Hi welcome to the Eev blog an Electronics Engineering Video blog of interest to anyone involved in electronics design. I'm your host Dave Jones and we're up. We're recording on the main blog camera and the microphone's turned on I Hope All right. this is quite a widescreen camera I've got up here.

It's uh, it's very wide. You can see the whole Lab Really, it's amazing. Anyway, thanks for joining me guys. How many people we got? We got 47 Ustream viewers, 48 Ustream viewers and 72 guests.

Awesome! Thanks for showing up! Excellent! Hey John from Tronic stuffers here John's in the house Mitch Patterson's in the house Who else we got e wannabe? Alex uh who else is here? anyone else I know. cool. Anyway, thanks for joining me guys. As usual, no idea, no clue what's going to be on today's show.

so questions fire away. hang on I'll just adjust my there we go adjust the cam. Hey, you want to see the new chair? I've got I got a new lab chair. the old one I've still got the leg.

the rest of it's just rotting outside. Um, but here's my new lab chair. Lab stool. There you go.

It's one of it's one of these like bar stools. It's got the height, lever attachment thing and um, it's It's pretty damn good. I Like it. It's great.

and it's a swivel of course, so it's just nice. Yeah I Can sit here and swivel around from bench to bench and do my blog. It's great. No more gaffa tape I Don't know where it came from.

sorry the wife got it. it was a Christmas present actually. Um, so I've had it for a while but I haven't showed it off cuz I haven't done a live blog for ages so is this too much of a wide zoom on the no? It hasn't got wheels unfortunately. So and I haven't tried the ESD thing I Don't think it'll be nearly as good as the old one man.

I've got to clean up this lab. It's terrible. It's not that wide. It's fine.

All right. how's the frame rate? Is it good? Does Ustream still suck? like I'm moving my hand like that. Anyone got an estimate on the frame rate? Yeah, it still sucks that 20 frames per second Lance Wow, that's huge actually. thanks for that.

That gives me a uh a reference point. There we go. Lance 20 frames per second. so I know exactly where so I can sync the the capture of the uh text with my thing when I go to edit later.

So more than 10 frames? That's all right. 1015 frames per second? It's maximum. It's currently set to maximum quality so it's set to 95% quality, which is as high as the video quality goes on this thing. So there you go.

Um, that's pretty good. Okay, I'm sure it sucks for some people, that's that's just the way it is. it's you know. Question from Rob In 91 is 2011 the end of the 8bit epoch because all the large manufacturers are moving to Arm Cortex? No.

I mentioned this on the Forum and and I was going to do a dyve Time rant about it actually. um, no, it's not the end of 8bit micros. There's millions of reasons why you would still stick with 8bit micros. There's um, uh, price, uh, size, foot print, power voltage, ah yeah, all sorts of things.

It's just. it's just crazy. No people have been saying the end of the death of 8 Bit for a decade. More than a decade now.

It's crazy. It's absolutely crazy. So first question, by the way, if you're going to ask questions, put a Q with the colon uh after it because then it shows up on my window here as a big CU and I can see it from the Um from the fluff. Mk7 asks why are ELO linear Regulators less stable? There's a whole bunch of theory out there.

there. It's because they use a different type of pass uh transistor in them than a regular uh regulator I think I mentioned that I went in, went into well I mentioned it at least in the Ldo tutorial I worked on. So it has to do with um, the nature of the uh feedback loop and what past transistor it actually uses. So I won't go into details but you but you can hook it up up.

and yeah, you got all sorts of things like um, the minimum amount of output, capacitance, the amount of ESR and stuff like that. So each linear each um LDL is different, but they're all inherently unstable because they use the same past transistor architecture. So Wireless anti-static wristband Mitch You would get it so you can see how much it sucks, but you'll have to send me a link to that wireless anti static wristband Jesus Got to be kidding me. crazy.

Do I mind doing an episode on Zigg? Um, yeah, yeah. Add it to the list. I haven't mocked around much with Zigg. So um, why doesn't the US government fund foundaries? I don't know.

Just like they don't fund anything else, they only fund military. It's all they do over there. It's all they know how to do, idiots. Any feedback from Agilant on what blew up the scope presumably? um, yeah, there is.

um I'm they asked me not to say until they're absolutely 100% sure, but it may not be the scope itself. Let's just say that well, no, it wasn't my fault by the way. had nothing to do with anything I did, but um, no, uh, possibly a module kind of thing. So yeah, I'll wait until I get exact confirmation of that.

um, it. It looks like it may have been a manufacturing fault in an old revision board cuz these were pre-release um Scopes and pre-release board. So um, it looks like it may have been something there. So um, yep.

I'll give you a full update once they absolutely confirm it. So all those idiots who reckon that they crapped it I don't know if who's on here has seen that garbage that the idiots crapped on about commenters on the blog feedback on the main site crapping on. Oh, it was my fault I blew the scope. Admit it.

What a bunch of if I blew up a $12,000 scope I wouldn't go inside and tweet it that the $12,000 scope blew up. Are you kidding me man? I'd keep my mouth shut. send it back to ageline. Oh just blew of course I didn't blow the bloody scope anyway.

Oh H hang on. I've got to have Mitch sent me the link to the antistatic wrist strap I've got to have a look at it. Hopefully this won't break the connection if I click on this link. am I still up approved anesthetic wrist strap.

It's not wireless, huh? It doesn't have the usual tab thing on front of it. sorry I can't get like a picture up on I tried using that Ustream producer software and it just does not work on my computer. It's hopeless. Um, that allows me to Overlay like images and text and you know the website I'm playing with and stuff.

So I could call up websites and I'll try and get it working one day but it just doesn't work. Um, keep the wrist strap on for 15 minutes before performing computer work. What the hell? What a load of garbage. God I Don't know what's going on there.

That's just yeah it comes from. New Egg New Egg is selling it. Aren't they like just a gadget store or something? Oh righty hope my voice holds up this morning. Dave Do K4u asks, uh, do you have something like add or ADHD because you really go from subject to subject? No.

I've just got a short attention span and my mind thinks at a million miles an hour, how is my wife with big spiders? She does all right. She usually gets me to catch him though. but no, she can. She's quite capable of catching a spider.

she's Australian Lance asks how hard would it be to build a transistor radio? Can you still get the components you need relatively easily? Yes, very easily. Couple of Trist depends whether you're talking Am or FM Of course, if you're talking am yeah, you still build the old crystal radio. Um, FM's a bit harder. You've usually got to use one of the chipsets I believe to do FM God I haven't done that for many decades.

Yeah, the ZN 414 is the yeah. Yep, the 414 Jetronic stuff had it nailed. That's right, I couldn't How'd you remember that uh number there? John I Have no I instantly recognized it as soon as you typed it. The ZN 414 that's been.

