TechLasers keeps on giving First of all, I’d like to thank TechLasers.com again for sending me the laser to review. When I agreed to review, it, I didn’t anticipate having so much fun with it and finding more uses than I wrote about previously. I also never anticipated what came next. If you click the image at right, you’ll get a larger version, where you’ll notice that JoeTech.com and a quote from my review are proudly displayed on the TechLasers home page. I was very excited to see that. Thanks again, TechLasers!
She has Lissajous cruves
Just after my last post, one of my employees told me that he had a Lissajous curve maker at home. I have to admit that I didn’t know the term, but I told him to bring it in and we’d take a few minutes and play with it. You can click the link to find out some detail about Lissajous curves, but I’ve also created a short video for you. We went into the “war room” in the back, set it all up, and shut off the lights. What resulted was the light show below (RSS readers should click through to the site to see it).
How it’s done To the left is an image of what Andrew brought in. You can click the image to see a larger version, as always. The concept is really fairly simple. You have two small motors with speed controls. Attached to each motor is a small mirror, angled at its base. The motors are mounted at near-45 degree angles, and the laser is mounted on the clothes pin. The black panel is just to block any stray laser beams. To make this thing produce Lissajous curves, you just need to turn it and the laser on, and then adjust the speeds of the motors. The faster the motors are spinning, the more interactive and wild the designs become. I want to build one of these, myself, but I want to have the motor speeds controlled by a digital source. I think it would be pretty cool to control it remotely via the web. I will definitely post whatever I come up with.
Did you ever watch Mr. Wizard’s World? I did… I watched all the time, so this weekend was a real treat. About a week ago, a company called Tech Lasers asked if I would be interested in a laser from their product line to review. I’m much more computer geek than I am science geek, but I’m also much more science geek than most people, so I wasn’t about to say no. The following came in the mail:
Better safe than blind To be honest, I haven’t really done much with lasers at all, so I had not expected the protective glasses. Wearing them was just foreign to me, but I’m a fan of being able to see, and getting a laser beam in my eye might ruin that for me. Besides, Tech Lasers thought well enough to provide them and they know their stuff, so I’ll heed the warnings in the instruction booklet and wear them. By the way, NOW I know they were crooked. Put yours on straight and you won’t look as goofy. Even though this is a much more powerful laser than the typical ones you might use to play with your cat, always keep the same principal in mind and never look directly into one.
About Tech Lasers
Tech Lasers is a company based in Hong Kong, and although they seem to be the new kids on the block, they definitely don’t look like it. I’ll let them speak for themselves for a moment:
We strive to provide our customers with a variety of high powered laser pointers to choose from. While Tech Lasers currently offer green, blue, yellow and infrared lasers, our laser specialists and merchandizing staff are working to develop and source more.? This is only the beginning of what is to come.
A really cool laser pointer
The laser appears to be the 15mW version from the Infiniti line. It’s hard to say for sure, as it doesn’t appear to be labeled. It does say that it’s “<125mW". I suppose that's a downside of their lasers and I hope that either I am mistaken or they eventually add some kind of means of identification to the Infiniti products.
That small detail aside, this 532nm wavelength (green) laser pointer is about the size of your standard Radio Shack laser pointer, only the button is a little easier to hold down for a long period of time. I have cats, so I can say this with certainty. Of course, this one has a larger price at about $90, but the differences between this laser product and your average laser pointer answer for the price gap. Tech Lasers also included a price comparison chart between them and the “Viper” series from Dragon Laser, which looks like an exact duplicate of my new Infiniti laser pointer for about ten bucks more. To be fair, I searched for a similar product from other companies. I found other companies selling what looked like the same product for usually $10 more than Tech Lasers. The prices Tech Lasers offer look better and better with the higher mW products.
I didn’t have a black balloon to try and pop, but that’s not very practical for most of us, anyway. It’s neat, but just not something you need very often. The web site points to these lasers a great tools for backyard astronomers. I’ve been getting a bit more into astronomy myself this past year, so I thought I’d try pointing to some stars with my Infiniti. I waited until it was nice and dark and headed outside with my laser. I checked for aircraft and there were none in sight, so I pointed it to a group of stars and pressed the button. I was a little shocked, at first. The laser beam went as far into the sky as I can see and I easily lined it up with a star. Because my wife likes to view the stars with me, I brought her out to see. Within a minute, she had control of the laser and was pointing to stars. I tried to take photos that just didn’t turn out too well (but they’re on Flickr, regardless), so here’s a quick video clip of the laser in action (indoors).
