Travis versus Oracle LED sign by Sunrise Systems
The green 12' long (in 3 segments) LED scroller sign that Travis has been hacking on is looking AWESOME! He's got a half brightness feature implemented, and is now driving all 3 sign segments off of a single arduino microcontroller. The sign is neat in that there are 3 parts that plug together (it was some sort of expandable system.) The control software was DOS based, and the original control board set never worked right. Some mods were needed to each module to make it go. Overall though, it's looking great. The new code on the arduino controller will support using the sign as a frame buffer from another computer, and Enferex (Matt) has something wild in store for it!
Vizio TV guts
We finally took apart the Vizio 42" EDTV set that came to us for free (but had a cracked LCD.) No luck in finding a replacement panel. The working board set will be sold to hopefully cover some lab costs, meanwhile there are some odd left over parts. There is a trippy diffuser that was used on top of the backlights but before the LCD panel. A cracked LCD panel which serves as a conversation piece, and a backlight with 20 CCFL florescent lights in it.
GV42L is the model.
Travis playing with Vizio backlight diffuser plastic.
Rock the Fail Crane!
Enferex and I had spent some time (along with others that were at the lab on various days) updating the Skill Crane to run on a more modern setup. It was fully streamed 24x7 via Justin.TV and had the ability to submit moves without page refreshes. Also, the player's name and coordinates of play were burned into the video real time. It was great. But then the hard drive in the computer randomly died. Not just a click of death, it's a clack of death.
Some of the information was saved, some of it is in svn. The system will be back in a week or so. Perhaps sooner with the long weekend.
757 Labs at Fantasci 2010, other marketing
We're doing a little marketing of the lab around Hampton Roads. We were helping out at the Freeplay table at Fantasci over the weekend, and ran a short video about the lab (also posted to youtube.) A few people asked about the lab, and promotions for the Freeplay retro and modern gaming event (Aug 7th, www.sevagaming.com for more info) went well. In addition to this, some other ads were distributed at a few places in Virginia Beach and Chesapeake.
It was a good time supporting a local con, and I hope to do it more in the future. The HAMFest in September should be home to our next "booth."
www.rocktheskillcrane.com will be back shortly!
The internet connected skill crane is undergoing a major upgrade in internet playability, and is currently down. It will be back with live video of the crane combined with superimposed player names/coordinates in the video. Matt has already re-written the C program, the only stumbling block is a network bandwidth issue.
D-Link DES-1024D switch repair
We got hold of two D-Link DES-1024D 24 port unmanaged network switches that are totally dead. Out of warranty. No power, no lights, no life.
Fix was 1000uf 10v caps, 2 of them, on the power supply board. C6 and C5.
They are working and on the shelf if anyone in the lab needs one for a project. Not of the grade acceptable for the lab's infrastructure, but good for quick project and temporary expansion.
Dlink, D-Link, dead, no lights, hardware version A1.
Sanyo PLC-XU86 projector, PJLink, automation
A few weeks ago I noticed the Sanyo projector at the lab has to be switched to widescreen to properly show a movie. Since the projector implements PJLink, an open TCP communication spec for automation system control of projectors, I figured it would be possible to pass all the remote control options through the network from the AMX system to the projector. I was wrong. PJLink seems to only offer power on/off, input, and some bulb info.
The projector comes with a utility to control the projector from a PC called PJControl. Sounds like PJLink, but it's not. Sam helped, and we logged it using a winsock logger. Here is what it takes to control the aspect ratio from an automation system or other software. The protocol is a bit annoying, each command is sent on a new TCP session.
Connect on port 10605, send PS(CR), disconnect. Connect on port 10605, send "CF SCREEN WIDE(CR), and disconnect. If you want Normal 4:3, change the 2nd command to "CF SCREEN NORMAL(CR)"
Sanyo does publish a list of all the other control commands, but I don't have the link handy.
Supermicro / Ablecom SP302-1S Power Supply Failures
At my day job we're seeing some failures of Ablecom (Supermicro) SP302-1S power supplies. These SP302 units are used in 1u Supermicro servers. We had one failed one that was out of warranty, I decided to peel it open and see what went wrong.
Not surprisingly, a Teapo capacitor (1000uf @ 10v) was looking pretty bloated. Replacing it with a random pull that was laying around the lab fixed the power supply. More faulty Chinese capacitors. We've seen 4 more of these supplies fail at work, so my guess is all of them are suffering from the same issue. The other failed ones at work are under warranty, but I'm afraid the replacements will have the same faulty components.
Notes: Revision 3.1, Ablecom, SP302-1S used on Supermicro PDSMI+ system boards. Symptoms, units won't power on, LEDs blink faintly, repetitively, indefinitely. With working supply they come on, even with unit powered off.
(Blue electrolytic capacitor on edge of board is the replaced one.)
CNC (Gonna make you sweat)
Some parts are on hand for building of the 60" x 35" x ?" CNC router!
Still need wood, and some couplers, and all the other parts that we will find out we need once it's halfway done.
Ms. Pac-Fail
I think I'm a okay guy when it comes to electronics knowledge, but I have to admit. The monitor in Ms. Pac-Man is giving me a run for the money. I've replaced the normal common failure parts that are known. Haven't really made much progress. I might just go all out and replace the flyback. The monitor is a Wells-Gardner K7201, so it's a much newer monitor than the original. It looks really good (when working.) There are still some capacitors that haven't been replaced yet, which are next on my to-do list.
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