Workshop Prototype PCB

After weeks of waiting, I got the prototype board back. However, because it took so long, I can barely remember the component's values at all. Worse still, the circuit diagrams are missing. But that is the least of my problems. My main problem is to test the boards and make sure my design is working before taking it to full production. And by my calculations, I have less than two weeks to achieve this.

This is the prototype board. Note the black lines on it.
This is the photo resist and must be removed before I
can start to solder the components.

The components do not fit exactly but this is not a
problem. I know what happened and its nothing to
do with the design since this is just a prototype.

But if this problem persist in the real production, I am
going to be in a lot of trouble.

OK, finally, after two hours of struggling, I managed
to finish the first board. And it works! Still, I might
need to change the design a bit. Heh.

So, for this workshop, there will be four PCBs to solder, with each relating to the presentation materials for the day. I think it will cost a bit more since I am incorporating four designs into one "lot" instead of one design into one "lot" each. And not only that, the cutting of each board is going to be another problem as each design uses different size. If I make them all the same size, the cutting problem could be solved but then, the design would look weird and not optimised. Once the design is finalised and then it comes back from the manufacturer, only will I know how many set of PCB boards will be available for the Workshop. Right now, I estimate it to be enough for 10 participants based on my last "top secret" design.

Sadly, this will be my first and last Workshop since my current work requirements for this year requires my full concentration and nothing less. So, you guys better ask a lot of questions and bring your models if you can. Its sad since everything for the past few years is starting to bear fruit, only to be nipped at the bud.

(But if anyone wants to order Corporate Diaries or Calendars, please let me know. Heh)

Kristine's Table Set-up

Kristine set up the table for lunch. Which is quite
impressive. I think it was inspired by last night's
outing to Itallianies. So, you have the utensils and
serviettes all laid out. Serviettes? I don't think we
bought any serviettes....

OK, so its toilet roll....
Still, full marks for being imaginative

The problems of counting with fingers

While waiting for Mommy buying some groceries, I took the girls to a nearby 7-11 and let them pick their choice of sweets. Also, because of Kristine's problems with money, I decided to teach her and also test her at the same time:

Me: OK, your sweets costs RM1.00 and Kaelynn's is RM0.60. How much is that?
Kristine: Erm..... One dollar... sixty sen.....
Me: Think of the one dollar as 10 and the sixty as six...
Kristine: .... its sixteen!
Me: Yes, and now, its actually, RM1.60. Now, if I give you RM2.00 for you to give to Koh-Koh there, how much will he give back?
Kristine: ... erm... sixten.... um... twenty..... (after a very long time...) But Dad, I don't have 20 fingers!
Me: ...

Kaelynn's writing exercise

While Kristine was busy with her class, Mommy got Kaelynn to practise her writing. This is because unlike her sister who writes using force, Kelynn was more of a light-weight just like me, In fact, most of what you see on her, is more or less my characteristics. Anyway, Mommy prepared a piece of paper for her to practice.

After one example, Kaelynn must start to write...

... and write...

... and write...

...and write...

And if there are any mistakes, its my
job to make sure she re-write again.

Occasionally, Mommy will correct her too

OK, half-done. But there is still
a lot more to go because every
three words, there is a mistake

OK, this is the last one and at the same
time, Kristine's class was wrapping up too

Eating at Italiannies

Earlier in the day, we passed by Castell and because of that, it came to our minds to try that since today was a special day. The funny thing was, for the past 15 years whenever I go to work or we go to PJ through this route, Castell was always there but it never crossed our minds to just go in an have a try. What was weird is that it was just recently I realised that it was a restaurant and not just for the lunchtime crowd or a pub/bar.

So, after searching for more information, the pictures from a few blogs were very convincing and we both decided that its high time that we try it. And so, after getting the kids ready again for another trip, we headed for Italiannies because they have this offer that for every adult meal, a kid can have one for free....

...by the time we reached The Gardens, we found out that the offer was not available today.