Before it arrived, I had planned on giving away my new Tech Lasers Infiniti, but after pointing it to the sky, I think I’ll keep it to use for my star gazing. If you want something to keep your cats busy, head to Radio Shack, but if you want a real laser, head to TechLasers.com.
Are DMV, Social Security, and other files safe?
Some may be safer than others, but we are in an age where computing technology is making incredible advances and our government can embrace these advances or ignore them. I really can’t speak to what security checks are in place, but it worries me that high profile people are being compromised in this manner and it goes nearly unnoticed.
I suppose this is where you’re glad you’re not famous. Who do YOU think turn up breached next?
UPDATE: McCain’s file WAS breached. And it seems I beat CNN to the punch with this news (even if I WAS just speculating).
When Michelle’s brother was in town, they took a hike and her Casio Exilim EX-Z60 digital camera acted as body armor when she slipped on some loose rock. The good news is that it saved her from a piercing wound from a sharp rock. The bad news is that the rock felt obligated to pierce something and her little camera stepped up to the plate.
Note: I’ve linked to original versions of all pictures, so just click any photo for more detail. Note 2: All photos were taken with MY camera that I operated on last year. Disclaimer: The fact that this worked for me is mostly luck and the camera may even go up in flames in a week. I’m a web developer, not an electrician, so proceed with your own camera at your own risk. You have been warned. Offer: Can’t stomach opening your hardware on your own? Contact me. I’m always looking for projects and I might just fix your camera, computer, etc. for free just so I can post about it.
Wow… Pretty, isn’t it. The camera would still take photos, but what’s the point of a digital camera if you can’t see the photos and delete the blurry ones on the spot. As always, I was eager to accept the challenge of replacing the broken screen with a working one.
Preparation: Have your tools ready
Oddly, I don’t have a lot of tools. It’s probably because I lose things. I noted that I would need a teeny tiny screwdriver, so I grabbed an eyeglasses repair kit on my way home for $1.07 total. I also found that I needed tweezers to get the new screen plugged in (more on that later). Since I wear glasses and wanted a clean screen, I used my lens cleaning cloth to wipe down the exposed new screen. These three things are about all you should need.
Step One: Find a working screen
I jumped on ebay, and took my chances on a camera listed as “not sure why it wont turn on”. I dropped $16.51 including shipping, so I was ok with the possibility that the screen might be bad. Luckily, when I swapped out the battery, I found that its screen was fine. The camera made a lot of noise, though. I think someone sat on it. Look at how bent it was:
Step Two: Take apart the cameras
Casio REALLY crammed everything into this tiny camera. When working on any complex electronics, always be patient and gentle with it. These things are packed with sensitive parts and cables that you don’t want to break. You should also note where screws come from and how things go together. Whenever I pull something apart, I separate the screws on a piece of paper and write where they came from. To get started, just remove the following screws in this suggested order:
With the camera turned off, remove the battery and memory card and set them aside. Then start with the 6 screws on the bottom.
There’s another screw in the battery compartment. Might as well get that one now.
Remove the side plate screws.
There are two on each side.
Now remove the side plate and get the two screws hiding under it.
And don’t forget the two on the other side.
Carefully remove the front of the camera
Now carefully remove the back of the camera
Unscrew this small board screw to loosen up the board a little.
Step Three: Remove the screens and install the good screen on the good camera
This is a real treat. You’re going to have to be really careful and pretty patient to pull this off. It took me a while, but I finally got it. Before you start, pay attention to where the wires and ribbon cable are running. Also, you’ll need to stretch the camera parts open a little to get in there. Just be very very careful to not break anything or disconnect other cables on your working camera. We don’t care as much about the broken camera (the one we’re stealing the good screen from).
The display component is sandwiched between the display backing (which is glued in place) and an outer metal frame. Remove the metal frame and set it aside.
Now pry the glued backing away from the camera as shown. Make sure to watch it now that it’ll tug at the wires and the ribbon cable.
Now carefully remove the display backing from the display screen. There will be a couple thin sheets behind the screen. Leave them there on both cameras.
In the center of this image, you can see where the ribbon cable plugs into the board. You’ll want to carefully make some room to get in there and then see the next photo.
