Continue reading »]]>

Just got some boards made for DIYourfaceoff.com bluetooth modules.  The modules come with HC06 bluetooth chips installed but will also work with HC05 modules.

They are basically just a nicer version of the module that I etched in this post

If you are interested in purchasing one you can do so at my tindie store.  They come ready to go, just solder wires or the optional included head pin and place in a bread board .

Purchase link

Continue reading »]]> DIYourfaceoff.com  headphone amplifier kit prototypes are in and they sound fantastic…look pretty slick as well.  Put together a Tindie Fundraiser for those interested on getting in on the first order.  Not only is this kit fun and easy to build.  It will feature an easy to follow instructional video and it will make your headphones sound phenomenal…particularly on low power devices like small mp3 players and cell phones.  (these devices just dont’ have the oomph needed to power larger headphones)

Link to the tindie fundraiser here

Continue reading »]]> 4. CNC plasma Cutter Torchmate (anywhere from $3000 to 100k)

I have a cnc machine listed on this list already but lets face it, milling certain types of steel isn’t easy, and a cnc plasma makes pretty quick work of cutting even thick steel. This can result in some very high precision welding projects ranging from artistic projects and signs to high end heavy duty automotive parts and furniture.

3.  Miller Dynasty Series Tig Welders ($4-14k)

I’ve got a mig welder and for many applications its great, I love being able to weld light steel projects.  I am quite jealous of those with the means for a good tig welding setup.  Projects where strength is most important like bike frames and automotive applications require a good tig weld….and lets face it a good TIG weld just looks soooo amazing.

2. Portable SAW Mill ($4000 and up)

If you like doing any kind of woodworking then you’ve realized how expensive the lumber stores are.  I typically buy rough sawn lumber and then finish mill it myself saving some money but lets face it…wood literally grows on trees and trees fall down, need to be cleared out for roads etc…. so lets stop turning that into wood chips for gardens and make furniture out of it.  Also make cuts that are traditionally super expensive like large slabs on your own.  This tool definitely has a spot on my dream tool list and should be on yours as well.

1. Industrial spray booth / Curing oven setup ($30k)

If you’re at this site you probably work on a lot of projects….and like me you probably want those projects to look nice.  From furniture to automotive to electronics projects, everything looks nice with a good coat of finish whether it be powder coated, painted or otherwise.  The fact of the matter is…spraying is one of the best way to apply those finishes but its also very difficult to spray a finish and not get it everywhere not to mention breathe in a bunch of harmful finish.  This allows you to quickly and easily apply your finish without the fumes or mess….and the oven well who likes waiting for a finish to cure….also some finishes like powder coating require a high temperature to fully cure.

Continue reading »]]> Most of us have a special relationship with our tools.  When a project comes out perfect the tools that helped you with the job don’t try to hog any credit but they keep performing every single time.  Often the tools we covet are made better than they need to be, do you need a leather tool bag…probably not but wow is is pretty.  Do you need polishes wrenches….no but once again theres something about reaching for that mirror finish in the tool chest every time.  I’ve put together a list of 10 tools I’m currently drooling over….in no particular order btw.

10.  Klein Tools 20in Deluxe Leather Tool bag. (around $210)

This thing is a work of beauty, the leather is fantastic, and thick enough that its not going to tear.  Klein also makes an 18″ and 24″ version of this bag as well as a slightly smaller one with an open top.  There is no more stylish way to store your tools.  Also I’ve had nothing but good experiences with klein products, i LOOOOVE their wire strippers and other tools and have had nothing but positive experiences from them.

9. Lie Nielsen Chisels (about $60 each)

When I first began woodworking one of my first purchases after reading a review in fine woodworking was a set of narex chisels…which for the money are hard to beat.  After a while i decided it was time for an upgrade so I ordered a few different premium chisels to try out.  If you’ve ever used these you’ll realize that its no suprise I went with Lie Nielsen Chisels to fill out the rest of my set.  These chisels are truly a work of art…that functions as well as it looks.  They arrive with flat backs and require little sharpening, they’re ergonomically perfect and they look amazing.  The customer service at Lie Nielsen is also second to none and they truly don’t make anything that isn’t of exceptional quality so i Urge you to check them out.

