Well, after mounting the other drive, I had to wait 27 hours for the drive to finish scanning for lost data. It should be done by the time I get home tonight.

I know I shouldnt, but my hopes are starting to creep up...

It was my music collection that sent me over the edge. There are very good recordings of stuff you simply cant get anymore. Anyone remember "Neil Young- TRANS"? I know I could recollect, wheel and deal, or simply clean them from vinyl, but Im going for the recovery!

Rember it? Look at my login name!!!

Come a ky ky yippee yi yippee yi ay
Come a ky ky yippee yi ay.
Come a ky ky yippee yi yippee yi ay
Come a ky ky yippee yi ay.
Computer syscrusher.

When he turns the floodlights one each night...
Of course, the herd looks perfect.

Computer Cowboy!


Looks like I got a recovery of my primary drive, but it took 13 hours and 20 minutes. 2 more drives to go and we will see if the information is still viable.

Well....slowly gearing up and getting ready to dive back into the PJ. The recovery is going nice and slow, but I suspect I will have some data back soon.

In the meantime, I have been looking at a few finishes. I like the Carver-Tripp Special oak for the rails and Im thinking about using regular poly for the pine.

I did come up with a slightly adjustable scheme for the setting of the triplet. Its a friction mount that depends on stressed wood strips. I can change the mount positions and get a center value of +/- 1 CM for fine focal adjustments.

Hope you all are doing well...Im dying to get back to the PJ, but Im stubbornly waiting for my recovery...

EDIT: Might not be able to do pictures, but here is a pretty bad MSPaint rendering of the "Enzyte Mounting Method"...


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Always working but
Never getting the work done
Should have bought a Mac

Sorry... I couldn't resist.

I understand the appeal of a PC to a DIY kind of guy... but geeze... the crap you guys have to deal with. I have lost any PC tech troubleshooting knowledge I may have once had and I'm greatful to now be a complete PC moron.

Er...um... You guy's will still help me when I need to build an HTPC... right?

Good one! ...and Yes, we will help you! The dark side is waiting for you...
If I was willing to just flush my data, this would have been a fifteen minute deal, but I had an opportunity to get better at data recovery so I dug my heels in and decided to explore some options.
Having done program assembly for both MAC and PC, I can say that each side has its own quirks and pitfalls. I found Apple to be extremely difficult to negotiate with, almost facist in its methods. MS was easy as pie,...until I negotiated the Netscape deal... (shudder...)

In the end, it all comes down to matching the personality of the user with the OS.
I always explain it as the difference between german and japanese cars. They are built with different philosophies for different users. Just gotta match em up!


My recovery IS taking a while, but Im also using it to tutor myself. I didnt HAVE to stop the PJ, I just set out trying to make a coherent log. I get dissapointed when I see those logs that go "well, Im starting....Ooop! Im finished! "

Of course the development side still goes on....hehehehe. Right now im working on an economical way to control the light a little more precisely.

"Computer Diplomacy Haiku"

Power on and do
Your platform not withstanding
In the end, its good

Have a great day all!

I second that!

SJ: You're having builder's withdrawal-- I'm having reader's withdrawal. I need my daily dose of your innovations!

That is such a nice thing to say...Thank You!
Looks like I will get back two of my partitions. I lost my GAMES partition, but I think I can live with that. I mean, I suppose I COULD be forced to play Dungeon Siege II again...

You know, just to say I finished it....
Cause...I wouldnt wanna spend 50 bucks and not finish it, right?
I mean, that's just ....irresponsible!
Yeah! Be a man! Finish it!

Woohoo! Looks like I finally managed the "close to impossible" and got to access ALL of my data. Over the next day or two I will shuffle some things and then its time to continue....
Over the next few days I will be burning about 150GB to disk. After that I can reconfigure my drives to my liking. By the time Im done I will have 3/4 of a terrabyte of storage. I really like the new MB too, the dual channel aspect of the ram is quite speedy and the 16MB buffer on the new HD doesnt seem to hurt either. Still havent managed to test the sound, But I rendered up a scene from Appleseed and it looks very good. My Audigy will do the trick if the AC97 isnt up to speed.

and what does SJ do to celebrate? Why start painting of course!

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Flat black enamel paint, water soluble. This stuff is blacker than pitch on the second coat. Uhmmmm nice. Looking at this, I cant help but think I should have primed.