So, its obviously too late to have a nice dinner at Castell now, so we decided to go ahead anyway. One thing I noticed was that the place was literally very dark which made photography difficult. There is a section where there were a lot of lights but the Head Waiter did not have a table for us there. Maybe it was a smoking section or maybe it was full. Nevertheless, since it was our first time, we are not going to be bothered. But we did have to wait for quite sometime after going through the menu because we realised that no one is coming over to take our orders. What was even weirder though, was that after we managed to flag down a waiter, he looked stumped and called another waiter to take our orders. Maybe its near dinner time and everyone was hungry...

Anyway, minutes later, one of the waiters came with two bottles and some bread. One, I think was an olive oil mixture and the other is vinegar or something. The bread was soft and nice and once you dip them into the mixture, it was nice but as soon as it touched my mouth, I began to long for La Bodega's version which was toasted french loaf accompanied by a sizzling hot plate full of olive oil and flavoured with slices of garlic.

And then Permanis struck again and so, like Chilis, we opted for bottomless drinks
which comes in well, normal glasses unlike Chilis. It was still OK, until the subsequent
refill of my Iced Lemon Tea which they poured from a jug taken from a dark corner.
It was very diluted which I suspect, was left for a long time where the ice melted into the
drink. And so, after watching the waited serve a few more tables with the same jug, I asked
for it again. And Boy, I was wrong. Since I did not see the waiter stir the jug, when he poured
the almost empty jug into my glass, it still taste diluted. That means, the Iced Lemon Tea from
the jug has a problem. This, is starting to spoil my mood.

Luckily, our first order came. It is the Quattro Platter. Its a combination of deep-fried risotto balls, lemon cheese balls, calamari and zuchini strings. Also, there were two types of sauce; marinara and the red one was called alfredo dressing which immediately, my Wife compared it to Chili's much better salsa.

The kids really liked the calamari and the cheese balls. But after a few bites, they preferred the calamaris instead.

Kristine on the other hand, was really enjoying her meal. That was, until she noticed the big table in front of us, there was a girl who could be her classmate. I did not take much notice until from the corner of my eye, that very same girl kept looking at Kristine too. Later, Kristine confirmed that it was her classmate but was too shy to go over and greet her. I was shy too since the family looked pretty loaded with those LV bags and two newly purchased iPads on a chair.

These cheese balls are really cheese balls. Crunchy on the outside and yet, once you bite into them, its all soft cheese. However, I am not sure what was the black stuff but its very, very, nice. Still, being a DBKL agent, I cannot eat too much since I am really allergic to cheese and all.

For me, I personally liked the zuchini strings best of all even though they tasted more like deep fried oily onions. So, I put them on top of the olive oil soaked bread and topped with the marinara sauce, it was wonderful.

By now, with the bread and the first I am practically full. What I am worried now, were the two remaining dishes; the Clam Linguine (with Angel hair instead of the Linguine) and the Smoked Salmon Pizza. If you're not sure what I am talking about, let me share with you some observations; the dishes here at Italiannies are HUGE.

While waiting for the other two dishes to arrive, we were interrupted a few times by waiters politely asking, "Did you order this, or that" while showing us the dish. This is weird at first but it was quickly turning into an annoyance. But I am still not letting it get to me since at the area where we were sitting, most the tables have been joined into bigger ones. But I was really starting to get irritated once they brought the Linguine to our table. The instruction from waiter who wrote down on his paper that the pasta was to be replace the Linguine with Angel Hair pasta was not heard at all. And so, we had to return the dish and wait some more.

In the meantime, the kids are really enjoying their drinks and starting to understand the word, bottomless. By this time, because the intervals between each menu items were long, our stomachs are assuming we have finished eating and so, yeah, we are starting to feel very full.

Luckily, the correct "Linguine" arrived and so, we started to get the Kids to eat again. Kaelynn can't wait to eat hers because, well, it looked delicious. Reading from the menu, its described as; "Fresh clams sautéed in clam broth, garlic and olive oil. Served over linguine and sprinkled with chili flakes."

And the same can be said for Kristine. I mean, this is practically one of her favourites. Or will be. I can tell it was delicious because it was minutes after they were more than halfway through, did they notice it was hot.

Now, this is the worrying part. All four of us had our fill and there is still a lot left. And the kids do not really dig the clams which I kept bluffing them it was a bigger sized 'la-la'.

