A Crummy Commercial

Hearing that Jim Lovell has died makes me sad.  Here is his wiki page: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jim_Lovell  there is a high resolution version of this portrait on the wiki page Two things on Lovell:  he grew up in Milwaukee so naturally he was my favorite astronaut.  Second, he was something of a tinkerer - I remember seeing a video where he mentions creating a map light so that he could look at a map while flying his Navy plane at night.  Unfortunately something went wrong when he tried it on a night flight near Japan and his cockpit instruments went dark !  Getting home was a bit of an adventure (with the help of the bioluminescent wake of the aircraft carrier) but I suspect it cured him of trying similar stuff while flying for NASA  :) Here is a video where he tells the story (starts about 22 minutes in): He seemed to have a knack for getting out of tight situations, not just depending on luck but using his well-trained skill to work the proble...

National (DC) Comics publisher Harry Donenfeld (left) with Bud Collyer and Joan Alexander   https://archive.org/details/superman_otr  I listen to the old time radio show, The Adventures of Superman , several times a week, every show started like this:   The Adventures of Superman faster than a speeding bullet more powerful than a locomotive able to leap tall buildings at a single bound look ! up in the sky, it's a bird, it's a plane It's Superman Yes, it's Superman, strange visitor from another planet who came to earth with powers and abilities far beyond those of mortal men Superman, defender of law and order champion of equal rights valiant courageous fighter against the forces of hate and prejudice I saw this today: https://www.msn.com/en-us/politics/government/superman-no-more-dean-cain-joins-ice-in-trump-immigration-push-watch/ar-AA1KaJlW  Doesn't it seem ironic that a portrayer of the ultimate alien is now an ICE agent ?  I doubt that Ma and Pa Kent in Ka...

I saw a link on the Piclist for a pdf file of: Linear Technology Magazine Circuit Collection, Volumes 1 - 5: https://pearl-hifi.com/06_Lit_Archive/02_PEARL_Arch/Vol_16/Sec_53/Linear_Technology/Vols_I_thru_V.pdf  The amazing thing to me was that this is a little over 6 megabytes, for all those hundreds of diagrams and pages of text.  This reminded me of this: Linearview CDROM: https://archive.org/details/linear-technology-linearview-data-book-cd-rom-19960  iso image: https://archive.org/download/linear-technology-linearview-data-book-cd-rom-1996/linearview%201996.iso  The interesting thing about the Linearview 1.0 CDROM was that not only did it have an Adobe Acrobat Exchange viewer program it also had the Acrobat PDFWriter program.  Supposedly this was done by accident since the PDFWriter software wasn't a free download. I asked a friend who was working at Motorola in the 1990s to send me the CDROM which he did, thanks Mike !  One nice thing about PDFWriter ...

I saw a version of this picture on Shorpy: source: https://www.loc.gov/pictures/item/2017850811/  https://www.shorpy.com/node/27816  When I see kids holding rabbits I think of three things: 1) Hasenfus: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eugene_Hasenfus  He was originally from Wisconsin - having a name like: "rabbit's foot" was NOT lucky for old Gene ! 2) That zoo in northern Denmark that wants pet owners to donate their pets for zoo predator food, yikes ! 3) My brief time as a rabbit owner as a kid.  I built a cage with chicken wire just like the ones in the photo above except that mine was painted white.  I don't remember if I had time to give the rabbit a name because one of the neighborhood dogs tunneled through that chicken wire without a problem.  I also remember Farmer Glaubitz's wife - she sold rabbits, one time several of us went to see her and there was only one rabbit left so she did "eenie-meenie" to pick a winner - that was the first time I ever ...

Apparently the problem with the Muter was the IR decoder module.  Monitoring the output of the module there would be periods of noise pulses: Then the noise might shrink and the output would invert ! Sony TV mute code 29, output inverted from active low to active high, weird !   I'm guessing that this is some problem inside with the AGC ?   Here is a picture of the defective module: Anyway, found a Sharp decoder module in the parts box, unfortunately it isn't made anymore but it is a 40 kHz module which works with the Sony remotes. I hooked it up to the Muter in place of the defective module and now the Muter works ! However I will still abandon adding a timer to the Muter.  A mini-one button IR remote will be made for the Sony CMT-EP313 stereo with built in delay timing.  I found an example of a one button remote in the junkbox: from the now defunct All Electronics :( But with the 9V battery holder it would require some voltage regulation for use with a PI...

I found this faux-Ten-Tec project in a junkbox.  It's an IR remote controlled muter project of mine from 1998 using a Motorola 68HC705J1A microcontroller.    Big news:  it still works ! Here is the back plate: almost 27 years old ! The case is a General Foods International Coffees tin covered with fake wood grain shelf paper.  The front is actually the bottom of the tin covered with shelf paper, there is a hole for the IR receiver module to "see" the Sony remote control.  The back is a circuit board I re-purposed from some other project. Here are the boards inside: The only problem with this project:  adding a timed delay to the mute would be a hassle since I don't have a computer at hand that will run the Motorola assembler and the programmer.  I think it requires a computer with a parallel port ? So even though it does work I may pivot to a different approach: use a PIC as a timed remote for the Sony CPS-EP313 stereo.  May need to buy some ...

Say there was no internet, how would I know what the carrier frequency of a Sony infrared remote control was ? Measure it ! Here is the quick and dirty test fixture: An IR photodetector diode pulled out of a surplus scale circuit board.  Used the photovoltaic  "generation" capability of the photodiode and measured the voltage output with the scope.  Here is the zoomed out view: And zooming into 2.5 us per division: Counting divisions there are 10 in one cycle of the carrier, so 10 x 2.5 us is 25 us. IR Carrier frequency is 1 / 25 us => 40 kHz So we need a 40 kHz detector module for the Sony although a 38 kHz module like the one I had been using might work.  Next number: see if I have a 40 kHz module in the junk box or maybe pull it from some defunct Sony product ?  Or buy one (last resort). Best Regards, Chuck, WB9KZY http://wb9kzy.com/ham.htm