Real life example of the the "Enzyte" method of triplet mounting. C'mon, think about it...
The stressed wood pieces can be shortened or moved to make minute changes in the position of the triplet. Its really not much, but this seems to be one spot where alignment is always assumed to be correct. The +/_ 1CM may help.
Im thinking you could either use this for alignment and then make it permanent with a jig, or put a rubber band around the back of the triplet and call it a day...
(Since the triplet rear has no retaining ridge, thats what the rubber band would be for...)

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I was thinking of mounting this one permanently, but Im planning some improvements on the triplet and I will need quick access to it for comparison shots.

Just a few more pictures. I have been painting a bit and enjoying the nice fall weather. So far I have salvaged more than 60GB from my drives and things are going well...

This is the front focus box/lens mount, now it is a lovely black. I still have one finish coat to go, but I like the results so far. I didnt paint the wood shims so you can get a better feel for the enzyte mount...

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This is the focus box mounted in its frame. Tolerances are fairly tight. A little flocking should make it quite sturdy...
Im leaving the tails on either side of the lens mount long in case I need to trim.

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This is the front end almost finished. That stain is the classic oak Im doing the rails and lens plate in. I like this finish a lot.

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Hope you all like it. Life is good, and getting back to the PJ is really nice...

New LOST tonight!

I was goofing around with an optics array last night and remembered something that my friend Eric had said about telescope construction. He said to me once that "Krylon ULTRA flat black" was the only paint he would use for the inside of his scopes. He says there is no other choice. Im going to get some later, since Im out at home.
I just thought I would let everyone know about that type because it is hands down the flattest blackest paint I have ever seen. Thats what the last coat is going to be on my PJ insides.

Looking good SJ. Can't wait to see it completed. I am having a hard time conceptualizing the triplet mounting method you are using. Can you maybe help me understand how it works?

Sure. The hole that the triplet is mounted in has about a CM of space all the way around it. I used three pieces of thinly cut oak strip to hold the triplet in place by bending them enough to fit in the gap between the triplet and the hole's edge. Release them and they try to retun to straight, but they cant since the edge of the triplet prevents it. Do this two more times and you have even presuure all the way around the triplets shaft. I have actually spun it in the air to make sure they were holding. The better part of it is that if you make one of the wood pieces shorter, you can drift the triplet that way because the other two pieces will exert pressure on it to keep it in place. I have found that I can move the triplet side to side in any direction for up to 2 MM without having to trim and it does stay in place.

Nice temp mounting.

OK. After reading the explaination and looking at the pics again I get it. Nice work! That is quit creative. How did you come up with that idea?

I dont know...
It was just kinda there all of a sudden.
I was toying with the idea of L shaped holders for the lens with an adjustable postioner and ended up with this...

( Its really weird when you know you thought of it, but can t remember how you got there...)

EDIT: I swear I had one, maybe two, glasses of sake (tiny glasses, traditional) that night, but for the life of me I cant remember thinking 'hey thats a good idea'....

Whatever it takes to get the creative juices flowing. HEHE

Maybe you didn't remember the 3rd, 4th and 5th Sake either??

Nope. Pretty sure I would remember that...Too much Sake for me is at least 3 flasks. Momakawa is my favorite. Although when Im in a rustic mood I like to drink Soko Chiba...

If I had too much I would have been posting bad poetry on my PLOG; like so:

Darkness comes, I brood
Poetry is needed now
Soko Chiba Time!

Seriously, It just came into being. Somewhere between the design for the brackets and me warning Cassie that she needed to be careful ( Daddee, Looook ! I drive!) around the tractor, it just kind of appeared. ( Shrugs)

Now if I could just do that with the winning lottery numbers...

Of all the imported goods that we can get around here, good sake isn't one of them. Fortunately, I have friends in Japan ship me some. I can't tell you the brand names, because I can't read the labels, but there are 2 kinds that I really like. One is just very mellow flavored, goes down and leaves a very pleasant sensation in the throat and sinuses. The other tastes innocuous enough, but after you have a couple, they gang up and hit you like a palm strike to the sternum. The good thing about that is that it's short-lived.

The sake that I can buy locally is good as a cooking wine. Though I'll drink it in a pinch.

Of course, I might drink sake on a couple of occasions per year. New Year's for sure, Sometimes when I go on a sushi making spree... Since sushi making is pretty much an all day event for me, a "litle" sake makes the process go much smoother, and gets me in the correct frame of mind.


