Blog: A Little In-Betweener

A hoy hoy fellow rackians and synthboys/girls. I thought I’d have a gnarly build diary about the SSR KOTELNIKOV to wax poetic about today, but I’ve got tantalum capacitor problems. I get it, “we all have tantalum capacitor problems Steve, get over it”, you’re saying under your breath at your keyboard. Whatever reader, I thought you understood me.

Tantalum capacitor with ambiguous markings
WHICH SIDE IS +ve!? NO ONE KNOWS

It seems to me that the short lead is the negative side, and some smart cookies seem to agree over at Muffwiggler, but some other smart cookies seem to disagree… (I’m looking at you MikeDB!). So I’m going to have to lock the doors, put on a hazmat suit, and run some voltage through this puppy to see whether or not it explodes.

Other than that? Things are pretty even keel over at stevetravale.com. Oh, I did migrate the entire site to a different host to save some DeNiro’s (that’s Canadian for “cash money”), and I’ve been struggling with some certificate issues. If you use an older browser and try to navigate to my site with “www.” in front of the URL, well then apparently I’m trying to kidnap your children and bring about WW3. Or at least that’s what the warnings look like.

Cert Error
Don't worry, I don't ACTUALLY use Safari. Unless you're into Safari, in which case, believe what you will.

So I’m going to have to putt around with my new host to figure out why their certificate only covers stevetravale.com and not www.stevetravale.com, which is a beauty way to spend your weekend.

PS that wasn’t sarcasm, I’m a nerd. PKI and certificates? Sounds deliciosso.

I did buy something new this week. Check it.

Pin Vise and Succulent
I'm hopping on the succulent band wagon, the pin vise hand drill is what was purchased.

Pretty neat right? I had to repair a 16n Faderbank this week, and after absolutely destroying the Teensy that was in there, the header holes had some solder that just refused to come loose with a wick or pump. So what did your boy do? He got some help from this friendly man at Robot Room. If you need to get solder out of holes, he’s your man! Great post on how to extricate fussy solder from PCB holes.

Flimsy Micro USB Port 16n Faderbank
It happens all too often sadly.

And to finish off this cute lil’ blog, how about some electronics gore?

Snapped Teensy
You need to be over 18 to view this image.

Gross. So gross. But now there is a fresh Teensy on board (no pun intended) and that 16n Faderbank is ready to rock!

Anywho, thanks for coming around. Next week I’ll have a sassy SSR KOTELNIKOV build diary for the DIY hungry masses, and then shortly after that I’m thinking about wetting my beak on this Deckard’s Dream build.

Until then, why don’t ya read my other hot hot posts? Like my super recent DIY LYRA-8 Adventure? It’s a four part-er, so strap in.

Have a great week, and keep it samesies + saucey out there folks

Leave a Reply