That's got to be What a 30 year old? maybe not 30 years old, but 20 years old. at least that chip I think it's that one I think it's that one I'm talking about or I'm thinking of So yeah, you could certainly go out and build. Am's much easier am am everyone Builds an AM transistor radio when they're a kid. you just need your Ferite rod and uh, and uh, not much else.

uh what about YouTube streaming? ask K4 you? um yeah I don't know. you stream uh sorry YouTube streaming YouTube Promised that they would have um live streaming software available eventually. um I Saw a demo of it at the last YouTube conference I went to and um, yeah, it looks good but no, they haven't They haven't released it yet even to Partners in the US Um, so that's really annoying. No I didn't get the Pcbs that I ordered from it Studios um I got an email like last Monday or something.

it was I think or even Friday before last. um from it Studios saying that my boards had shipped. So oh, after like 3 days of placing my order. um so I don't know.

apparently they're in the mail but I haven't got them yet. Um, but I've heard there are delays for mail coming in from Hong Kong um into Australia So um yeah. I I don't know if that's because of it or something. Yeah, some new stupid Australian Customs laws or something they're inspecting more packages to I don't know cuz some idiot complained I don't know, it's crazy h Johnson ask do I get to keep the agilant Scopes or do you have to send them back I Got to keep one I Got to keep the Uh 2,000 They got to try and get me.

Well, they've They've promised me a 3,000 as well. So um yeah, um, but yes, yes this is my. I had to give the other 3,000 back. um I I had two 3000s the failed one and the other one but because they were so rare.

um as hen teeth in this country I had to give it back I Had to give this one back but they eventually gave it back to me. So yeah. Awesome! No. I'm not the new crocodile hunter.

Everyone calls me the the crocodile Hunter of electronics. Don't know why my enthusiasm. it's got to be my enthusiasm Lance wants to try and make it a radio that does AM FM and other things like VHF Oh well, that's a decent project. Um, that won't be trivial.

Somebody asks behind Chop AED Behind me on the blue table on right side, there is some device behind solder station. What is it? Are you talking about that? or are you talking about that? That's just the Xtech LCR meter and that is a fume extractor. So the Micro Cal N Master burner ass. No the Micro Cal No.

Forget it. it's not not going anywhere. Still sitting on my bench since the last Vlog Zer asks are there any big open Community Electronics projects that are mainly Australian based? um um I don't know John atronic stuff John you maybe you can answer that John's more tied into the uh uh Open Source Hardware Community Here in Australia than I am he's uh, friends with the Fre. Tronics um uh Mob I think hang on ah, there's too many questions.

No John John hasn't replied. yeah, there he is. sorry, Half asleep, he half asleep John wake up. What's the question? Um, somebody asks.

are there any major, um, open-source Hardware Community projects in Australia Um so I thought you might know I'm not aware of too many big ones I mean free Tronics do their stuff here. You've got a couple of things. um, not. I yeah off the top of my head.

um no. I haven't made a backup of the agilant Scopes Nan Memory Um, have the drive time rants been pushed out of the way by the Ow show? Um, no, not really. I've just been lazy. sorry, um.

any thoughts bringing them back? Yeah, yeah. I'll have to do it. It's just a matter of getting off my butt. Can I take the Hmeg scope apart? Yeah, why not? Yeah I can take the hey scope apart.

We can do that later. Sure, why not? What's the time? 750 All right. been going 20 minutes I think I started on time. today.

Is it a Texi scientist asks? is it a digital scope or analog with data storage? It's a combo. It's one of those combo Scopes digital and analog. it's 150 MHz analog bandwidth with 250 Uh Meg samples per second. um sample rate.

It's a real dog to use. The interface on the front panel interface is terrible. Um, someone's got an AM robot. Awesome! Am I reviewing some scope meter from Fluke? No.

Is there a rumor going around? Um no. I'm not reviewing a fluke scope meter. They haven't Uh, haven't asked me and I haven't asked them I'm sure I could if I asked them. but uh I've still got a backlog of stuff.

um so haven't even started you're wearing Master Bird is wearing my take It Apart t-shirt Awesome! I might take apart later too I might take apart the um this Xtec pen meter because um H God Who sent it to me on the Forum mental block I don't think he's in the house neither at p uh uh starts with p sent it to me God sorry I forget Anyway, he uh, awesome and he sent me this Tech pen meter. There it is and um, maybe we can take that apart I haven't actually taken it apart yet. So um, and it's got like a retractable hook thing like a probe. I think hang on, how do you do it There we go look at that.

Tada it's got a probe. which just it screws in and out. It's kind of cute I don't know. so eh, we can take that apart later.

Am I any George Hey George George Greaves ask am I any closer to doing the Blog full time? Um, not really. Um, unfortunately, the um, the advertising revenues sort of plateaued. sort of ramped up there for a while. Um, but it's plateaued so no closer to doing it fulltime.

Um, if I wasn't working 9 to5 anymore, Um, for some reason I'd probably give it a go I'd probably. Um Do It full time for a while? That would be nice. Jeez. I'd have all the time in the world.

So, but no, unfortunately, no closer. Um, although Chris and I are, uh, we'll probably talk about it on tomorrow's Amp hour. Um, there there might be a discussion about some, uh, the Amp hour being sponsored sponsorship for the Amp hour. I'm not sure what that entails.

Um, but anyway, there's possibly some talk about that. so um, who knows. Is there any cheap and easy way to get into Fpga development? None of the electronic suppliers around here carry any expensive Dev boards. Well go to the right suppliers, buy online.

Um, even Zyl I mean what do you mean by cheap I mean you know I presume you mean like 50 bucks or something. Um, even Xlinks do and probably altia do as well. a like a sub $50 Fpga demo board. So really, um, there's there's no excuse for you know? um, if you're really strapped for cash, uh, there's no need to pay a couple hundred bucks for an Fpga demo board.

Um I've got so I've got like a dozen old Fpga development boards like a Spartan 2 or something like that. Um, but uh yeah I don't know what I'm going to do with those I don't think I can even give them away. People don't want Spartan 2os anymore. Hey Todd Todd funds in in the house? Fellow blogger somebody firew Walker asks why is the bit scope so expensive? Um, since a good Standalone Cillos Scopes cost less What? Let let me click on your bit scope link here.

Um, oh, by the way, bit scope's actually Australian um, it's bit Scopes and Australian company. um, technically, that's is it. It's open source isn't it? Or it was the bit scope. Um, cuz this was before open source.

um or Open Source Hardware came along uh, because it started out I can't remember the guy who who did it, but he did the bit scope and it was published in like circuit seller or something like that. It was published in one of the overseas mags and I think it was a contest entry. um and then he went from there. So yeah, that's um yeah.