Hmmm... Maybe I should arrange to have a bottle or two handy for my next projector. Time to write a letter to Aiko.

I am versed in the ways of brewing sake, but getting the yeast has proved difficult. I once had a girlfriend ( or should I say, she once had me?) who threw away my cultures one day while cleaning the refrigerator. she said they smelled "funny". If only she knew what I had to do to get those cultures...

Perhaps your friend could ship you some?
(Hint Hint....)

Classic!

Good to see this PLOG back underway.

SJ,
you might want to try out these guys (the prices are resonable imho) and I've always recieved exceptional product from them.
http://pivo.northernbrewer.com/nbstore/act...rm=sake&x=0&y=0

so many hobbies so little time

Yes, I might at that. Thanks for the link. The problem was that these samples were from a "prestigious" brewery. They were heaven. Impossible to replace.
I have often thought of enlisting my fathers help in breeding some new yeast.

Time to stain the rails!

I love this finish...
Just had to share this with you all. Carver Tripp one step Danish "Special Oak" finish. Pigment, vehicle and wax all in one. The pigment soaks the wood, evaporates and leaves a skim coat of wax on the surface. Once its dry you just buff...

Before and after shots of the suspensor rails...
...errrr...I guess I should say one rail stained and finished and the other "raw"...hehehe
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See? It even hides smaller flaws in the construction. Its no substitute for WATCO and butchers wax, but it will do.

SJ,

I have been religiousely following your PLOG - way way better than a morning cuppa tea . I am not very sure of where and how the rails are going to be used, can you elaborate? Also, is there an overall design or nothing legible on paper yet?

Thanks,
Neel

My plans are literally scraps of paper, doodles and a good portion of Tao/Scottish philosophy...But try this link too see if it makes a little more sense...

SJ, Looking great. It is going to look like a piece of fine art. I am almost ready to start my 2nd PJ. I am still trying to decide on a design for an Arts & Craft Vertical PJ. Anyway, what material are you going to use between each piece and will each piece slide along those rails for tweaking purposes?


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The original design called for them to move on the rails, but the design was overly complicated. For the amount of adjustment we have to do on the PJ, it doesnt warrant it. It also degrades the structural integrity. Since each of the seperate components can already move, its also redundant.
I will be using wood inserts ( Maybe some other material ) for the blank spaces. I just need to work out the curve. Although with the amount of control I have gotten with the lightgate, I want to try running it bare a few times. That was my original design. Sort of a seriously "Non-Box"....

That ought to be interesting to how it performs bare.

I will be curious too.

BTW...a picture of one of my inspirations for the design...My real inspiration was off of a poster for a very old movie. Very cheesecake and the usual noir stuff, but the train they had in the background looked really cool. Tough to describe it but it looked like a cross between a train and a diner car...

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So Im thinking about joining some support group or another...
I came home last night ... and didnt want to work on my PJ....( Dun, Dun Duuuuuunnnnnn!!!!!)

Seriously, I came home late and decided I would cook up a batch of Mead for Christmas/Kwanza/Chaunakha/Solistice/Shopping season/St Swithins day etc...

Honey Almond Mead...If I rack it every week for the next month, I can accelerate the aging and have it ready by December...

In other news, I think I may have figured out a way to create a parabolic reflector for cheap, or at least a better way of shaping the reflector. Matbe not, I really have to experiement with it. What I really need is an arc about the same size as the USHIO, just not as bright. Possibly straight 110v.

Any suggestions?

I bought this lightbulb at Canadian Tire. It's a GE 200W incandescent light. The filament is about an inch long and in a straight line perpendicular to the base. I found that it makes a very good substitute for the MH lamp, though nowhere near as bright. (Still, 200W is a pretty bright lightbulb!) I'm using it for my cardboard and duct tape mock-up. I'm currently testing reflector designs with it. The 200W makes it bright enough to get reasonable measurements with my luxmeter.

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SJ, doing some catch-up reading of the PLOGS . I was curious, are you planning on placing this entire assembly within another case? If not, you may have problems with stray light / contrast reduction. I made my triplet mount with several large 1" gaps assuming that light would be collimated at the triplet - it itn't. The result is I am going to have to mask those gaps.

You probably already considered it but just a heads up ...

Looking good!

Excellent! Thats just what I am looking for! Where did you get it?

