Touch me if you can

This is an assignment given to me by Boss quite sometime ago. The Touch-screen monitor is no longer working. Although I do not like blogging things so close to my new job, but for this, I am going to make an exception because its bordering on tutorial. So, this information might come useful to you. Or it might not.

The main problem with this monitor is that the tube is gone. But the touchscreen function is suspected to be OK. So, the problem is, either to get it repaired or, see what I can do. And so, a the end of the day, the latter was chosen, 'When I have the time'.

After almost killing myself lugging the monitor all
the way back to the office, I finally got it opened.

The touchscreen interface was next. Its just a serial
interface but with a 12volt power requirement.

Which I found it here, where the installer soldered
the power cable to this component. Although it was
not powered up for a long time, I decided not to poke
around too much with my finger and the screwdriver
as you'll never know if there are still some electrical
charge stored inside the capacitors. Worse is that
the tube will explode but knowing me, I am not
taking chances as stranger things have happened
when I am around. Ha ha ha ha.

Next, its the touch-screen itself. As you can see, it
is held close to the screen by thick black electrical
tapes. And so, I carefully peeled off the tape. As
much as I like to use a blade, I prefer not to since
I do not know what other things are under the tape

I was right. There were some thin cable like plastic
surrounding the touchscreen. And so, I used a blade
this time, to carefully remove the clear double-sided
tape between the actual monitor and the touchscreen

After downloading the driver, and setting up the
screen to another test PC. I got it working! The
next thing is to get a frame to protect the touch
screen and then mount it onto this LCD screen

As for the rest of the monitor........

Dragon Fruits

The girls showing the effects of eating

Dragon Fruit. But I can't show you

the effects at the toilet........

The De Lorean from BTTF I

OK, so I finaly relented and got this..... this huge toy. The huge 1/15th scale De Lorean from Back to the Future I made by Diamond Select Toys. When I say it huge, I really mean it is almost 13½ inch huge. Now, despite what you read from the Internet, please bear in mind that this is a toy and not some Studio Scale Model. In other words, it looks like it but its not accurate. But still, after waiting and deliberating, despite its cons being more than its pros, I still went ahead.

Do not be fooled with the title "Back to the Future II"
Its to circumvent some copyright issues and not some
technicality. I can't be bothered to explain his but you
can find more information on the Internet. Then again,
its a toy. Who cares?

Lets begin by unveiling the toy. I tried to recreate
the same scene where we all saw the time machine
for the very first time, which is coming out from a
trailer. Since I do not have a smoke machine and
proper lighting, this will have to do. The toy actually
sits on a clear moulded plastic packaging. And when
it is closed, the upper set of clear mirrored plastic
will keep the toy still. This does a way with those
irritating wires you see in a lot of toys. Kudos to the
person who designed this packaging.

This is the shot with normal car setting. Well, OK,
I set the switch to 'Play' where at this setting, the
De Lorean's headlights would come on.

There are some marks on the car which I am not
too happy since it would mean having to repaint
them. You can see such example on the bonnet,
near the headlights where there are two smudges
Then again, I would need to, anyway, if I wanted
to make it as accurate as the one in the movie.

The Time Circuit activator is a big disappointment
as not is it sloppily glued but its just a sticker over
a shape. In actual prop, it is clear. Maybe I should
locate and get my 1/18 Sunstar model out for some
comparison.

As you can see, the dash area is quite accurate
but still there is a lot of work to be done as well

Becareful when you open the battery compartment
because the nut holding the screw will come off. It
did in mine anyway. Next to the batteries , on the
right, is the switch setting, giving you 'ON' for demo
in the box, 'PLAY' for, well, all the sounds as printed
on the box. 'OFF' is for you to roll the car across the
carpet silently until you hit the cat/dog/wall.

See the round thing? Its the nuclear reactor which uses
stolen plutonium to generate 1.21Jigawatts to the Flux
Capacitor. Here, it is used as speaker output.

Only in the 'PLAY' mode can you have the headlights
and the Flux capactor light up, among other things.....

....such as the rear lights and even the vents....

...the dashboard and time circuits too.

So, all in all, at this moment, this is the best toy
of the lot and yes, there will be a lot of work to
do before I can accept and display it. Heh.

OK, this is the top view of the DeLorean.

And this is the bottom view. I am waiting for the BTTF II
version. But here, they have done the groundwork for it.
Just look at the four circles and the pair of five rectangular
shapes. These are for the Flying DeLorean. How they make
the wheels rotate, is a good question, unless they're doing
the same thing as what Aoshima did with their 1/24 model.

So, at this point in time, I got the car and the more I think about it, the more I am worried because of the things that needs to be done, which one of them involves making clear resin parts and clear transparencies. My original idea was to put in a radio remote control system in there but after seeing the switch near the batteries, this is not going to be a simple cut and solder job. This is going to be a very long project and I need to learn how to do casting. But, in the meantime,........

Bwahahahaahahahahah!

New heaphones

OK, my headphone's had it. Usually, when a headphone is faulty, it either has no sound on one side or even both or, in most cases, gives you that crackling noise. But mine is different; its gone nuts.

Yeah, that's just me. Things that happens to me are never normal.

I am sure there is a short in the wires because after four years, the outer sheath for the cables have gone quite brittle. If you bend it too much, it will break. But here, the problem is not that as I can use some electrical tape to cover them. The problem is that, *ahem* it gives me Karaoke style music. In other words, it combines both Left and Right channels and somehow, by some inexplicable reasoning or phase shifting, it canceled out the vocals.

So, there you have it. A four year old headphone,
with mismatched silicon earbuds, torn protective
sheath and of course, dirtied by years of abuse.

Everytime the protective sheath cracks or fall
off, I have to get new electrical tapes to cover.

There you go. This wasn't here last week. Its
so fragile. Must the the heat and UV from the
Sun bombarding the car everyday.

And so, finally, I bought another one, this time
with a much cheaper price of Rm19.00. OK, so
its missing a bottom cover in the box. So what?

Again, it has its own set of silicon ear thingies.
The original A4 Teach also have them but I
lost them somewhere.....

The Bass is nice and all but there is a problem in the
sense that the black cables are very stickly and very
rubberlike. So, this means the damn thing just kinks
itself everytime I want to use them.

And this so-called Gold Contact actually oxidised
and I had to wipe it clean before I can get some
good sound out of it. Also, see the black cable?
There is no strain relief which it think, its not
going to last long. Oh well.......

Talking with my Old Boss

I like to call him an old Boss rather than giving him the title of 'Ex-Boss', although this title has already been given to my actual shithead ex-Boss. Anyway, after talking to him, it seems that the company seriously has some problems although he is still in the upbeat mode.

The two remaining technicians have already left which make it more difficult for him to attend to all the daily service calls. Moreover, most of them are of the new PABX systems. Not only is he exhausted, he is now back to a one-man team, with the difference that there is one more guy to help him. However, he is not technically inclined.

So, the office is very empty now, and much as I wanted to help, I cannot do much because of my new committments. Moreover, even if I managed to die-die do it, it would be no different as before. And, he still would be depending on me. Right now, he is really learning all the techical things by himself, which, in a good way, is well, good for him.

I did give him my suggestions and my actual long term plan for his company. He took it as a very good idea but right now, in order to achieve this, he needs one critical person to pull this off. No, its not me because my '15 years of fame' is over anyway. So, lets see if I can help him out one last time because all it needs is a good phone call......

Which I am never that good, anyway.

Saplise! I got gut kalipup to eat wif quarter egg

insid. By one for only Rm1.70 wor. Oil and salti

like hck too.