The very hot weather here in North Texas has kept me in the air conditioning for the last few weeks. Temperatures have been hovering at the 100 degree and above range. Actual real world temperature, where people work and live are much higher by sometimes 10 degrees than what is reported officially out in the middle of DFW airport. The weather reports “no new records” so the official temperatures (105 F) are typical for Texas...
Continue reading...electrical
Making It Exact
Check out this URL in my THMShop blog: http://thmsblog.tedatum.com/?p=924 I just finished installing a Digital Read Out (DRO) on my machine shop milling machine. The link to my other blog will tell you how to see the four page report and the about 80 pictures I took when I installed the DRO. This device will alow me to perform accurate machining much easier than before. A DRO has been state-of-the-art in manual machine tools for...
Continue reading...FM30 Repaired
I bought a new Ramsey FM30 FM broadcast band transmitter kit. I have it in hand. I was also sent gratis the repair and upgrade parts for the old transmitter shown here. The most critical item was the final amplifier which is a GAL5 surface mount technology (SMT) amplifier chip. This is the part I determined was bad in the previous report. The part is very tiny and has no leads (wires) off of it...
Continue reading...No FM
Wahhh! I just discovered another victim of the lightning disaster at the ol’ homestead. I have a small FM broadcast band transmitter (1/4 watt) that I use to transmit Christmas music for my computerized light show. Yesterday I discovered it had become a paperweight. It was setting among the computer gear on my large desk and was plugged in but turned off using the button on the front. It is powered by one of those...
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