8. FLIR thermal i7 imaging camera (around $2000)

Ever wanted to double check how hot your electronics projects are getting with great accuracy?  Want to see exactly where heat is soaking through?  Maybe even see that each cylinder in your engine is firing evenly well a flir camera is a great way to do this.  These cameras even allow you to take quick snapshots and print out reports with temperature gradient charts.  If you’re designing any high powered electronics or even trying to make your home heating and cooling more efficient this is a dream tool.

7. HAAS CNC Mill (Anywhere from $30k up to much higher)

Need custom brackets or hardware and don’t have time to order them?  Want to prototype something with extremely high accuracy in house…then a CNC mill is what you need and HAAS makes some of the best machines around.  Make production quality parts with these dream machines.

6. U Print Commercial Grade 3D printers ($20,000)

3D printing is no longer only used in industry for prototyping.  A number of you already have DIY machines at home and please don’t write me saying this machine is really overpriced…if you haven’t used one they aren’t…the quality is amazing, the speed is amazing and the easy to use features are the reason for its higher price tag.  If you’re designing parts, particularly complex parts for high-quantity manufacturing processes like injection molding then this is one of the best and fastest ways to prototype that part for fit, aesthetics, user interactivity etc….Also please don’t think i’m hating on DIY 3d printers, they’re getting pretty good and the gap between them and commercial options is closing fast, but at this point if i owned a product design company i’d be buying one of these machines.

5. V2 Auto cycling Venturi based vacuum press kit ($245)

This is one of the few things on this list that I actually have, If you already have a compressor…don’t waste your money buying an expensive vacuum press.  You can convert that positive air pressure into vacuum, and this kit allows you to do so in a controlled fashion, it only takes a couple of hours to get up and working too.  Some possible uses for this bad boy are, applying wood veneer, molding composites, even a vacuum workholding solution.

LINK here to part 2

Continue reading »]]> As a graduate student, I run a commercial quality mini CNC mill and make aerospace parts for different projects.  I’ve been wanting to dive into the market for DIY cnc machines and work to make improvements.  I plan on taking one of the most affordable DIY mini cnc machines on the market, the Shapeoko and working to improve it.  All of my findings and cad files etc will be posted on here and totally open sourced.  The downside to being a graduate student is…well instead of getting paid to do engineering work, i’m paying tuition so my budget for DIY projects is very limited.  If any of you would like to donate to the project, feel free and if not…no big deal either.







 
way…thanks for visiting the site and my sponsors ads, I’ve been using all of this site’s small profits to fund further DIY projects and thanks to all of you I’ve been able to make things like a DIY water methanol injection system, and

Continue reading »]]> For years I’ve wanted a dedicated Media center computer.  I’ve briefly had a few older computers with mediocre video performance and some bulky desktop setups but nothing permanent until now, and for cheap.  Using Open elec and a raspberry pi model B I have made a small, quiet, lower power, cheap media center.

What you need.

1. Raspberry Pi a $35.00 computer platform capable of 1080p graphics

2. SD Card-I suggest an 8gb or larger class 10 card, this will be plenty fast and have some room for storage

3. Computer-Not required but makes for easier installation

4. Keyboard+Mouse

5. USB Micro B cable and 1amp USB power adapter:   to power Raspberry Pi

Step ONE:  Prepare SD card

using SDFormatter you can format your SD card to FAT32

Next write the image of the OPEN elec build of xbox media center to your SD card.  Download and install WIN32 Disk Imager 

Also download a copy of the latest Open Elec image (at the bottom of this link)

Using WIN32 Disk Imager complete the following

Find the location of your image file, make sure your SD card is the correct drive letter for device and click write.

Step 2:  Insert SD card and Enjoy

Next insert the SD card into your Raspberry pi, plug in a keyboard, mouse, and ethernet connection and voila you have yourself a mediacenter capable of playing 1080p video and digital audio.