1,600 bucks I don't know which which one are you talking about. Um yeah, they're expensive. It's um I don't know Why are they so expensive? Um, my guess is that because they're um, a probably I don't know if they're made in Australia I'm not sure. um but I don't think they sell huge numbers of them.

So um, that keeps the price up. And yeah I don't know. They've always been expensive. the bit scope has not been cheap.

Um yeah. so I think they started out with relatively high pro not trying to meet a low cost Target and they just never dropped their prices. Um, so what what makes a good front end to a scope? Ask Mk7 low noise um and flat response over the entire Um bandwidth. but it's typically uh, low noise all the way from.

and to get full power bandwidth? um, at your low, uh, voltage input ranges. So like your 1 Molt, 2 Molt per division ranges. Um, to get full bandwidth with low noise down at those levels, that's what makes a good analog front end. Um, do I know the price of the basic 2,000 Agilant scope with 200 MHz bandwidth? Um, Oh, not off the top of my head.

sorry. um I did have a Post-It note here somewhere with the prices on them for the blog. so I got it right. but uh no.

I think I toss it Anyway, the um, the prices are online. You can just go onto the Agulate website and it tells you the price. So um, Solar storm? Ask? what are my thoughts on the Sony Ego Hot situation? I Have no idea what the ego hot is? I'm obviously not clued enough. Um Chasm asks? uh, did did key get back to me regarding the resistors for the um, uh thing? Uh, no.

They just said it was though were the manufacturer was Burns or whoever it is was looking into it. Um, so yes. Dave Is there any reliable way to see current waveforms without expens Ive Current probes? Um, depends on what you're talking if you're talking Mains or whether or not you're talking other stuff. Um, all you need is a resistor? Really? Um, if you're talking lowside current measurement Um, and you don't have and you have a grounded scope, you can get away with lowside current measurement.

I Inserting the shunt resistor in the low in the ground part of the circuit, you can get away with that. um, but there typically you might have to add like a little amplifier after that. um, a little um, little amp to you know, because you have to have a low value shunt resistor so you don't get a big voltage drop. so you amplify that 10 times maybe? or something like that or even 100? Um, and yeah, and feed that into your scope.

get a single-ended output. Why is my desk so clean? Does my wife clean up every day? No. I Just decided to in case I did something today I Just decided to give it a a sweep. Um oh check.

Check these out. sorry I can't I'm hopeless with names some Australian guy who runs a tool shop was offended. He was offended that I used cheap screwdrivers in my tear down so he sent me these. um Swiss Mage you know, manufactured by nude virgins in uh Switzerland and they're like Swiss Tool I don't know Swiss tool brand I Had never heard of them.

but Swiss tool and they're individually oiled and there's just like a individual serial number on the shaft and you know, real? Yeah. Um nice though. Thanks for that. Awesome! So he sent me those screwdrivers.

he didn't want me using cheap ones. So nice. Oh God no matter how many screwdrivers you have, you never have the right one available. Oh sorry I'm I'm just way down a list of questions here.

Oh, there's a good one from Bike Trials Dave Hey Bike Trials Dave um yet another. Dave If I If one day I decided I had enough of electronics engineering, what would what would I do? Good question. um I've breef I've had a few little flirts with that over the years. Um I am a qualified fitness instructor? Um so I could actually, um, go and teach? Um I could be become a fitness trainer or something like that.

So I'm really into that sort of thing. but I am a qualified fitness instructor? Um, so yeah. um I've taught very little though. um I didn't ever get certified so um but I am qualified.

um maybe that or I thought about I'd Love to be a canyoning tour guide. They don't get paid much, you know, just take people canyoning. Um, they don't get don't get paid much at all but you get Le you get outside every day. That would be nice.

So I don't know if I had to change jobs I really I don't know. Have no idea. um if I had to change completely I'd love to do the blog fulltime as a living. do I still use the Ryo um hey, not anymore I got this nice agant one um I actually no I used the Ryo last night because I did a Blog um I shot a Blog using that uh scope software.

um, you know you Scope it generates um XY waveforms uh from your sound card and um I did that on this new agel scope and I wanted to compare it with the Ryo and the Hmeg analog and I' I shot that one already. So I'm going to have to edit that today and uh, microchip R maill Oh, go away. Done! A whole blog on it doesn't matter, makes no difference, they both the same w Ah, PC based logic analyzers. Any good when it comes to Communications monitoring.

Do you really need a standalone? No? Get a PC based logic analyzer? Perfectly fine. One of those logic sniffer ones. Make sure you get ones with like a s logic analyzer or a yeah, the bus sniffer or something it's called. The Open Source One Um, they all do the serial protocols so not a problem.

Um, they they don't do it real time though. they only do them capture, then analyze. I think so. Um yeah, you've got to pay a lot more if you want real time decoding.

Um, Denique Hey, Denique asks I'm starting out in a project that requires a customade. PCB You've never done that. What suggestions or resources do you have in starting out? Just go ahead and do it. You'll probably make a crapload of mistakes.

First time everyone does, but um, just go out and and and get your board made. Um, yeah. use just using cheap package. Eagle Everyone seems to be using Eagle or go to RS Design Spark.

um software? Um, just uh. try that and yeah, give it a go. I Don't really have any resources. Um, there's plenty of PCB I I Don't know if you want to make your own one or just get you know, one manufactured by PCB card or something.

but um, yeah, just do it. Make mistakes. You'll learn very quickly that when your board gets back and your lead doesn't fit and you got the wrong hole size or or or the manufacturer comes back and says you can't do that, you know I I Can't manufacture that and you'll quickly learn. So um, just learn by doing what workbench height do I prefer and why ask George I said that in the um when I did tour of the lab it's about a meter Tada about a meter high so so don't know where my measuring tape's gone.

but uh yeah, it's about a meter and I prefer that because if you you got to be able to stand at a bench so like elbow just above just below elbow height kind of thing. So you know because it's a workbench, it's not a desk, it's not. You know it should be reasonably high and have a good chair that comes up to it so your elbows are you know and you can get close to your work. So you got to have an adjustable height chair.

So I would say around a meter is um, a good workbench height. What's the best? Free or cheap PCB CAD Software Well uh yeah a couple of people said Eagle A couple of people have said key CAD um I don't know Eagle I I just don't like the I I don't like their pricing policies even though it is free I don't like their restrictions PCB Design Spark Completely free, No limitations. Um, but you do have to sign. You know you do have to register with them or something, but who cares.

And there's key CAD which is free I've never tried key but give it a go, don't everyone says Eagle Only because a couple of people who started the Open Source Hardware movement used Eagle and that and it's just. it's caught on like a plague and I don't like it. um I it's all right I've used. you know it's okay, but I Just yeah people, just think it's it's the duck's guts.

and well, there's other packages out there too, so try them. Try them all. They're all free to download and try out, so try it and see which one you like. See which one.

