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Trivial Things

14th December 2014

ACoC 2014: Day 14: De-shocker Wand

An electrostatic discharge wand with neon indicator lamp.

Parent article: Advent Calendar of Circuits 2014.

7th December 2014

ACoC 2014: Day 7: Variable Capacitor

The CAD files for the variable capacitor frame.

Parent article: Advent Calendar of Circuits 2014.

26th April 2011

Wireless Power Demo Circuit

Circuit diagram of the wireless power TX used in the video demonstration.

Parent article: Wireless Power Experiments.

29 comments.

19th March 2011

ARNSW Homebrew Group 2011 Challenge

A simple direct-conversion receiver for the Homebrew Group challenge this year.

3 comments.

27th February 2011

Random Dialler for 555 Adding Machine

A quick random dialling hack for the adding machine to demonstrate it at the Wyong Field Day.

Parent article: 555 Adding Machine.

5th February 2011

555 Araneae Junkboxius

Junkbox electrical component blinking 555/LED spider sculpture project.

4 comments.

16th January 2011

Ring Oscillator Blinkenlights

A bit of fun with LEDs, transistors and capacitors.

18th December 2010

TRON Backpack

Electroluminescent trimmed backpack inspired by TRON.

5 comments.

27th November 2010

Picoammeter

A simple picoammeter using an LMC662 op-amp.

5 comments.

23rd October 2010

Larson Scanner

Simple blinkenlight project to Cylonify my workstation PC.

5 comments.

20th May 2010

Estimating The Size Of The ISS And STS

My quick go at estimating the size of the International Space Station and Space Shuttle Orbiter from the wonderful Thierry Legault solar transit photograph.

23rd December 2009

Rope Light Christmas Star

A large Christmas Star for my balcony made using a length of rope light and some timber dowelling.

Contains 1 sub-article.

8th December 2009

LOL Can Christmas Tree

Some technical Yahoos assemble an office Christmas tree from over 430 soft drink cans.

1 comment.

18th April 2009

Ionisation Chamber Radiation Detector

A quick hack based on Charles Wenzel's nuclear war detector.

5 comments.

24th February 2009

30 Metre QRSS Beacon Calibrated

I finally sit down and calibrate the front-panel controls of the QRSS beacon.

Parent article: 30 Metre QRSS Beacon.

15th February 2009

Wiring Pencil

A simple wiring pencil for digital circuit prototyping Verowire-style.

Contains 1 sub-article.

10 comments.

14th February 2009

ATtiny2313 Programming Adapter

An adapter for my ATtiny13 programmer so it can program ATtiny2313 devices.

Parent article: ATtiny13 Programmer.

29th January 2009

Variometer Prototype

A small variometer-style variable inductor as a prototype study of an interpolating inductor for an antenna matching unit.

7 comments.

17th November 2008

RF Sniffer

A simple RF sniffer for detecting LF to SHF radiation.

27 comments.

28th September 2008

Resonant Coaxial Feedline Choke

A simple coaxial feedline choke (aka braid-breaker) for antenna experiments.

2 comments.

23rd August 2008

-20 dB Tap Attenuator

A simple transformer-based -20 dB transmission line tap.

24th May 2008

Neon Bulbs in a Microwave

A quickie showing what 400 NE-2 Neon glow lamps do if you put them in a microwave.

4 comments.

11th May 2008

Charlieplexed Persistence of Vision Counter

A proof-of-concept POV display charlieplexing 6 LEDs.

1 comment.

3rd May 2008

ATtiny13 Programmer Gets a Clock Source

I add a simple xtal clock source to the programmer.

Parent article: ATtiny13 Programmer.

2 comments.

19th April 2008

ATtiny13 Programmer

Simple parallel port programmer for the Atmel ATtiny13 (and similar ATtiny AVR range) chips.

Contains 2 sub-articles.

9 comments.

12th April 2008

PSK-31 Interface for the FT-817

My simple, fully isolated, audio keyed, PSK-31 interface for my FT-817ND.

3 comments.

29th February 2008

Negistor Applications

Using the Negistor to implement a simple sidetone for minimalist QRP rigs.

