Oh!pEnions

System Installation @ Monterez

Today, we're installing a new PABX to replace a small keyphone. The reason the customer is upgrading was due to the fact that their old keyphone could not keep up with their staff expansion. They already have 22 extensions, just two short of reaching full capacity, where the system could not be expanded anymore.

One of my techs are installing some cable casings.
You can see the old keyphone system on the right

All done! And the the customer called me over,
"Wei, the (system) is so big la, you said I could
cover it up with a plant?". I replied, "Can, what.
But not my fault if your plant guys took it away
just now. Maybe you could get them to give you
a small jungle instead. Ha ha ha!"

The the customer replied, "Not funny. And your "Ikea" box looked
like crap la. Which I defended, "You know Ikea is DIY stuff and the
"Ko-Tak" (or kotak, which is Malay for box) series is pure DIY. See?
Even the planks we have to cut it to the right size"

Customer was not amused and handed me a brush and some
white paint..... "Make it look nicer, OK? Or you cannot go."

Unfortunately, we have to go back on Monday because our planned Saturday follow-up did not materialise as Tenaga came and handed the customer a flyer telling them there would be no electricity on that day. sigh

315 MHz RF Remote system

While I had some free time, I decided to drop by Pasar Road again. This time, I bought a set of 315MHz RF transmitter and receiver. Why did I do this? On my first paying project a week ago, I used a RF remote to control an electronic device. Then, after that, I decided to go back to another shop to replenish my remote control system. But they're out of stock.

So, it set me to thinking, why not build my own? Already I have bought two versions, the one that was sold uses a single channel while the remaining one I had is a 4-channel version, where both are momentarily. This means, the moment I press on the transmitter button, the relay at the receiver would click and then release. Not only that, I have found the chip needed to make the whole thing work.

The modules I bought are just transmitter and receiver and I need some IC to control the data sent and also, "match" each transmitter with the correct receiver. And depending on the chip, it has two versions, momentarily and latching (the relay will not disconnect until you press the button on the transmitter again)

The transmitter is not going to be a problem if i can buy it separately. As for the actual transmitter module, I can use it on any casing or prop if the ready-built transmitter is not small enough.

On the left is the transmitter, and on the right is the receiver

Here is the transmitter compared with an already built version

And here is the receiver. This is a 4-channel version, as there
are four relays. Look at the circuit on above left and compare
it with the picture of the receiver module above. Yes, they're
the same!

A very small Ben 10 Omnitrix

I have had this toy for weeks and since I have some free time tonight, I decided to open it up. I was fascinated with this toy because of its design, nevermind if it resembled an Onmitrix. If you look at it long enough, it could be a limpet mine, a door security seal, a time-bomb, some equipment you can attach to another prop via magnets, etc. The main aim is to open up the toy and see how much space it has inside it. Not only that, how much plastic I would need to carve way if I needed more space, especially if I wanted to put in bigger sized batteries in there.

So what will I modify the toy to be? Only time will tell but definitely, I want to have lots of green LEDs in there!

So, this is the toy, which measures about 2½" x 2"

When I removed the green lens, there is only 3mm depth
so this means I would have to remove the plastic more
as a normal circuit board is about 1.6mm thick and
a normal LED is anything from 1mm to 7mm tall. I
am suprised the green LED is so bright!

The toy opened. Although it uses a small loudspeaker,
but by housing it in a small resonant chamber and
with some slots as speaker grill, the sound is quite
loud. This design is very similar to the Playmates
toys for Star Trek. Unfortunately, if I want more
space, there is a LOT of plastic I need to remove.

Minutes after I closed it back, Kristine came over and
started to model the toy for me.... ha ha ha ha ha

Panel Volmeter

Well, well. My PC Power Supply project has been kept on hold for awhile and I almost forgot about it until I saw this panel meter at WIZE electronics last week. Because the I wanted the PSU to have variable voltage, I needed a digital meter of some sort. One of the ways to get it was to design the meter myself, using the ICL7107 chip. The other was to buy a ready-made meter. Since the DIY option needed time which I do not have, I opted for the latter. Ha ha ha ha!

Now, all I have to do is to design the variable part and the front metal plate.....