Yeah, Alum is expensive Alum is not cheap. There is a student version available though. Um, yes. free RS software RS Bought the rights to Number One systems.

Number One Systems is the company who makes well I think it's called I I don't even know the name of the PCB package RS called Design Spark. so it's the Design Spark PCB software, but it's actually from Number One Systems. So um, yeah, and it's free. no limitations unlike Eagle which is really annoying.

I've done a rant on that on the amp hour. Oh yes, Sony yeah, Sony are attacking all the hackers out there for using for using their products and taking them apart and Sony are a bunch of freaking idiots. even Microsoft as dumb as they are, understood that the connect got hacked and they've taken advantage of it and now they've actually officially released the drivers for it. They learn, You know Sony don't Sony are a bunch of idiots Really? Oh G Oh right.

Gioh Hot is the guy who hacked the PS3 right? Yeah, they're suing him. They're taking him to court all sorts of things for hacking the PS3 They They're like going after people who have just modded their box. you know, not people selling the mods or people who develop the mods. People like just crazy.

Ah jeez. Can I get the guy to send you some of those screwdrivers I I Don't know. Go and ask him I don't think he will. Um, Twistex? Hey Twistex? Ask? should he use Nxp or STM Cortex parts to start with 32bit micros? Doesn't matter.

Makes a difference. It's like choosing uh Atmail or Um or microchip? It really doesn't matter. Just choose the one that you think's got the best. Um, the best environment, the best tools.

Um so look uh sorry I'm uh, way down. I'm my cursor for the list of questions is right up the bottom. It should be up the top. Let me get through quick.

What's my favorite: PCB Design software Not allowed to say conflict of interest. Is it safe to unplug scope probes all the time of will connectors wear out quickly. Some of the cheap sockets and funel are only rated 50 Cycles I Say yeah, they can wear out. Um I've seen um I've seen the Bnc's on Scopes wear out so yeah, they certainly can.

Um, how did I get hooked on electronics engineering I've done a whole blog on it. First project: I Don't remember my F first project. It would have been maybe one of those 50 In1 kits. Um, do I know of any good Alum Tutorials: Um, there's ones on the website there's guys at Alum who do uh, who do tutorials? um and some.

Some of them are pretty darn good. So, but not yeah, they're very specific. Um so yeah. I don't know like generic tutorials I don't know I don't know anyone else is doing them.

So what can you use to protect data lines against? ESD You can get proper um, little ESD chips in like little six pin packages, little micro uh packages and they're specifically designed for for ESD protection on like USB highspeed serial bus data lines and stuff like that. Um, so I highly recommend using those rather than rolling your own solution. Um, cuz they're guaranteed not to. You know they're low capacitance enough not to interfere with the um, interfere with the data lines and stuff like that and the uh, signal integrity and things like that.

So um, especially when you're talking about Usb or some other Highspeed protocol, it's unwatchable. It lags so much does it? I don't know is how's the frame rate going? By the way, anyone frame rate stop questions until Dave is caught up. Do I know any Engineers from the Netherlands Yes I do. At work we've got guys from the Netherlands h no stro 09 ask Did I ever find the schematic for the clock I showed in the last live show no I didn't I've looked quite a few times and I can't find it I know it's some somewhere and um ah it's bugging me.

It really is. It's terrible I know it's it's hand drawing I know it's on an A3 sheet. It was folded in half and I saw it like 6 months ago when I was cleaning stuff and I'm damn sure I wouldn't have thrown it out. maybe the wife threw it out I don't know.

Um, no, she she wouldn't have. She would have opened it up to have a look at it and she would have known it was a you know, a schematic and she wouldn't have throwing it out. Um so I don't know bugging me God I know I've got it somewhere. it'll turn up one day.

Is it in my plans to do a review of the embed platform? No I have no plans whatsoever. sorry somebody said the frame rate is Did I already start judging the triple 5 contest? Uh no because Chris refuses to give me the Uh list yet I I want the list now of the Australian entries so I can judge it? Um, but no. apparently I'll get the list when all the other judges do. So there you go.

Chris ain't playing favorites with this thing is Chris here Chris ain't here nah I Thought he'd be watching it work. Maybe nah, he doesn't care how to make good current measurements from a motor which is being driven by Pwm. Oh God no, it's probably a good tutorial. Sorry, it's probably a good app Note out there maybe I don't know it's hard is you know it's not trivial is the answer? Um I wouldn't say it's hard, but it's just not trivial and I won't go into it cuz I'll goof something up and there's to go to app Notes like places like uh, microchip and ones like that do app Notes cuz they got like motor.

Go to any company that sells motor controller um, chips or motor controller microprocessors and they have appnotes for all this sort of stuff. Um, how do I sort my Ic's I don't I toss them into a big box and then I spend half an hour rubbing through them to find the right one. I'm hopeless. Um, cuz I don't need them that often.

So um, firew Walker ask. My design that was published years ago was using a program written in basic. Um yes, my uh. Digital Storage Oscilloscope Adapter software.

No hang on my yeah. my Digital Storage Osilloscope adapter project which was um, massive. Many many thousands of those were built. Um that used um that used Microsoft Quick Basic 4.5 Um.

and then I Upgr to Microsoft PDS Uh, 7 7.1 Basic software I loved it. Uh Basic PDS was brilliant. Um, it would bury C In terms of speed. it would beat like the um the C compilers back then.

Nobody would believe it. You know you'd go talking on the Forum saying oh Basic PDS is quicker than um, you know than Microsoft C compiler and they' go ah, it's 100 times slower and then I compile an example app. No look, it's actually slightly quicker and you know it was great I Loved the old Microsoft Basics The rant suggestion from Chasm the uh, the stores don't have a function to search by price. Yes, they do dig key have it Mousa have it.

Um, they've got a sort sort by Price do I like SpongeBob Square Pants no Why would I like SpongeBob SquarePants I don't understand it I'm obviously not young enough. Have I seen a video about etchant made from hydrogen peroxide, vinegar and salt as an alternative to Feric Chloride No I haven't seen that. um I use ammonium P sufate. so maybe that's what I don't know my chemistry.

I' have to get the wife. um, but maybe hydrogen peroxide, vinegar and salt mixed mixed together is close to ammonium persulfate I Don't know. um, there's a pee in there P Sufate peroxide I I Don't know. Um yeah, maybe it works.