Media Center in action

UPDATE

I forgot to add.  If your SD card is large the install won’t take advantage of the full size of the card.  What you can do is use GPARTED,  to expand the storage partition out to the size of your sd card.  GPARTED is a linux build that you can run off of a USB stick or CD that is very simple to use.

The link for the Gparted USB/LIVE CD HERE

basically all you do is boot up in gparted, and expand the storage partition.

Youtube video instructions here

Continue reading »]]> As a DIYer and engineer i’m frequently looking for projects that 1. Match up with my interests 2. Save me some money.  This project definitely matches up with my interests, I’ve been an audio nut for years, built several sets of speakers and more recently a headphone amplifier (which sounds fantastic).  Its no secret to audio junkies that many high end audio products come with high price tags…a lot of that is marketing budgets, fancy aesthetics etc.  So I decided to use my  DIY skills for a phono preamplifier upgrade.

A while back after reading some reviews I purchased my first phono preamplifier, an Audio Technica AT-PEQ3.  I’ve been pretty happy with it and its sounded good for as long as i’ve had it.  After upgrading everything else in my setup It had become what I perceive as the weak point in the system so i decided to pop it open (slide it out actually) and see what it looks like on the inside.  If you remove all of the screws on the outside of the enclosure it will slide right out.

Immediately after opening this a few things caught my eye.  One the Op amp used is an NE5532P dual op amp.  A decent op amp used in quite a few commercial phono preamps and headphone amplifiers. You can check out the data sheet here.  And Two there are several cheaper electrolytic caps on the signal side of this circuit.  My first thoughts were to upgrade the operational amplifier and upgrade the capacitors, two cheap phono preamplifier upgrades that should yield noticeable improvement.

After a little research I found that all of the leg-work had already been done for me.  The great folks over at Audiokarma.org forums had already upgraded this in the same manner at this thread .

The Chosen op amp for the upgrade is the LME49990 which has incredibly low distortion .00001% wow is that good.  The datasheet for it is available here.

I decided after reading the great results from audio karma that I’d do the same and use

• Two LME49990 op amps
• Panasonic Film Capacitors

Continue reading »]]> Note if you haven’t seen Part 1 please view here

Control system design.  My system uses a parallax propeller microcontroller to control the output of the pump motor as well as monitor all of the inputs constantly.  The benefits of this microcontroller are its multi-core design. With 8 processors the propeller is able to check inputs, and change the speed control of the motor accordingly on the diy water methanol injection system.

My prototype is made using a Pololu 18v7  simple motor controller with serial interface

However for the final design I will be implementing a more robust motor driver capable of handling motors with higher current draw allowing for motors up to 30amps for the water methanol injection system.

Specifically, I will be looking to use this motor controller which can be picked up for $34.95 at pololu or the chip itself can be purchased for around $12-15

Additionally, the system will utilize a 16×2 LCD with HD44780 controller

Many diy water methanol injection systems feature output but only of the current pump level.  I decided that I wanted to also include the input level to make tuning easier as well.  Screen output was chosen to print out the current load level of the engine based on the analog input from the car and then the output of the motor in percentage

Preview of the Screen output

Input information

In order for thisdiy water methanol injection system to work you’ll have to pull off of some input from the car that changes in proportion to the cars load level.  For the initial prototype I designed it to use the analog input from a vehicles MAF sensor.  Many sensors exist that read values in the 0-5v range.  In order to read this into the Propeller chip an Analog to digital converter is needed.  I used an ADC0831 8bit converter.  This provides me with 255 incremental positions for the input value and thus 255 possible output values for the motor.

FlowChart

schematic

currently, it will be updated soon to remove to remove the relay

I have everything mounted to a demo board right now while I work out a few bugs before PCB design.  I’m planning on swapping the relay out for a high power transistor and making a few small changes but otherwise it functions well.

HDV 0049 from Diyourfaceoff on Vimeo.