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Okay, so the War Rig has two supercharged engines, with two sets of through-hood dealies drinking air for the engine, presumably at a fast rate indeed.

But, on the above picture, there's a drum on the left side of the picture (right side of the Rig), that the plan view calls an "Air Filter". Where does the air this thing filters go?

Also, what kind of air filter would there be on the through-hood supercharger air intakes? I can't imagine that the mechanic would just let all the sand and dirt and shit go straight through the carburettors into the engines.

Photobucket have massively misjudged their userbase if they think that most people are going to pay $40USD a month, over $400USD a year, just for an imagehost. I've used them for a decade now, but it looks like I'm going to need to find a new site to link my build pics from. $5 a month, maybe, but not $40.

https://www.crystran.co.uk/optical-materials/germanium-ge

Germanium, at infra-red spectrums, acts like a lens. Found this out on a Lindybeige video about sci-fi tanks. Weird, weird world that we live in, isn't it?

Does anyone know if there are any issues with the schematics on this page, at all? (Take my question as you will.)

On the advice of a couple of friends (JovianPyx (SoCal) and SkrogProductions (Scotland)), I wandered outside with my cheap little binoculars the other night.

Bugger me sideways, you CAN see the stars through this! Granted, it's not much more than a confirmation that yes, they're there, and in suburbia I can't see anything extra, but I felt quite chuffed at that.

New moon, though, so I didn't get the chance to see if my little binoculars could sharpen that up for me.

What are some goals for you people, for the new year?

Mine?

Figure out a Eurorack BBD delay, with either XVIVE3005 or the MN3008 chips I have lying around.

See if I can't make at least capacitor money with some of these synth boards on muffwiggler.

Get a forum-wanky soldering iron. But only if my 40W pencil dies, I can't bring myself to uncrack my wallet otherwise.

Happy birthday, Jesus

Brian's recent sharing of his prototype PCB stash sparked an idea.



What does your proto stash look like?

The Baltimore Knife and Sword episodes (the Reforged ones) impress me more and more. The original series were quite good, but I like seeing actual blacksmithing, rather than cut the shape out of spring steel and grind it.

The historic builds are what I really like. The Kill Bill katana was the first one, I think -- starting with the tatara, ironsand, and charcoal, and making the bloom from scratch. The Chinese Dandao was also very impressive!

But for some reason, this viking Ulfberht one is my favourite so far. I've heard of crucible steel, but this is the first video I've seen that shows it's creation and forging.

I'm very meh on builds like Poppy's Hammer, though. Pretty much useless in real life. (Guts' pre-Dragonslayer sword I like, though, since I'm a long-time Berserk fan!)

Something that the Befaco Rampage synth module notes as a possible patch is to connect a guitar (through a line level converter) into one of the inputs, and connect the amp to the Rising output. The Rampage detects whether a voltage is rising or falling, with the two Rising and Falling outputs going hot as a result.

The audio out is a squarewave, with the high portions where the guitar signal is rising, and low everywhere else. It sounds harsh as hell.

Anyone else tried this?

I didn't want to bomb CJ's thread, so here are two articles by Steve Albini (the Harmonic Percolator guy).

http://thebaffler.com/salvos/the-problem-with-music
This one is from 1993, and shows it. Tape is a Big Deal, to give an example, and Minor Threat is a known band.

https://www.theguardian.com/music/2014/nov/17/steve-albinis-keynote-address-at-face-the-music-in-full
This one is from 2014, and one hell of a lot more optimistic.

First up, I don't speak Finnish. But Korpiklaani are amazing. (Yes, some of their songs are in English. A great many of their songs are not.)

I don't speak Deutsch, either. But, you know, Rammstein. I'm not linking to a porn site for you lot.

What are some other bands you lot like that you don't understand? I know one guy who has gotten heavily into folk metal -- he even bought a balalaika.

http://www.madbeanpedals.com/forum/index.php?topic=12617.0

My first Infinitphase clone was done over several PCBs, to get around my then-limitation of a maximum board size of 80x100mm. I was never very happy with this build, as the final size was gargantuan, and the nature of the multiple boards rubbed me up the wrong way.

So I've subbed for fab a second layout. This one is ALL on one PCB, and sized for a 1550E enclosure, much smaller than the 1456KL3 I used for the first build. Audio ground and noisy ground have separate planes. PSU is onboard, and needs 15-18VAC to run -- Juan could whip up some kind of 9VDC -> +/-15VDC arrangement, I'm sure, but I can't be bothered. The two cut outs at the bottom are for the normal stomp switch, and the 4/8 Stage Switch as a stomp.

I'm doing a ten board run, and have no plans to do any more past that. Once I've verified my personal board, I'll look into flogging the rest.

It just occurred to me that it could be very, very interesting to see how many countries this forum covers. I know it's a lot.

Thread rules:
1 - If someone from your country has already posted, don't repeat your country's name again! (If it's an area of note within an already named country, like Catalonia or Scotland, then you can name your area along with a short note of why it's a notable place.)
2 - If your country hasn't been named yet, you need to reply to this thread with your country's name.

Aotearoa! New Zealand!

A tour of Mouser's warehouse. As a mail order company, it was pretty much what I was expecting... EXCEPT for the sheer verticality of it!

My personal view is that Mark's Joker was the BEST, with that _oh so_ ELOQUENT voice, and his /amazing/ vocal delivery.