No idea. Haven't heard about it. What's my favorite Mythbuster episode? Ask my Lux um oh gee I don't know. Hard, hard, hard hard.

um oh not favorite but one I thought was pretty cool was that when they um I just thought it was a cool busted myth when they you know how you're not supposed to, you can't supposedly fold paper more than seven times like fold it in half, fold in half again, fold in half. You know there's a theoretical Li limit to the number of times you can do it and I think it's seven or eight or something like that and everyone said it's impossible to fold it more than that and they did it like 11 times and it was just I thought that was just that was cool. That was very cool. They had like this huge warehouse and they covered it with like um, rice paper very thin super thin paper and they they carefully folded it and folded it and they did it more than eight times easily.

So they busted it. um that myth I don't care about the iPad 2 hysteria I don't care that Steve Jobs is back on stage looking fragile and near death I don't care I don't know. Maybe I'll watch the keynote if I'm Bor um I don't know? No idea. Um yeah I don't care, You know God Consumerism at its finest really is why didn't I go for the trans impedance current to voltage converter approach for my microcurrent device instead of the current sensing resistor.

I Thought about it at the time, but um I wanted a uh well, no I was fixated on the max um at at the time I was fixated on that chip for another thing and um I thought I'd just use it in there as well. um cuz I thought it was a neat, um neat chip. so I just used it. so yeah, it you know I don't know I I Just yeah I just didn't bother.

um cuz I wanted to use the maximum chip and it suited my purposes exactly. There was no need to go for the uh, uh, the um current to voltage approach. So um, have I sent angry letters to those Ste in my content, who's stealing my content? Who's nicking my content? The bastards? No I don't know who's who said that e wannabe who's still in my content e wannabe I Want to know the magazine and the title? Oh the um, right. the Indian magazine.

What's their name? um apparently they're famous for it. um the Oh: cramping my leg. There you go, need to stretch? um uh yeah. this Indian magazine I forget the name.

They use my photo of me with the multimeters. you know I got all the multimeters lined up and I'm holding screw Scw drivers like this and they stole the Bastards. Use that image in an article without asking me. um and but apparently it's not the first time they've stolen.

They've stolen like entire articles from. um, who was it? It's on the Forum. Let's talk about it on the Forum Um, there's some other blogger who has a website. go forget his name and uh, no.

I don't plan to review the Beagle board. Um. I've got to do like a review of the um of the RX development board from Renaissance And yeah, it's overdue. Um, they've Yeah, they've asked me to do it.

so I'm probably going to have to do that. I'm not sure if it'll make the blog I might just do it for Renais. Um, what do I think of all the Apple Fanboys and selling this overprice? well, you know, consumerism at its finest. Bad chair? No.

I'm probably just not hydrated enough. That's probably um, why the legs cramped up I don't know. Did a hard class last night at the gym. by the way.

um, how warm is it in my in my lab? It's probably about 18 celsus I don't know. I don't have a thermometer in here? Um well. I do I can tell you hang on All right You ask? what temperature it is, where's my probe? Oops? All right. Oh no, it's way off.

It's warmer than that. 22 There you go. 22, 22 and 1 12. Wow.

Jeez, that's uh yeah, that's pretty. War I Thought it was like a bit cooler than that. but but no, there you go. Not a problem.

So yeah, it's pretty good bit. Summers Um, completely died here in Sydney Summer just ended like that. Unbelievable. What do I think about the future of arm processes? Well, they're taking over the world aren't they? Somebody will buy them out.

if I send you an Atxp, you will you review that for me? No, sorry. I don't review ATX Power supplies do I still read magazines? Oh yeah I read silicon chip I read circuit seller and uh um, that's about it. Did the $4 MSP 430 Dev board not take off like some people thought it would I don't know the success of it. Here it here it is.

Launchpad the $430 launch pad which I was going to review I was going to do an unboxing. never got around to it. Missed the opportunity. Now it's old hat.

Um yeah. I don't know. Yeah, it's yeah. it's not taking the World by storm, so there's a few people out there developing stuff for it.

but I haven't checked lately. Um, do I ever watch back my first Eev blogs? If so, what do you think of them that I even think my current ones aren't that good. So I'm I'm My Own worst critic really? Um yeah. So to all those people who complain, send me.

oh this is why didn't you do that I know I'm My Own Worst critic Trust me I know ever use a silicon Labs micro? The Reps keep coming in and giving me dead boards to try and win me over. No yeah, they they got a big push. I think silicon Labs no, never used them silicon Labs They've got a funny video somebody posted on the Forum um about uh, like a you know they compared it with the microchip 32bit pick how that's a sledgehammer and the Um and the Silicon Labs micro was. you know the right tool for the job.

It's quite. It's quite a good video. Wi-Fi no Wi-Fi is no good. For a kilometer or two, you'd be talking.

um, you'd be talking um other RF um bandwidths You need high power stuff? um which in some countries may not be legal to go like kilometers? um for control? No, you you won't get Wi-Fi over. You know, in theory you probably can. but yeah, no inside info on the longer way waed Third Edition of Art of Electronics no sorry I have no idea. um can I take something apart cuz you got to go to bed soon.

How do you? No I won't go into that one. sorry elic no dig key didn't get back to me Todd no they sent it to the manufacturers. just realized nobody's asked me about my t-shirt yet. fortune and Glory do I use 32bit micros? Oh yeah, I've used the microchip uh ones I've used um, various arms of used the Nxp arm and stuff like that.

Tell me about your shirt says Lance I got the it's awesome I Got this from the Indiana Jones ride at Disneyland and if anyone knows we can buy extra ones, let me know cuz I haven't been able to find it I should have bought more than one I love it! It's a great shirt fortune and Glory kid and uh I just can't seem to buy it anywhere on online cuz I know this one's going to wear out I'm wearing it so much George asks? Have I considered starting my own E kit company? What keeps you guys like me from starting from striking out on my own? Well, it's time and effort really. Um, yes I want to do it? I've got two projects in the pipeline that I want to release as kits. Um so I they've been sitting here for more than a year. literally.

Here's the box of the project that I want to release um and I haven't done it and I just lazy as hell and I just haven't got the time to do it. Um, so yes I want to. What's stopping me time? Um, the blog takes up a lot of time and I've got a life as well and yeah, I yeah, it's time. Um, but then again, I am lazy I need to put more effort into it I I could certainly do it.

it's on the list I Want to? Um, that could be a kit business in combination with the blog. Um, might very well be um, my future so you know we'll see. Um, yeah, it's it's tough and I've been thinking a bit about the kit business and I don't know if I want to get stuff manufactured here or in China it's like I kind of want to sort of go to the effort to get stuff manufactured here in Australia as much as I can um, do as much here, the box I'm using is made in Australia Um, you know I want to get the boards assembled here and and stuff like that I know I probably can't get the Pcbs made here. uh, the bare pcbs but oh, maybe I can.

but I've got to charge more for it and that and that's a problem. So am I planning to make some uh, meter or scope giveaways for my viewers? I've probably got a couple of more meters I'm going to I'm going to have to give away when should an Fpga be used instead of a microcontroller? What's the time? 8:30 Jeez, Been going an hour already just on questions. We better stop the question soon and take something apart. Um, when should an Fpga be used instead of a microcontroller? CPU Um, Basically, when you need to do, uh, parallel, lots of parallel Hardware type tasks if you're just if you're just using an Fpga as a softcore, if you're using like an arm softcore in there or an 8051 softcore in there, then you're wasting your time.

