That LED strip

Ya, ya, and so I got one la. I mean, this is a 12 inch strip with 12 Red SMT LEDs on it. Ya, ya, ya. And it takes in 12 volts too, la. Know wat? Now that fella asked me to make it glow on and off like Rudolph the Red nosed Reindeer.

Haiyoh! Why he didn't tell me earlier, ha, I dun know. Make me suspens only. People here already busy doing teknological transfer and he want this. I have a good mind to just solder a variable resistor and ask him to turn it on and off himself. Basket.

Lucky I am in a generous mood today. If not for me, those people in the shop won't get my hard earned RM25.00 and would be out in the streets. Ask you, ah for that price, the strip dem 9 7 expensive right? But you must know, one ting. You want fast solution, you pay the price wun. Don't believe me?

Say you waiting for a Big Mac and there is a long queue. You think that Clown serve you right away, ah? Of course not, right? So, you just pay the guy who got his Big Mac from the counter la. Of course it won't be RM9.95 or anyting close la. Use your blain la. Gip him RM50 he shaddup already.

Harrumph! And there you have it, Ladies and
Gentlemen. 12 surface mount red LEDs precisely
embedded on a very flexible circuit board material
which not only double up as a conductive medium
but also allows you, to a certain degree, bend it.

Over here, at one end of the strip, you can see that
it has four very fragile connectors. But there is a
purpose in the sense that they allow you to connect
to the power cable either way.

Even more ingenious is that the other end is
shaped like a receptacle. This allows you to
connect more LED strips into a long line.
But, I must warn you, Ladies and Gentlemen,
you must have a proper constant current
power source ready, I'm afraid.

Power is delivered into the strip via the standard
jack socket and from the picture above, and the
middle connector is used to connect to one end of
the strip as seen on the right.

And I can assure you that they are very bright.
Just make sure the power source has enough
current or else you will find yourself changing
batteries every few minutes or so, methingks

Oh, well. Yes, if you must know, the little black
thing on the left is a MOSFET transistor which
I plan to use a microcontroller to create the
pulsing effect for the LEDs. However, this is
going to take time since I am quite occupied
towards the end of January and R&D on this
will be slower than the usual delay.

This Cake

This cake was from Yen Yen's Birthday.

This cake was in the fridge for 7 days.
This cake is hard and buttery.
This cake is in my stomach in seconds.
This cake came out the next morning.
This cake was also brown when it went in.....

Losing the spark

A few days ago, while my Mobile Phone was out of battery and the car charger was in the house, the company van suffered a breakdown. Normally, when it stops in the middle of the road, it can be started again. In the beginning, it was thought to be the insufficient water in the radiator which caused the problem since we could not find any water reservoir in the van's engine compartment. But even after topping up the water almost everyday, the problem still persist. And I experienced that first hand just a few weeks ago. And hating Tan Chong is not going to make things better. I mean, we're the Phone, CCTV and cable guys and this is just a different kettle of fish to us.

Anyway, since the van could not be started, the techs, pulled to the roadside to leave it for the night. So, I asked a friend of mine who told me that if the van could not be started and you smell petrol, there is a very high chance that the vehicle has no "api" (fire). In other words, the main suspects are the spark-plugs, the plug cables and the distributor. Sure enough, after having it towed to the nearest (and friendliest) mechanic located 30 KM away from our office (and the across the road and under the tree car workshop. heh), the problem was discovered to be the distributor.

After that, my tech was happy because the van
now had more Oomph, he dos not have to step
on the gas pedal at the lights and also, more
importantly, saves a bit of petrol. Oh, and the
crack above? Its not the cause of the problem
but some butterfingers who dropped it on the
floor on the way back to the office.