What I really liked about this is that it had some garlic and even the swesfweh do not have that sea smell. But I was secretly hoping it smelled more of garlic, like ones served in Pizza Hut. Still, this is much much better and not too oily. Yeah, I was spoilt by Pizza Hut on this one.

By this time, we're really full and with much prodding for Wife, I summoned enough courage to ask the waiter if our Smoked Salmon Pizza is still on the way. Because if it is not, we would like to cancel it. Its not about the price but eating the delicious Pizza (very different from Pizza Hut, almost the same as the original Pizza I had when I was in Scotland) while on an extremely stuffed stomach would not go down well.

Later on, my worries about cheese allergies were unfounded as there were no signs of itchiness or irritated skin. Phew! But this does not mean in the future I would be immune as there will be one day they get the cheese which is THE one...

All in all, apart from the service, this is quite a nice place and the pricing is more or less on par with American Chili's with the only difference on that day, kids did not get to eat for free. Then again, I shudder to think if they did because of the huge amount of food. Personally, just ordering one dish is enough for a couple. You should see the size of they dish they used for the Abbondanza (4-6 persons)....

[Update or the Morning after]
I re-visited their website again, and discovered that there were other options such as, there WERE Kids meals and also, a very nice 2 Course meal option. This made the feeling somewhat bitter as the waiters on that night did not suggest it after saying there were no Kid's Meal. So, now its very hard for me to justify going back there again since it gave me the impression that the waiters there were very unorganized and not very 'helpful' when it comes to the menu. And and then the issue with the Iced Lemon Tea...

The fun trip that lasted hours

We have planned for this trip days ago but somehow, on that day (which was today), not everything went well in terms of timing. I planned the trip to start about 10 in the morning but well, we were two hours late.

So, as soon as the first destination was completed, it was already lunch-time and so, rather than just go around and waste time exploring places, we ended up at McDonalds. This is what I feared because since it was already lunch hour, there would be a lot of people there and also, no parking bays. But the funny thing was, the moment we drove in, there was already an empty parking bay right in front of us.

As usual, we got them the Kiddy Meals. A burger
for Kristine...

...and nuggets for Kaelynn. Halfway through, we made
them 'share' their stuff with each other since there is
no point just eating one kind of food all the time.

Then Wife got me the usual Big Mac. I did not notice it
has 4 burgers in there so I gave the extra burgers to
the girls. Add in two more burgers and you have a
Mega Mac. Didn't ask Wife if it costs the same....

To cut a long story short, two toys came from their
Kiddy meal and the next customer got extras. So,
rather than returning it, the girls got them for free.

From there, it was a long trip to Kepong where Wife
needed to get more stuff. However, looking at that
place, it seemed as if its not going to be there next
month. Or maybe, we're right in the middle of their
renovation/stock moving, etc. Once that was done,
we drove further to PJ's Digital Mall where finally,
the girls get to remove the stickers pasted on the
auto window switches. We cannot remove them
due to the window tinting.

I mean, the sticker was supposed to be removed only
48 hours later but now, its more than two weeks...

Our haul: The very cheap ORIGINAL Microsoft Office
Student version. Thanks to Harvey Norman because if
it was not for the broken promises, we would be paying
RM299 for it. Some pencil box trinkets and yes, the US
version of The IT Crowd

Should have known it was too good to be true because
the discs were badly smeared, most probably due to
the material of the plastic envelopes. Sigh.

How not to disguise a car

OK, this is old news but with so much blog updating, I kind of missed this one weeks ago. Anyway, this was highligted from paultan's blog which was taken from blogtue. Apparently, a new Myvi was spotted in Melaka on route to God knows where.

The problem is, they (Perodua) knows its a new car. And they want to get it to another place which, as usual, within the fastest and cheapest route, and as inconspicuously as possible. And yes, the only solution was, to drive it there, hoping no one would notice.

Which is not an easy thing if you put white and black
tapes all over it, masking the car's design. Since every
one we know (including yours truly), do modify their
cars one way or another, the best solution would be to
drive the car as if there was nothing wrong with it and
people would just assume it was an extremely modded
Myvi. But, yeah, the license plate would still be a dead
giveaway because its against the Law to use false plates.