If that's the only function of your Fpga is to run a soft core, then you, you know you're wasting your time. But yeah, to do stuff that you can't do in a micro? If you, um, you know, if if you get to, if you don't have the performance to do it in a micro, go to an Fpga because you might want to have to, you know, decode some fast serial bus or you might want to um I don't know, do an Fpg uh, do a VGA um display core or something like that which you know isn't uh, typically very easy in a microcontroller. You might want to run an Fpga. but yeah, there's many answers to that question.

Um, yes, I'm just going to judge the Australian entries for the Triple 5 timer contest. Chris asked me to judge the other ones, but I don't have enough time. So um, and I warned him that he'd get a lot of entries and he didn't believe me and I said I told you so and that's why he's farmed off a lot of the uh, although he's looking through everyone and then culling them down. But yeah, I'm only going to look at the Australian ones.

That's my prize. What are my thoughts on Arter fruit and what they are trying to do with open sourcing all this stuff? It's cool. It's like said it before. it's cool.

Um, yeah, it's great. They're getting quite big. um and they put up good info. It's all about the content.

I Have no idea which year the Tetronics 465b was made sorry off top of my head. Did I ever work with a Persistence of vision display? No. I haven't really dabbled with that. Yes.

I have some experience um denique with uh, designning buildinga custom cases, injection molding. but usually we have like a Cad guy, a 3D mechanical CAD guy that um, takes care of most of that, um sort of stuff. So I've only been involved around the you know, the outside. not really at the Deep level of that sort of stuff.

um sink. ask what rope a sender to get I don't know what? uh, you know what do you get? little tib blocks or something like that. Now we're I'm sure nobody will have any idea what we're talking about. Um, only people who are into climbing and canyoning.

we'll have an idea what a tibl loock is a petzel TI loock? Um, you know it depends. Do you want an emergency descender? Do you want a stop? A petzel stop which is a full grippy one? You know how long's a piece of string? um some of them can do damage to the Rope like the petzel Ti block will damage the it can damage the outer sheath cuz it's got little teeth which grip into the outer well. They've all got teeth which grip into the OU of sheath but they can do more damage than other ones. So yeah, Climbing question: See how much longer am I going to do the live show today? I I don't know 9 9 9:30 Absolute Max Um, what is my current job? Everyone knows what my current job is.

Ask around No I don't own a CNC machine. Have I got room for a CNC machine? No I've I've I've I've already answered that JG Garcia Sorry All right, that's how about we stop the questions and we take something apart. Who wants to see something taken apart? What do you want you want? The Everyone: A few people have asked for the Hym scope. um I mentioned the Xte probe meter.

Um yeah, a Grigory. Yeah, Todd uses a Grigory. All right, No one wants to see this heap of everyone. wants to see the haeg.

All All right, we'll take apart the haeg. Here we go. Um I don't think I've ever taken this apart I may have I don't I don't remember what's inside? All right. What do we got here doesn't look trivial.

It's got like a um, it's got like a uh, a hex socket on the back so screwdriver just ain't going to cut it. Sorry guys, this could take a while I'd love to uh put the video on it but the video doesn't reach the camera doesn't reach I could move the notebook and stuff but H it's just all too hard. There we go. Hey there we go.

Tada back panel: Ah, this may be one of these weird ones where you have to take take off the uh handle first. maybe I don't know. there couple of screws on the bottom, but not much else. This could be a fail.

This looks complicated guys. Um, and the shazzy's bent too. So yeah, we're not looking good here. Um, no, not.

C it got it. Taada, Hang on. This is tricky. Taada got it all right, right? I'll have to bring it over here.

I'll bring the camera over. Hang on. Drob. Test passed.

All right. Okay, let's see if I can get the camera in here. Oh, hang on. The USB cable on this webcam is only short.

All right. Uh, I can't see what's on the main camera. but uh, there we go. You can see my mic, there's my uh, there's my road mic there and all right.

And and this is the underside. This is the bottom of the scope. Here's the no. Hang on.

So here's the front of the scope. There you go. And yeah, the control layout is. if I can turn it around, no, hang on.

What am I doing? Silly me, take tripod off and there's the chat window. There it is. T We can have the famous effect there of the going through and there's the chat window. All right.

Here we go. So here's the front panel of this thing and it really is. Um, it really is very, very convoluted. It's uh, it's crazy.

It really is. and uh, because it's a Combi digital. Um, analog. It's 150 Meg uh.

analog bandwidth with 200 Meg samples per second. Um. I Think my audio is peeking. Yeah, sorry, how's that is that? How's that? Is that? better? Is that better? guys? Cliping better? Yep.

Yep. Sorry. sorry about that. All right.

I'll try and speak a bit softer. maybe as well. Hang on. I think I'll turn it down a bit further.

Check. Check. how's that still clipping? Okay, it should be better now. All right.

I'll try and speak a bit softer anyway. So as you can see, there's the CRT and it's um, pretty. Spar There's a board on top so we could probably take the um. we would have to take the shield off that.

but hang on. let's Flip It Up I've got to be careful. this thing doesn't uh, fall over because it's um, it's supported on two legs and uh, here's the main board and it's upside down. but that's an Altera something or other.

I Can't read that at the moment. but it's an Aor device and there's not much else on there. Another out device and I don't know. that's like the uh, that's like the digital control board part of it.

There's lots of There's a fair bit of analog on there. it's um, so yeah. I don't know. It's uh, it's all over the shop.

Here's your front end. Uh, your front end. boards under here like this so we'd have to take the shield off that um, little tiny little control board up there. sorry am I still peeking.

Ah God I Can't help it, the volumes turn down. Hang on. How's that? There we go I've turned it down about as low as it can go on. Ustream So no, yeah, sorry.

I don't know I don't want to muck around with the is it really bad? Is the is the audio that bad? Hello anyone. Is the audio? Yes, the audio is bad. Is it? Oh God Hang on. All right.

Um. I can't get get any further away from the mic guys I can't I can talk quieter like this. but I can't get any further away from the mic. otherwise I can't see things anyway.

H this ain't this is failing All right. Uh, what else we got? We got another board on the side. There's another board on the side and there's a huge board on the top. We should probably take it off.

Hang on. I'll take this off trying to hold the camera with one hand. Oops, sorry guys, this this ain't uh, this is bit of a fail here. um yeah, sorry.