This is the panel meter. One the box, it says (or I assume)
it has 7-segment LED displays in Blue, Green or Red. But
sadly, it only comes in Red. Whats more, it has a ready
made bezel and also the red LED filter. Saves me a lot of
work already.

The circuit is based on a double sided fiberglass PCB
which is, I think 0.8mm thick! Maybe one day, I will
change the RED 7-segments to Blue but its costly.

On the other side, are the components and the chip. I
supposed they could use SMT versions but this would
make the product slightly more expensive. Judging
from the components, I think the manufacturer took
a page out of the chips datasheet and designed it from
there. On second thoughts, I could be wrong because
there is no mention of the second chip (4069) in it

A quick test! The panel uses 5 volts so I connect it directly
to the PC's PSU and also did the same to its sensors. I think
its quite accurate. There is also a current (Ampere) version
but i don't think I am going to get that one yet since volts
are more of my concern. The display goes nuts in the first
few seconds before settling down. Quite ok, what.

My first custom project!

Thanks to Pol, I can finally start to make some cash out of electronics! Actually, I do have a lot of electronics projects in the pipeline but somehow, I never did have the time to get them to the demo stage and make proposals (due to a lot of commitments). But this is (kick) step towards that direction which I am quite happy.

However, this is a last minute project and with my day job, I was uncertain how it would turn out. But since Pol thought about me, this means he has confidence I can do it and so, I took up the challenge knowing the risk of failure would be great. I have had a few people putting me in the front like this before and most of the time, I failed and also in the process, lost some friends as I prefererred to be in the comfort zone. But now, I am determined to make things work and if I failed, at least this time, I will know why.

Overall, with less than two days and minimal tools, I have succeeded and learnt a lot from it as well. Apart from electronics, I have utmost respect for Mr. Tan and his son (of OnLine Components Sdn. Bhd. and WIZE Electronics) who, helped me in getting the circuit working through closing time. His patience and customer service was outstanding.

I cannot show you the whole picture but if you click on
it, you can read the whole story

Kaelynn's Big Day!

Today is Kaelynn's Birthday! Finally, she is a the age where I can now scold and spank her when she misbehaves! Ha ha ha ha ha!

Oh, OK. Maybe better not since she is very stubborn and always wants to have the last word in everything. Kaelynn is quite feisty now and can really start (and possibly win) a fight with her elder sister. She is also growing up to be rebellious to everyone except me. Oh-oh.

Maye just like me too.

Kaelynn now has her own Winnie the Pooh doll. And Krsitine
was so excited, she opened the bag. Kaelynn was wondering
what the fuss was all about but she was happy and excited
too on that day

Kaelynn blowing out her (already disfigured) Birthday Cake
which was too irresistible for her.

In less than two minutes, she was already attacking her

own cake. We had to make sure all the fruits stayed on
the cake and not on her dress.

I am on MC today.....

Wife forced me to see the Doctor last night and because of that, not only did I get bag loads of medication, I was hit with an MC too. This means,I cannot go to work today and I know my team has a lot of their hands. Haiya.

Doc: Well, what is the problem?
Me: I got diarrhea since Sunday.
Doc: You had diarrhea for four days?
Me: And slight fever too
Doc: Anything else?
Me: Must be the kedondongs with assam powder or the half-boiled eggs at the Hotel
Doc: What colour is your discharge?
Me: Er, very yellow ones lor
Doc: Does it smell?
Me: Yes.
Doc: Ok, seems like you have food poisoning.
Me: Sure or not? Usually I would have fainted
Doc: Its a mild one. How many times you discharged today?
Me: About seven and my stomach's bloated as well
Doc: Its the bugs inside that produces gas inside your stomach
Me: Sure or not? How come I did not burp or fart?
Doc: (sigh) I'll give you some medication and you must drink lots of liquid, esp 100 Plus
Me: how about yoghurt milk? (Because I drank 1 litre before coming)
Doc: No, it will make it worse. We need to starve the bugs. You drink tea?
Me: No, I can't sleep at night.
Doc: (sigh) How about Chinese tea? Tea will help.
Me: OK.

Lots of pills, lots of salt and I get to
drink iced 100 plus all day!

[Update]
Later on. my Wife suspected its the kedondong with the assam as she remembered I woke up with a fever and had all these problems right before I started on the eggs.