9 comments.

12th December 2007

The Agony of the About Me page

I try to write an "about me" page.

8 comments.

9th September 2007

Multimeter RF Power Add-On

A simple 50 Ohm power meter adapter for a multimeter. (Also talks about my diode probe.)

4 comments.

3rd June 2007

Plumbing MacGyver Style

How I fixed my toilet cistern inlet valve with a Coke bottle cap.

2nd June 2007

End-Fed Half-Wave for 2 Metres

A quickie hack that actually worked pretty well.

4 comments.

28th April 2007

"C" and "R" Jigs

Simple variable resistance and capacitance jigs for the bench.

2 comments.

20th January 2007

Parts Cabinet (Mark II)

Another rotating multi-draw cabinet.

Parent article: Parts Cabinet.

11th November 2006

FM Broadcast Receive Antenna

A quick folded dipole antenna for 3 metres.

2nd September 2006

Active HF Probe

My copy of VK5BR's sweeper detector.

5th March 2005

Hydrometer

An incredibly crude soda straw hydrometer.

18th February 2005

Ferro-Gallotannic Ink

Iron gall ink and a bamboo pen of sorts.

2 comments.

15th February 2005

Flame Test Loop

How to make your own flame test tool.

2 comments.

29th August 2003

Take-tonbo

An ancient Chinese invention, the Bamboo Dragonfly.

2 comments.

10th June 2003

Cabbage Indicator

Using red cabbage juice as a cheap homebrew pH indicator.

2 comments.

8th June 2003

Pinhole Projector

A cardboard box pinhole camera that operates without film. The image is projected onto a screen for human observation. A quick and simple project to demonstrate pinhole optics.

10th May 2003

Diagram Error

Fred Kennedy noticed the circuit diagram might be wrong.

Parent article: High Voltage Probes.

2 comments.

20th March 2003

Circuit Diagram

Richard Solis asked me to post the circuit diagram.

Parent article: High Voltage Probes.

14th February 2003

Neon Flasher

A super simple inverter that will flash a neon brightly, powered by as little as a single 1.2 Volt rechargeable cell.

1 comment.

14th December 2002

Optical Tachometer

A simple reflection-pair optical tachometer head for my CD structural integrity tests.

16th November 2002

Simple Electrometer

An ultra-simple, very sensitive electrometer.

10th November 2002

Electrostatic Motor

My small implementation of Bill Beaty's soda bottle electrostatic motor.

10th November 2002

High Voltage Probes

I've been working with high voltage quite a lot lately, so I decided to make myself some basic test equipment. Starting with a 1000:1 DC probe.

Contains 2 sub-articles.

3 comments.

10th November 2002

Bill Meara N2CQR writes

My first meeting with Bill of SolderSmoke fame.

Parent article: Trivial Electric Motor.

3rd November 2002

Phone Tap

A simple interface for picking up the audio on a phone line.

3rd November 2002

Projectile Motion Pictures

Fooling around with a strobe light in the dark with long exposures.

27th October 2002

Van de Graaff Generator

My small, and quite ugly, prototype built using house hold materials.

4 comments.

26th October 2002

Flogging a Flyback

Various fooling around with a old TV flyback transformer.

5 comments.

21st October 2002

Almost a Tesla Coil

Fooling around with a self-resonant long solenoid and modest RF power.

1 comment.

19th October 2002

SM0VPO 500mW Linear Amplifier

My implementation of SM0VPO's cute little QRP linear amplifier.

2 comments.

17th October 2002

Trivial Electric Motor

A simple demonstration DC motor you can build in 10 minutes with your children.

Contains 1 sub-article.

2 comments.

24th September 2001

Yet Another Comb Generator

A simple 14.91 MHz comb generator that I built for testing a S-Band dish.

3 comments.

24th September 2001

Simple AF Amplifier

My bench amplifier that I use for listening to small AF signals.

1 comment.

31st August 2001

Parts Cabinet

How I built my parts cabinet for all my electronic components.

Contains 1 sub-article.

2 comments.

27th August 2001

Quick Comb Generator

A quick hack to produce VHF/UHF and above test signals with ease.

2 comments.