickly. The more you use a jog wheel, the quicker and more painless navigating and using a computer becomes. ...

Logitech has a large presence in 2.1 systems, where price and appearance dominate. This sub is designed to trick you, there’s more to it than what meets the eye. I picked up a used Logitech Z340 2.1, sans the 2. I got a woofer with no satellites or volume control. notice in the corner - Mr. Happy Hammer 🙂 8″ subwoofer (4″ speaker + cardboard) Since I don’t have the satellites, this is of no value to me. And the speaker isn’t of much value either, so I want the amplifier out of this. ...

Running wire, head unit adapters, fuses, and less trunk space all suck. Let’s not do that. Modular setups seem more promising. A few months ago, I assembled a $6 tube subwoofer that could be used in a house or in a car. I only recently set up my car for this sub. It took an hour. No new head unit required. There’s only one real compromise to this, only the audio coming from the auxiliary port is sent to the sub. That’s how I listen to music 95% of the time, so no subwoofer with the CD player or radio is fine for me. I tapped into the auxiliary output right next to the cigarette lighter, so I ran power from there. The cigarette lighter is only on when the car is on, so I don’t have to worry about draining the battery when the car is off. There are no power supply issues, as the cigarette lighter supplies 20A, while the sub only draws 4A max. ...

I have a thing for subwoofers, convenience, and low cost. Arguing over DVCs in $300 subs isn’t my thing. This 8-inch tube subwoofer was $1 a garage sale. Tube subs are popular for their size and portability, you can set it in a car trunk or behind a truck seat with no thought or effort. The enclosure is plastic so they are lightweight. To reclaim trunk space, pull it out. ...

The DLink DIR-655 is an excellent router. It supports Dynamic DNS, Port Forwarding, Virtual Servers, DMZ and much more. Problem is, in the awful heat and humidity of the midwest, it overheats during periods of high traffic, like large file downloads. Three quick fixes, A) move it to a basement or cooler spot of your house, B) drill holes in the case, or C) add a fan. The DIR655 has a usb output on the back designed for printers and network storage. I pulled power from that port. I wired a small computer fan to a USB male plug (5V and gnd). Many 12V computer fans will spin off 5V. To disassemble, I took two screws under the feet at the bottom and popped the top off. ...

Kicker’s Free Airs left a legacy in the market. They have almost no enclosure requirements and are often drop-in upgrades. I picked up two used 6.5″ Kicker Free Air subwoofers. “Free Air” is a misnomer, they still need an enclosure. However the enclosure space can be relatively large. The trunk of your car could be considered an enclosure, as long as the space in front of these speaker is sealed off from the space behind these speakers. I don’t plan to put these in a car, they are going to be for a home sound system. I like the early 2000’s sub look that these Kickers have: thickly stitched cones, paint chipped rusting frame, rotting seal, and corroded leads. At one point they were very nice, now they are fair. I can deal with fair speakers if they are free. ...