John Alexander's Blog

Purple Haze -Tantalum Cap must Die For my Pleasure!!

Problemchild — Mon, 29 Dec 2014 16:30:28 GMT

I admit it ain't too creative but I really wanted to know if the purple flames from my accidental destruction of a Tantalum cap was a fluke.I saw in Wikipedia that the flame test for tantalum is in deed blue so fancied a go at it and also it was an e...(read more)

XMOS Christmas competition

Problemchild — Tue, 02 Dec 2014 22:38:44 GMT

Had an email from XMOS yesterday advertising their latest competition.Rules are simple.. Create a Christmas orientated project using the XMOS device get it video'd and up on Youtube/Vimeo and do it before the19th of December. Short notice...(read more)

Hacking IP cameras

Problemchild — Wed, 12 Nov 2014 18:46:35 GMT

Just had a read of this guys post who has some good advice and basic information on hacking those Linux in a can IP cameras which all seem to have the same design I think? Any way he gets to the serial port on the PCB and uses a USB-Serial adapt...(read more)

Holograms and how to make them

Problemchild — Tue, 11 Nov 2014 00:20:31 GMT

Well unfortunately he didn't get down and dirty on the details of his optical table Jason Sapan gives a good feel on how and what a Hologram is and what you can do with them.www.youtube.com/watchYou can go to the site http://www.holographer.com/ and ...(read more)

OSCAR Catchup

Problemchild — Sun, 09 Nov 2014 18:21:52 GMT

Just thought I would catch up with you all with the OSCAR Display port Board and Panel. Still not perfect but a lot better. everything lines up at the front: Rear now gives access to the board to allow you to get to the Controls The s...(read more)

E-Bike Overclocking and Custom Battery Packs

Problemchild — Sat, 01 Nov 2014 23:02:20 GMT

Jim goes into his Electric Bike collection and how he's pimped them up with some interesting mods and exotic chemistry battery packs! www.youtube.com/watch I can't believe it's been nearly 5 years since we were going on about these devices ...(read more)

OSCAR Enclosure 1st prototype

Problemchild — Mon, 27 Oct 2014 12:16:19 GMT

OK.. I can't take any kudos for the design as my friend John2 ( ) did this himself with minimum interaction from me.Any way figured you would like to have a look at work so far! A few faults that need to be worked on but other wise ex...(read more)

OSCAR The iPad Screen for the Rest of Us!!

Problemchild — Sun, 26 Oct 2014 21:30:23 GMT

A few months ago on Kickstarter I spotted OSCAR a device which allowed you to put an iPad screen on to a conventional PC with a Displayport adapter.Rather than some proprietary signalling the iPad panel supports Displayport directly and you could jus...(read more)

ESP8266 WIFI device now has SDK and dedicated VM

Problemchild — Sat, 25 Oct 2014 20:23:33 GMT

The little WIFI device that can is certainly causing a stir amongst those folk including the IOT intelligentsia. A new SDK has been released as well as a Lubuntu based VM so you don't have to go through the bother of compiling the envi...(read more)

ESP8266 Wifi Range/Distance Tests

Problemchild — Mon, 29 Sep 2014 12:18:28 GMT

The ESP8266 is an exciting new WIFI device. It's suddenly become so popular because of an influx of cheap (£3) modules been made available on EBAY.So obviously you have been able to get USB WIFI devices for this price for a while but now they even ha...(read more)

What shall we do with a broken toaster - Acrylic line bender & hot wire polystyrene cutter

Problemchild — Sat, 27 Sep 2014 21:37:24 GMT

OK I'm ripping off my mate Jim again, sure he won't mind as he really can't be bothered to do the Blog posts This week he's taken the nichrome wire out of a toaster and making a couple of nice new toys namely an Acrylic Bender and Hot wir...(read more)

DIY Hydroponic Pump Cycle Timer

Problemchild — Sat, 20 Sep 2014 22:30:19 GMT

Ok Just another quick one. My mate Jim has been hacking away building switch gear for his Hydroponic set up.Anyway cheap ebay timers and a nice box to mount them in and some basic mechanical building to make them safe. Take a look an...(read more)

SLUGs @ TDARS Radio Rally

Problemchild — Wed, 17 Sep 2014 11:04:55 GMT

Shropshire Linux User Group(Yeah SLUG!!) had a stand at the local Radio Rally(TDARS) on the 1st.We had a 3D printer,QSSTV decoding images from our visitor operated "SSTV Selfie Cam" running on a Raspberry Pi and FLDIGI busily decoding...(read more)

Wuthering Bytes '14 the videos

Problemchild — Wed, 17 Sep 2014 09:18:34 GMT

www.youtube.com/watchWell a few weeks ago now I actually got down to Wuthering Bytes Open Hardware Meetup @ Hebden Bridge, UK once again.The meet up was excellent as usual and now extends over 3 days including the Sunday Workshop. Having a single tra...(read more)

PIP the robot loves Apples!!!

Problemchild — Sun, 24 Aug 2014 20:34:20 GMT

Still with Jim and his Vids around 4 years ago we purchased an old carriage for use as a robot base.Jim had over a period of a few weeks reverse engineered the control protocol for the attendant pendant which allows for a carer to completely control ...(read more)