Not to _mention_ hee, haa, HO, HAHAHA! his *amazing* laughter.

But I'd like to hear your arguments.

What are some stories of guitar-related family love?

I've got a couple, to kick off with.

Grand-dad had an old acoustic guitar he picked up -- a Tex Morton guitar, white, with a thick black line-art picture of a cowboy with a lasso circling above his head. It passed to Dad, who is insistant that it's horrible at staying in tune, and honestly doesn't sound that good. (Dad rocks a Yamaha acoustic, that he has used for a couple decades, every single week at church, along with a Boss AD-7. The AD-7 is taken out of the original cardboard box, used at the practice and service, and then put back in the original cardboard box, again, every week for roughly a decade. The box is getting pretty tatty, by now!) And as for the Yamaha... the case it came in had a carry handle, as do all guitar cases (well, new, anyway...) Dad has used it regularly for so long that the cheap handle wore through and broke off. There's a braided length of rope there, now, with some tassels Mum found. I suspect that the tassels have worn off, too, now.

When I started playing guitar, I wanted an ELECTRIC! After all, Noel Gallagher and Zakk Wylde played electric.

As do a great many guitar newbies, I picked up a strat. (A Satin Trans Fat Squier HH, on the basis of Dad's argument that satin would not show fingerprints as bad as glossy, plus then I'd be getting a really nice guitar for $500, and save up for an amp later, as opposed to a crappy $300 guitar, and maybe an amp a bit sooner.)

"Dad! Have a try of this!"

Now, to understand this situation, you need to know how Dad's Yamaha is set up. Light strings. The lightest acoustic strings he can get. A very light pick. I think that it's the lightest Dad can normally find. (Pure white Dunlop.) He makes up for this by vigorously strumming the living crap out of both.

Guess what happens when you vigorously strum the crap out of a Strat. Whether Dad liked the sound or not, he was going to be playing on the Bridge pickup on my Strat.

There was also the ergonomic problem -- namely, that the Strat knew it existed. For those people who have never played "Grandpa Guitars" (to quote Skwisgaar), they are large, boxy, jam you in the ribs, and laugh at the idea of comfort. My Strat, with it's belly carve, and the fore-arm cutaway bit... simply put, Dad was too comfortable to be comfortable.

So I took him into the nearest Rock Shop NZ. "Dad, have a try of this Les Paul."

Les Paul guitars have no time for this cutaway nonsense. The closest you get to THAT on a Les Paul is the high fret access cutaway, and that's for technical ability, not to make the mook doing the movement feel better.

Dad LOVED the Les Paul, with it jamming him in the ribs, and the top edge making itself known on his left forearm. (Mum, on the other hand... it took a few years and a couple presents later before she felt that the Mother-Son Father-Son love bank balance was equal.)

Lovetone Flange With No Name, 1790NS sized! Major crammage going on here, as you can see --



More wiring than I like, but them's the breaks. The Loopage stomp and two jacks are omitted in this version, as are the two expression jacks. Everything else is here, including mad oscillation

I'd forgotten just how damn good this circuit is at subtle phattening. I can't get the A/DA to do that.

I've got some v0.2 boards coming for the audio path, once I do I'll see about some guine--er, paying testers to give 'em a crack (and shoot Chris a working audio board.)

Am I just a cheap bastard? I mean, I've found I can do pretty much anything with my forty-watt pencil-style iron. Temperature adjustment is either on, or off. No in between. This iron can put together medieval-era turretboard valve amps, and clinkerbell size SMD chips like LQFP48. (It's also a dab hand at guitar pedals, too!) This is with the original tip, which is more like the tip of a 2B pencil you'd've used at school than anything else.

But the universal cry on all DIY forums is that one should ditch this style of tool, in favour of a base station style one, like the FX-888. You can't do anything *real* with the pencil irons, you need a posh one. And tips. Lots of tips. Preferably the highly expensive ones.

It's starting to get to the point in my poor brain where I think I'd be some kind of class traitor to get a posh iron, like McGuyver saying, "I don't need this old swiss army knife, I'm going to carry around this new Leatherman with custom FancyCorp cutting edges." Or the drivers in The Italian Job going, "Hell with these tiny cars. This is Italy, I want to do the job in a Countach."

No, no real point to this... other than maybe cheap pencil irons aren't completely awful sources of leprosy (As long as they are grunty 40W models, 15W irons are piles of lukewarm snot.)

(Or, if you're old, Photostat. If you're extremely brand-conscious and call tissues by a brandname, Xerox.)

I'm listening to "Twang! A Tribute To Hank Marvin & The Shadows", and there are several stand-out tracks, including a live performance by Hank of Flingel Bunt.

Iommi's version of "Wonderful Land" especially struck me because he brought his own interpretation and twist to it. (Johnny Cash, in his American albums, did this even better. I love Cash's covers of U2 songs, but cannot stand U2 themselves.)

Mark Knopfler's cover of "Atlantis" is beautiful, and extremely well executed. Too well executed. Note-perfect, as in you may as well listen to the original studio recording.

Frampton's cover of "The Frightened City" is probably halfway between the two. Brian May's "FBI" is neat, in that he is still close to Hank's playing, but still manages to make the lead "his", if you follow.

Bela Fleck is probably the furtherest from the original still entertaining, though.

I'm curious to hear your thoughts. Should covers be faithful to the original, or should the cover-er bring something new to the table? How far is TOO far?