ATX -> Bench Power Supply Mod
Yay bench power!
WARNING WARNING WARNING! Switching power supplies have many BACs (beefy-ass capacitors) that can hold lots of juice long after you've unplugged the unit. Do not crack one open like I did without knowing what you're doing, it could seriously injure you or at least be really uncomfortable when you shock the crud out of yourself. I'm not responsible if you do just that, don't say I didn't warn you. I have a cable I made with a brush at the end that grounds everything it touches, I use it to brush the back of all power electronics before I work on them. You should too.
This is a pretty common one, but I like to add flair. I needed a bench power supply. Sadly, bench power supplies are very expensive, and I'm a poor college student. What I do have are computers. Lots of computers. In fact, I just brought to the recyclers about 100lbs of computer waste from machines that are too slow for even my standards. Luckily, one thing computers have going for them is very refined, VERY powerful power supplies.
USB Breakout Cable
USB metering goodness.
A while back I wanted to monitor how much current my iPhone could draw under different conditions. I had seen a cable before where somebody brought it into a project box with a couple of screws on top exposing the two unshorted positive leads and the straight-through ground (such that you could measure both current through the cable or voltage across it), but I felt I could make things both smaller and more fully-featured.
WESD51 Lockout Pencil Tip
I just received a very nice Weller WESD51 soldering station from work where we had a few that just weren't frequently used. I was annoyed, however, to find out that the temperature lockout was set - that is, I couldn't raise the temperature above an arbitrary value set by someone as an upper limit earlier. I was more annoyed to find out that there's no control on the panel to set this. Instead, there's some silly magic wand that you're supposed to hold over a logo on the panel to get the job done. A wand that I didn't have. So I was looking around online to try to figure out what the thing was, and I noticed it looked like the tip was a little magnet. And so it is - there's a magnetic reed switch mounted underneath the "ESD Safe" logo on this unit that controls a number of functions. In the end, I am now just keeping one of the many magnetic reaching wand pencils I have laying around next to my station to set the lockout temperature. Hopefully, if you found this via Google, you're less confused now.
As an aside, a bunch of the other settings of the unit are managed via this reed switch too. I'm including a link to the documentation here, since it was a bit difficult to track down.
Weller WESD51 Soldering Station Documentation
Soldering The Thinnest Wires Ever Conceived: Headphone Modding
Acrylic insulated wires stink, for sure, but when they're stranded and micro-fine, they stink WAY more.
I may use this blog to post mainly iPhone or software related articles, but I am an electrical engineering student, and as an EE, I love me some good, clean hardware. Therefore, when my favorite pair of earbuds kicked the bucket the other day, my first thought went to the in-box iPhone headset and, more importantly, how much those earbuds suck. My favorite bang-for-the-buck earbuds EVER are Skullcandy Full Metal Jackets, primarily because I got them at TJ Maxx for $25. In general though, they have silicone pads that seal out sound, instead of the hyper uncomfortable iPod earbuds that fall out and sound like crap. I was super bummed when my FMJs broke, but luckily, the part that broke was on the plug end of the earphones. That is, both earbuds themselves still work fine, only the plug is dead. My thought was to cut the crappy iPhone buds off their cable (which includes a microphone and remote button) and graft on my beloved FMJs.