Emergency Trip up North ..... Prai

It was on a Friday that my Boss called me. It seemed that his trip up North has hit a snag. One of the customer's PABX went down after some checking. And so, he needed someone to send a replacement power supply asap. When he said someone, I have a choice of sending any of my technicians but given the circumstances I cannot afford to take the risk of sending one of them over and then wait for more bad news. While I was preparing for the trip, my Boss went to Langkawi to see another customer and would then meet me the next day.

So, after making sure the replacement system (not just the power supply) is confirmed working, I called all my technicians back in the evening to have a brief meeting to the next day's job since I would not be there. And then, I had a brainwave. Why not ask Wife to come along as well since this is a weekend trip?

After much persuading, she agreed and we started packing and left for Prai at 1000AM in Saturday. My intention is to let her have some free time and also visit her sister in Sg. Petani as well since both of us did not get much breaks with the two monst....er, lovely kids around.

When my Boss called me, my legs were already shaking
with the bad news. Well, OK, I am just scared of heights.
He called when I was standing on a makeshift pallette on
a customer's forklift because my tehcnician did not follow
my instructions and used the wrong connector for the CCTV

One last look at the two of them, sleeping peacefully.

The four hour journey took me to this system. Yippee.
Its a mess and this was installed by the main distributor
years ago.

My Boss has rigged a bypass system where the customer can
still use the telephones. But if I were to send my technician up
here, I am very confident they would not know what had been
done and would therefore waste a lot of time backtracking

The main culprit was due to the battery connectors which has broken
circuit tracks which shorted the whole system. I told my Boss its not
his doing as the previous person most probably used his cow-strength
to push the connectors in hard. But wait a minute..........its so familiar!

Once done, I told my Boss I would be staying for the night in Prai. He
was so happy that the job has been done, he offered to let me stay for
two nights. But my Wife needs to work on Monday. Since Hotel Berlin
is under renovation, we booked at The Travel Lodge which just nearby.
And the guy at the counter handed us two sets of keys to see which
room we wanted, either a double bed with not so bright windows or
two single beds but with brighter windows. It did not make any difference
to us since both rooms faced the back.

As so, we drove up to Sg. Petani in the evening to meet up with
Wife's sister. Durain season is in but although I am tempted to
get some, I decided otherwise. Don't want to have gout attacks
and stinky smell in the car.

This is the new shoplots where the building requirements says
there must be amenities for the disabled. So they built a ramp
and then locked it. Haih. Its like the classic case of them storing
the building fire hose away due to theft. And when a fire broke out....

Travel Lodge gave us complementary breakfast with the option
of being sent to our rooms! And that, my friends, is the start of
my troubles for the day. After waking up, I had fever and all my
bones were aching. Yeah, I caught the flu. From where, I am not
sure but it could be due to exhaustion. And Loctor was not free
until after 5PM. if I had not gone to Sg. Petani.......

After checking out, I brought my Wife to the shopping centre.
Years ago, this was full of people but now, it has shown signs
of decline and most of the things there are not that cheap, my
Wife told me. Remember my problems? It started right there

I had to rush to the toiled and dumped gallons of
liquid. And not only that, I have to keep looking
at the door.....

Because its a plastic door and someone has melted a hole....

Before we headed home, Wife wanted to stop by this shop in Ipoh
which sells great Duck meat. The address is:
Hong Kong Oil Chicken and Roast Duck
638-640, Jalan Kuala Kangsar,
Taman Tasek Damai,
30010 Ipoh
Tel: 05-2911550
Fax: 05-2915795

I did not care much about the duck meat and all since I am still
groggy with the fever. But what caught my eye was the deep
fried pork rinds which was sweet and crunchy, selling at RM7
per 100gm.

After coming back, again I was stuck in the toilet for a very long time. The pills did keep my fever at bay but I have lost a lot of liquid and have not eaten anything. Still, I went to bed to sleep it off (but with the occasional toilet trips). I think Ihave visited a lot of toilets on the NKVE Highway today too.

Second chances

We had a customer who wanted to get rid of some items after their office renovations. One look at the stuff, I think we could salvage some items. For the rest, its off to some computer shops or the junkyard. I had already started to test some items and had encouraging results.