To unplug the cable, you’ll want to lift the black plastic piece on top of it with the tip of your screwdriver to unlock it. The cable will easily slide out when it’s unlocked. This picture shows it away from other camera parts with the ribbon cable unplugged.
If you forgot which was the bad screen, hold it up to the light and you’ll know.
Now reverse the steps to get the good screen into your camera and the camera back together. One of the hard parts is plugging in that ribbon cable. I grabbed tweezers from the bathroom and used them to guide it in and it worked out very well. Just be careful to not rip that ribbon cable. If something doesn’t fit right, take a good look and try again. Don’t force anything you’re unsure of. When you’re done, you should have a whole camera again:
You’ll notice that my wife now has a two-tone camera. This is because the plastic that guards the actual screen also broke, which will be the case for most broken screens. When I put the camera back together, I used the back panel from the ebay camera rather than prying up the plastic window from it and re-gluing it to her camera. You can also just buy a camera of the same color from ebay. Personally, I like the duo-tone franken-camera, and so does she. But does it work? See for yourself.
And what should you do with all the spare parts? I threw them in a zip lock bag and set them aside. You never know when another part could fail in your camera and you might need something from these left-overs.
That’s it. If this article was helpful or you have questions, let me know.
This weekend, I dragged Michelle out to the Men’s Luxury Toy Expo at the University of Phoenix Stadium in Glendale. We went AFTER I mudded the kitchen ceiling, of course. I had expected at least some techie geek stuff and maybe a few more supercars, but it was OK. It was also smaller than I expected. We made it through everything in about an hour or so. Here’s some of what we saw.
The “affordable” supercar
That’s the Mulsanne GTM, unless I’m mistaken, and it looks like one hell of a car. The “booth” was really just a table with a guest registry on it, so I’m left with Google searching to find out more about it. It seems Factory Five developed this kit that’ll run you around $20,000 or so and gives you most of what you need to build the car. You’ll still need to buy the engine and some other key ingredients and you’ve gotta put it together yourself. Still, not bad for the price. Here’s a bit of what they have to say about it:
The GTM is an all-new American V-8 powered, mid-engined, original design with a stunningly beautiful hand-crafted composite body shell and a computer designed steel tube frame chassis. It is a fantasy Supercar engineered to be affordable and bring the dream of owning such a car to people whose talents and craftsmanship outrun their bank accounts.
Rent a super car
One of the first things we saw upon entering the expo was this beautiful Lotus Elise that Status Toy Rentals wants you to rent. The price isn’t really all that bad, at about $400 for a 24 hour rental. I thought it was going to be a lot more. More importantly, they have a Ferrari F355 Spider with my name on it for $795 for 24 hours. The rental policies on the site state that “The vehicles may not be used: To carry persons or property for hire”. Does this mean prostitutes? Kind of an odd policy. They also disclose that they reserve the right to remotely disable and retrieve their vehicle if you take it outside the allowed areas or near, say, a race track. Now that’s a smart policy.
Spas, pool tables, trucks, choppers, coaches, and everything else
The event didn’t have JUST cars. There were also a lot of spas, pool tables, big trucks, huge coaches and buses, million dollar boats, and various other items. There were also several booths offering prizes like vacations and tickets, but you have to fill out a form which will undoubtedly land your name on several call and email lists, so I stayed away from those. All said, it was almost worth my $9, but I don’t think I’ll be going next year unless they do something drastic to enhance their vendor list. Throw some tech toys in there for starters.
First of all, I’d like to thank TechLasers.com again for sending me the laser to review. When I agreed to review, it, I didn’t anticipate having so much fun with it and finding more uses than I wrote about previously. I also never anticipated what came next. If you click the image at right, you’ll get a larger version, where you’ll notice that JoeTech.com and a quote from my review are proudly displayed on the TechLasers home page. I was very excited to see that. Thanks again, TechLasers!
To the left is an image of what Andrew brought in. You can click the image to see a larger version, as always. The concept is really fairly simple. You have two small motors with speed controls. Attached to each motor is a small mirror, angled at its base. The motors are mounted at near-45 degree angles, and the laser is mounted on the clothes pin. The black panel is just to block any stray laser beams. To make this thing produce Lissajous curves, you just need to turn it and the laser on, and then adjust the speeds of the motors. The faster the motors are spinning, the more interactive and wild the designs become. I want to build one of these, myself, but I want to have the motor speeds controlled by a digital source. I think it would be pretty cool to control it remotely via the web. I will definitely post whatever I come up with.