OK, so a tarpauline and a trailer would still work. It'll
be late but it will still get there. Unless this is Perodua
Marketing gauging how well people know their cars...

The Moonbus

Well, what a doo-doo I turned out to be. All the while, I was hoping to get this model, which is the Moonbus. And when it came, I realised that I had made a very big mistake. But since I have already pledged to buy it, no sense canceling it since it has already arrived at the shop. Moreover, Mr. Low might not be so happy if I did that even though he would still be smiling.

Anyway, the reason why I had second doubts was because:

I got this at a very special price, thanks to Mr. Low

But in actual fact, I thought the Moonbus was this,
the shuttle from Battlestar Galactica.

(Image taken from Modelermagic.com)

And now, the more I look at the Model, the more I
think about this instead.
(Image taken from wikipedia)

The Moonbus was actually a lunar transport which is can carry six passengers, limited cargo and two flight crews. It uses underside rockets to achieve flight to about a few hundred feet above the Moon's surface. Unfortunately, since everyone is in a space suit, there are no in-flight movies and food served on board. The only entertainment would be to look at each other or stare at th boring landscape outside the window.

So, seeing some images from the Internet, this is going to be a very nice model afterall...

When I have the time, I will review the model.

My, my, how he drinks!

OK, I have two more bars before the meter says its empty. But because the manual said not to run the car in one bar or less, I had to top up. But in theory, at the rate I am driving on this actual first tank refill, I think I can achieve 280Km or so.

Once I filled the usual RM50.00, the tank seemed to be full and all I did was to add 26 litres into it. Must read the manual again. But on the 'full' tank, it should be reaching 330 or so without any problems (in theory anyway). But it would be nice if I can get Vee-chai to be more 'kedekut' with the petrol.....

The last trip was 262.1Km and on its last two bar too.

Oats again

OK, I am starting on the oats again and this time, I am

using sardines. But after tasting it, I think its better to

stick with tuna as the tomato sauce made it very 'wet'

Going back to School

While I was doing an errand, I decided to stop by my old school since it was just next door. Coming back here whenever I can, I feel very much like a stranger. Still, it was my old school and I wonder, it thy actually keep records of past student's names and so on...

Always passed by this now 'famous' corridor which

was used for countless Advertisements.

Wanted to buy some excercise books and as usual,

it is closed, everytime I go there, its always closed

and this was very much so even during school.

The canteen has not changed much except for the

arrangement of tables. Now it looked very cramped.

I spoke to one of the drinks operators and they

just 'came in' in the last decade because there

was a buge argument between the original

operator "Robert" and Brother Michael Wong.

Then again, no body likes BMW and this was

mostly on hearsay since during my time, it was

none other than Bro Cassian Pappu who at that

time succeeded Bro. Michael Lawrence.

Oh no! They have even invaded my school! So, I

have no choice but to drink it and also ordered a

very yummy burger. During my time, it only costs

less than half the price today.

Everytime I come here, its so sad. I feel as if I wanted to belong here but the atmostphere really feels like as if you're a stranger. Then again, maybe because most of the people I know would now have retired or gone anyway. Sigh.

Which NERF configuration?

OK. I have located most of the NERF scopes and after looking at them, it was a little difficult to choose which one is the best. I want to modify this Barricade as an Urban Grenade Launcher. Initially, I wanted this to be a Heavy CQB Weapon, say, a 10-round auto shotgun. But after looking at it, well, I don't know.

When it comes to grenades, I am thinking micro-grenades, the ones that can be used to blow a hole in doors, or have a 5-feet blast radius. Or maybe, this is a multi-round gun which can shoot high-calibre rounds that can punch through a hole in engines or a tanks. And when you need shotguns, you just change the bullets. So, this is a short-range weapon, (10-35 feet) and is only a backup weapon. Yeah, this can work.

Now help me choose, which one looks nice/functional because I am going to paint it black:

Config A:
As a shotgun, this scope is ideal. And as a
grenade launcher, this scope is still OK.


Config B:
So, with a 'laser' aiming system, long range
targets would be easy picking.


Config C:
Well, this scope is nice, without you having
to explain, everyone can see that it can fire
at long range targets. But isn't it a bit too
bulky?