I don't know how to change the mic volume I'd have to go into the Windows settings or something like that. So and I can't stand further from the mic because then I can't see anything and the mic's and the mic's built into the webcam. It's not the it's not my external boom mic You see here, it's not. It's not that boom mic up there.

that's that's for the live Rec that's for the recorded version. Um, so it's not that mic. it's uh. it's the webcam.

I've got the webcam built into the the I'm using the mic that's built into the webcam. so can I switch to the standard mic I I am using the standard mic. Okay, okay, look, give me a thumbs up on the audio. How is it now? It should be exactly the same as what it was before.

Check. Check. Check one two. Audio: It's good.

Okay, it's fine. All right. Stop complaining. But yeah, if I get closer to it like this like I was before, it'll probably clip I don't know.

maybe there's some Auto gain setting or something I could try and use I don't know. Anyway, yeah, this is, um, terribly boring. this Hmeg scope. um I don't know.

I just uh, was expecting a bit more razzled dazzle, you know? So hey, here we go. Here's something a bit more interesting now. don't complain about the bloody audio. There we go.

All right. I'm trying to whisper I am absolutely Whispering at the moment. How's that audio? Anyway, here we go. What have we got here? Hang on.

Oh okay, okay, we've got a zyink Fpga let's have a look. hang on knifes coming out. Try and open a Swiss army knife with uh, while holding the camera with one hand. it's an XCS 10.

Okay, there you go, Zyink. What else have we got up here? Um, no idea. Hang on. I Can't read the numbers on these damn chips and it's peeking.

Oh, this one here is interesting. sorry if the audio is peeking. Clipping? Yeah, yeah, yeah. I Am Whispering I am Absolutely.

Whispering Okay, this one here is, um, a Hmeg I I won't be able to get in in there, but it is a haeg. Um, it is a heeg. uh. custom readout chip.

It's it's an NEC branded chip and uh, but it's got Hmeg. Well, it's got Hmeg readout written on it which is really interesting. So um, there's a couple of dacks and there you go. That's what's inside the Haym and I Am Whispering Are people still bitching about the audio? Sorry guys.

I Can't do anything about the mic. Really? it's built into the freaking webcam. You can watch the recorded version later on the blog. All right.

So there you go. That's the. That's probably the main board and there's one underneath as well and not much else. There's a front panel board and there's a power supply at the back as well, but apart from that, it's It's pretty boring.

Yeah. I Was expecting a bit more razzled dazzle. All right, All right, Am I back. How's the audio? How's the audio? Thumbs up.

It looks fine. Video is breaking up. sorry yeah, this is I mean it's hard to. it's really hard to do it cuz I've got I should hold up a mirror I've got the webcam.

It's an external Logitech I don't know something. a log Logitech something external webcam and that's clipped onto the um, that's clipped on to the uh uh, the LCD screen of my other camera. So hopefully I get both the view from both cameras. That's the idea.

Anyway, so yeah, I don't know. it's a bit of a fail I hav't got a real professional setup like the mate guys and they've got like five camera operators and switching things and H dear anyway, is the audio too quiet now? Yes. I could use my podcasting mic but I didn't want to get it out. sorry I should have next time.

All right next time. I'll use the webcam for the video I'll get my external podcasting mic I'll use that for the live stream audio and then I'll have the other mic on the top of the camera. the boom mic for the for the recorded video. Man, crazy.

Audio is great. Okay, excellent yeah. Use your damn volume control. Turn it down.

yeah, it doesn't show that it's clipping. look I to shout hello, check, check. It's not even clipping on my Ustream Vum meter indicator here. It's not even.

It's not even close to clipping. so you know. Yeah! my wife can be the camera woman. Um, but yeah, there you go.

Um, that's inside the um Hmeg and I I don't know I was a bit, you know. I was expecting more out of the uh, out of the pay me but um I don't know. there's not much in it really. Um, but yeah, that um, that readout chip that looks that's a custom Asic chip it's got I won't be able to get it on camera.

but um, not now. anyway. but it's got. yeah, it says it's an NEC it was made in Ireland and it says Hmeg readout on it and it's got some obscure number made in 95, made in 9.95 and um, yeah, there you go.

And that's the back of the uh, that's the back of the unit there and there power supply. I won't bother taking that apart because it's just a it's just a 240 switch mode power supply. Um, but yeah, it's not a huge amount in it. Uh, what else have they got? Oh I don't even recognize that symbol.

There's two other chips on this top board don't recognize it at all. They got some bur Brown um, amps and stuff like that I love the bur Brown opamps. Um, there's a Hatachi uh, what is it a Hitachi uh, h721 I assume that that's a Hitachi microcontroller? maybe I don't know. Um, and there's I don't know.

Maybe I'll have to take some photos of this I can take some photos, put it up. Um I Love the fact that it's not anything like the old tectronics um ones the old school. Scopes But at least they still have that arm that this arm this Rod going all the way through for the power switch. So the mechanical power switch on the front operates the Uh operates the mains, a physical main switch right at the back.

Um, but it's yeah. it's nothing like the the beautiful construction of the old school. Um, and there's the delay line. by the way.

Um, that's the delay line that coil in there. see that coil down in there? That's that's the delay line. Um, it doesn't have any specs on it. Um, but yeah, they actually use that as the delay line.

It's actually a coax and um, just you know, wrapped around and that's they use that for the for the delay. So there you go that's inside the Hmeg. Anything else you want you want to see inside there at all? Oh, there's questions. Hang on.

Yeah, it's probably in the windows set in the mic. Um no I Didn't see the spider again. hasn't turned back up. Um who normally is my camera person? I don't have a camera person? Camera person's me and a tripod.

Um, the two dip ic's from Analog Devices they're um Dak 312. so if you go Google Dak 312 um I don't know I'm sure you'll find it. Um, I'll do that Now there you go. It's a 12-bit highspeed, uh, multiplying D2a converter? That's it.

So there're the two dip chips in the sockets. Why? they've got them in sockets? I Don't know. Are they hideously expensive? Do they have to change them? Do they have to? Yeah. I don't know.

Go figure. Thanks Fax! fax. Has to go. No worries.

What? What time is it? Um, yes, that is a delay line in scope. Now take about the scope on the top shelf. already. Done it? Yes.

I'll take some high-res photos of the scope and I'll have to put them up cool. I'll have to get the camera out with the macro lens and do it properly. Woo Drink: 11:00 p.m. in Germany Awesome! 11:00 p.m.

in the Netherlands Yeah, they're lined up. They should be the same time. What's my biggest E fail? Oh God I Don't know. Tough question.