We have keyboards, PC cases, mouse and Monitors

Some still have motherboards in it while the rest have only
the PSU. I will salvage them for my technicians to use as
12volt power source.

For me, I rescued one of the two monitors and so, I can
have double screen again! But I have to occasionally
whack it on the side for the screen to stay in place.

Kristine's Fever

I had a scare this morning when Kristine's Kindergarten called. They took her temperature and reported to be 38ºC and she was cranky all morning. So, knowing that my Wife was still working and my parents are out, I am the closest to get her. So, after nearly an hour of rushing over, Kristine was back in the house.

When I took her temperature, it was only 36.3ºC. Maybe it was because she was sitting on the cold tile floors in the air-con classroom. But later, her temperature dropped to 36ºC which means, she did not have fever at all. Slowly, she started to be her self again. I guess this must be because of her first mouth ulcer which is causing her much pain. A few days ago, she did have fever. I am worried because of her fear of the ulcer's pain, she has refused to eat almost everyday and is getting thinner and weaker. Not only that, today was her only day in school for the week. Sigh.

Later, when everyone came back, I let them take her to the Doctors (as most of the ones I knew, were "off" in the afternoon) while I rushed back to the office.

Here is Kristine, feeling a bit weak.

But after a while, she got back to her mischief self

And I now know, why her butt was so cold and wet......

Hello, you dirty little phone!

My technician brought in this phone from one of our customer who claimed that its not working anymore. As always, I would go through with my technician and discuss about the methods of repairing the phone. We would also speculate what caused the fault in the first place. But when we opened up the phone........

The smell is enough to tell me that it has been infested

The crockcroach eggs were everywhere and their small
black poo-poo dropped all over the table

So, I had my technician clean up the phone with thinner.
But he used WD-40 instead. I have been cleaning these
quite a lot when I was in helping out in the repair shop in
Toshiba. Now I don't want to do it anymore. Yucks

As for the handset, well, its gone. We have to quote customer
a new handset since they thrashed it so much, gluing it back
would take a long time and it would still be very fragile

Trip to Cafe SBV, Kepong

[sorry, a bit rushed today]

OK, today is the second time we're going back to Cafe SBV in Kepong. We wanted to try out a few places ever since I started to bring back those issues of "Media Focus" ads. What they do is to get the advertisements from a particular area, which in this case, is Kepong, compile them into a book and distribute them there. So, you have ads from food to clothes to massage to beauty products.

And in some ads, the photographs are so convincing, we really wanted to try them. And they're mostly around my office but I never did go to these places. Anyway, on Saturday, it was our first time there and the food is quite alright. I ordered:

A Hamburger (RM6.90),
This is layers of meat in a bun. And quite filling too.

Wife had a Spicy Olio something (RMsomething)
Spaghetti with prawns, and oysters all fried with spicy garlic sauce. But when I tasted it, it was too hot. So, be careful if you choke on it.

The kids had:
Potato prawns (RM8.80),
This is cute. Prawns wrapped in potato strands and deep fried

Deep fried calamari (RM8.80)
We had to cut them into small pieces since they're hot

Fried rice (RM?.??)
Just in case there was not ebough, we ordered the friend rice too. Its a bit oily than usual.

and a kiddy meal (RM15.90?)
The kiddy meal consists of ham, fried egg, chips and a steak along with some salad.

The final bill came to about RM70 or so and we regretted ordering so much since the portions are actually meant for about two persons. In the end, I felt sorry for DBKL people. Ha ha haha. But considering the prices, its not bad. Most of the meals are 50% off and in order to do this, you must order a drink to go with it as well. The other catch is, well, the offer is not applicable to Public Holidays, etc.

So, after hearing about this, my parents are interested in giving it a try too and so, off we went, for the second time. But this time round, the food was not up to our expectations. Although they came out very fast, but the taste is just not there. Maybe it was a Sunday and there were a lot of people. Still, the overall bill for seven people did not exceed RM90.

Ho-hum. Kaelynn did a three floor wee-wee
while we're getting ready to go out

This is the portion of fried rice. Just look at
my XL Watermelon! This was taken before
Kristine vomited all over Mommy. Yeah,
she is not feeling well the whole evening