And hide the rails?!? My plans are not finished yet, but they are 3/4 insanity and 1/4 profanity topped off with a large dollop of desire to make something beautiful. The wife likes good looking things. She wasnt too pleased with the concept of a 30 inch black box on our table. So Im prettying it up a little.

Gold wood and sunlight
dead wood sees a million fates
So much worse than this

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I was outside with the girls and they decided they were going to read so I went and got my rails to finish them up. I got a nice sunset that just made the oak glow. So I took a pic before I worked on the other one.

My appreciation for oak is growing. Too bad it is so expensive.

I reiterate the first sentence: A lightbulb that I bought at Canadian Tire.

I was just looking for a lightbulb that I though would emulate a MH lamp as close as possible, so I started looking at the lamps. This is supposed to be an "ultra-white" lamp too. I don't know for sure that that means in terms of colour temp, but I bet it would work as a light source, albeit not as bright as the MH lamp. Certainly bright enough for the purposes that I want to use it to test.

You should be able to find the same light at Home Depot, or anywhere that has a good lighting department.

I can find the specific model number. (I'd have posted it before, but I lost the package.)

(Sound of brains falling on floor...ewwww...)

Duhhhhhhhhh.....Sorry about that. serves me right for trying to juggle too many things...

Updates man! I'm going crazy here!

The open "unbox" idea is intriging, but I just can't see how you could possibly avoid stray reflections off of the fresnels, LCD etc. My own experience seems to show that on between the LCD and the projection lens should be okay. A flat black paint ought to be enough to prevent hte stray light on that side of things from getting out of hand. Of course you'd need a better light block than what I'm using.

Ahhhhhh.... My friend that is why the concentration on the lightgate. Control and suggestion from the source willl yield good results ( !?????!) from the beginning of the chain....

BTW. I am in the process of gaining three ( 3!) 6.5 diameter lens assemblies...
( Im so excited I could burst!)

1. Played hookey with my wife to go see "Firefly". You could do SOOOOO much worse than to see this movie!

2. Learned the definition of "overspray"

Glad I used the saran wrap before I tried to do this....

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I also discovered the possible variances in aiming the fresnel lenses. 3MM is a LOT for focul lense arrays. I may make an adjustable lense holder the next time around. Disparities like this would cause all kinds of problems...

Now...Go catch "Serenity" and enjoy a fun two hours...!

Well, I did it...
While browsing through some lenses, I came across a set of Barco lenses for an RG-801s projector. My first thought was "Wow, those are HUGE!". They must be 6 inches across and they are very pretty! So I did what any good consumer would do...I bought all three!
Im figuring they might make good triplet replacements, or at the very least, good lenses for a telescope. These things are monsters. The odd thing is that they seem to be zoom lenses as well, but I couldnt quite tell. The samples I got a look at seem to suggest some type of double triplet. They should arrive Friday. The shipping for these lenses was 30.00. They are really heavy. The one I handled must have been 3 pounds at least.
Im really excited!

EDIT: I just got a look at the shipping weight and it lists as 10.5 pounds, so Im thinking I may have gotten a smaller lens that I had originally thought. Still...whoa!

Not a whole lot going on right now. I have finished off the rails and am waiting on a part for another project. Added a few minor embelishments to the oak face...

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And another shot from a different angle...

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Not really intrinsic to the design but I like the rivets concept so I'm applying it to the pieces that would benefit from it.

Still have a few other projects that need attention and a Linux distro Im dying to see in action...Well, maybe not dying...anxious, I guess.

Bonus points to anyone who can tell me what the rivets are supposed to be...

would that be too replicate wormholes?

Nope, If I could do that, I wouldnt be playing with my PJ!

Okay I gave in and aligned the fresnels on my sled...

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The black dots are centered at the fresnel's center so I can align them. Its actually a passive alignment system. I will work on an active one next time.

Okay all is lined up and its time to drill!

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And the almost final product looks like this...

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Easily adjustable except for the grooves in the screw biting into the wood. I guess I will have to enlarge the holes a bit to make for easy adjustment..

Lookin' good. That's a nice alignment. Did you make sure that you left enough room at the bottom of your sled for the control boards for your LCD?

Of course not! I noticed it this AM. I remember originally designing the sled for a 512n, but later switched to CMV. There may actually be enough room, but it is going to be very tight....whoopsies...

I think this may have been why I was so hesitant to drill the frame together. I may have to make the sled area taller.

That would mean a rebuild on the sled as well....darn...