I'd have to think about it. Why not make a camera robot to follow me around? Because they just wouldn't be good enough. Can't beat a human 5:00 P.m. East Coast USA So is this a good time for the live? Vlog By the way, it's probably I Think it's probably the best compromise you know, 730 a.m.

in Australia and I think it's still watchable in the um, yeah, very yeah. okay for erasion. It is excellent. Yeah, okay, cool.

or would you prefer me to do it Sunday morning my time which is Saturday night your time or Sunday night your yeah Saturday night your time or something I don't know but I'd rather not give up my weekends I'd rather do it before I go to work cuz it is Monday God I hate Monday in Greece hey it's almost midnight in Greece All right, thanks for staying up. No you ditch me for AR fruits. huh? AR fruits. Ask an engineer is better than ask Dave yeah, probably I I Haven't watched much of the arter fruit uh one.

So some other show blows. Does it awesome? Yes, my trip to the US is unfortunately. um, yes. officially cancelled.

Um officially off the cards I won't be going to ESC in March uh April no May May Esc's in May um I was going to go um and now I'm pissed because Jerry's going to be there and the was is going to be be there and and I can't go. It's annoying. So yeah, it's definitely cancelled. Yeah, the problem with taking apart stuff live is the camera and stuff.

I've got to set it up. um, you know and it's especially with a big something big like this scope. Um, and I've got limited reach on the because I've got the main camera and the webcam and they're tied together and I've got limited USB cable. Maybe I need one of those USB extension cables but it's still annoying to film stuff taken apart live.

So have I ever been to Canada Yes I've been to Canada I Love Canada Hello to all my Canadians out there. Be thankful here. Not in American sorry Yanks I got got to take the piss I'm sure I'm sure I'm sure the Canadians do it all the time. They got so many American jokes that's not funny.

so there we go. There has been a lot of Australian commercials in the US has there we're trying to uh Shore up our um our tourism again. I don't know why our econom is pretty strong but we're we're always trying to Spook our tourism. Are the ads any good? Sometimes the ads are really bad and we we just feel embarrassed cuz the ads are crap Yeah, save the Terra parts for the blog.

Yeah I probably should cuz it just doesn't work. you know maybe a couple of things I can take a part on the bench here and then I should just hold it up to the main camera here and not try and bring the camera to the work cuz it doesn't doesn't work this, just the logistics of the whole thing. um oh K for k for you asks um uh what's my favorite country apart from Australia Oh good question. um I don't know New Zealand's awesome but it's it's practically Australia you know I mean I I I can't say New Zealand um because yeah I' I'd probably say Canada I'd probably say Canada um I don't know.

It depends on what what you're talking about if you're talking. um, lovely outdoors and that sort of stuff and and friendly people Canada awesome although I love the Us as well. um I love North America Um, some parts of Europe awesome. Um, well lots of parts of Europe I've been to Germany they're all great.

What's my favorite? I don't know depends on what you're talking about. Um, see the problem with Europe is the language. Um, it really is. Um, you know it's a bit of a hurdle if you don't speak the local language.

so but yeah I I Don't know if I had to go live somewhere else, it'll probably be Canada maybe although it's a bit cold in Canada so I don't know. maybe not. Um, but yeah I love Canada I could I could certainly live there. it's very.

it's very much like Australia in certain respects. although if you um said City oh, freeze bit of a freeze there on the uh on the old video. um, although if you talking cities, um San Fran which is the sister city to Sydney here um by sheer coincidence or maybe not. um, they're very similar and um yeah I love San France one of my favorite cities um I'm a bit pissed off Quantas now don't fly directly into San Francisco they fly directly from Sydney to La which I hate or Sydney to Dallas uh I've never been to Dallas but it's the big Hub you know, so you've got to fly somewhere else.

I Loved flying directly to and from San Fran CU It's one of my favorite cities and they've cancelled it. They've now gone directly to Dallas So ah, it's annoying, bloody annoying. Um hi Eva hi Eva is uh, there's a little shout out there Tin Man's Girlfriend is Eva a fan. Is she fan of the blog? Wear some flowers in my hair to sand Fran Ah no, it's not like that.

Going through the questions here? No. I've never been to Michigan sorry there's lots of parts of the US I haven't been to. That's another reason why I Was looking forward to going to the US again in May because I was going to do a little road trip as well with out the wife and um, yeah, yeah. I would love Aki Habara however you pronounce it yes I'd love to go there.

Um, do you still use an analog meter? No. I don't use an analog meter. I've got them here. there we go.

There's an analog. two analog meters up there and a third one in there, but no. I don't use them. They're just too inconvenient.

What else have we got? Are there any alternatives to the Ryol at that price level? I don't know. there's the A10 and stuff. Probably still not a huge. Some people on The Forum have hacked um, the techway to 200 MHz apparently.

so if you can do that, that's probably good value. um I'm not sure the exact price of that. Um no I don't like, uh, bite free I don't like uh audio equipment I've got no real interest in audio equipment I don't have any vintage equipment. um and what system do I have at home I just got a crap Sony highi uh, not high-fi um, home theater amp.

You know it's like 9 years old or something. Um, and yeah, I've got no real interest in audio music Hi-Fi wank or all that sort of stuff. Um, any recommendations on transferring signals through water as in lakes and rivers? Oh, you've got to get into underwater, um. data.

Oh, that's a whole art in itself. Underwater data transmission? Um, Apex Um, that's yeah. tons of. There's lots of papers on that sort of thing.

There's lots of science which goes into, uh, transmitting data underwater. It's not easy. Um, there's companies who specialize in it. No.

I've never worked on tube valve audio equipment. Never. I've never worked on valve gear. A couple of my J might take apart next time.

I won't do it today, but a couple of my uh, keithly sources here still use valves. Um, but no. I'm not gez you know if you gave me a valve circuit I wouldn't know what I was doing. Favorite movie from last year I don't know.

sorry, no idea. Uh, nothing comes to mind. um do I think in the future that trendy Scopes will be with a bigger LCD Yeah the LCDs will just keep keep getting bigger and bigger on Scopes Um but then again there is a room for little compact scop so you don't want to mess up you don't want such a huge screen in a small scope and then mess up the control layout and stuff like that. So so you know there's only a so much you can do.

future of Home networks Any idea for a new house build? No idea. um like install Cat 5 Cable everywhere. lots of people are Wireless everything's Wireless these days everything's Wi-Fi Um so you know, whereas five years ago or something all the trend was. or you know, 5 10 years ago all the trend was to wire up your house bu building in your house you put network cable everywhere.

um you you know you'd put in the highspeed Cat 5 you could get in every room and all that sort of stuff. Um but yeah I'd still recommend putting in Cat 5 if you're building a house cuz you can use Cat 5 for other stuff too, not just for networking. Um is Fpga very expensive to start up? No, it can cost you like 30 bucks to start Fpga. The tools are free mostly and a Dev board you can get for like 50 b