What have you Built Recently

[gyraf]

I have to monitor closely, they don't stay on the tree long after ripe..

How do you know if it's ripe? I have a fig tree in my garden, quite a few fruits, but I never managed to find anything edible. And birds seem to ignore it. Maybe our climate is just wrong for this to go all the way..

/Jakob E.

 

[JohnRoberts]

How do you know if it's ripe? I have a fig tree in my garden, quite a few fruits, but I never managed to find anything edible. And birds seem to ignore it. Maybe our climate is just wrong for this to go all the way..

/Jakob E.

Mine is a "Chicago Hardy". The vendor I purchased it from shows optimal growing regions for different kinds of fruit trees. My first fig tree died from a late spring hard freeze but this one is doing OK for a few seasons now.  You are pretty far north of me (and east).

On mine when the figs start to get ripe the skin of the fig turns reddish/purple and they get soft and aromatic. I suspect the smell is what attracts the birds.  I didn't even know my first ones were ripe until I saw the half eaten one left on the tree, that a bird beat me to. The insides are bright red... When these start ripening they can go pretty fast so I have to check as often as twice a day.   

Figs are a subtropical tree but a search reveals a "Bornholm Diamond" danish fig, reportedly originally transplanted from Italy. So apparently growing figs there is possible.

JR

 

[crazydoc]

I found that I can give surplus vegetables (like excess tomatoes, squash, and cucumbers) to my neighbors... they don't mind at all.  8)JR

My neighbors are few and far between (thankfully), and I don't socialize with those I've met (except one who moved away ) because of world-view differences. I've given a lot in the past to those I jam with, but due to the pandemic I'm staying away from that. My Mom told of a neighbor of hers that would drive up and down the street at night putting zucchini in the mailboxes - I guess there's a point where people don't want any more squash. 

And besides, some things are hard to pick (like peas, chard, and especially beans) and they'd have to come harvest them themselves (which has happened in the past.)

 

[JohnRoberts]

My neighbors are few and far between (thankfully), and I don't socialize with those I've met (except one who moved away ) because of world-view differences.

I'm not on the same exact page as all my neighbors wrt world view. I'm still the yankee who only moved down here 3 decades ago. One neighbor accused me of voting for Hillary, because I'm not as red neck as he is.  : I didn't give him any free vegetables.  But philosophically we're all in same general neighborhood. 

I've given a lot in the past to those I jam with, but due to the pandemic I'm staying away from that. My Mom told of a neighbor of hers that would drive up and down the street at night putting zucchini in the mailboxes - I guess there's a point where people don't want any more squash. 

I'm light on squash this week... In past weeks I've had enough for myself with at least one surplus to gift. For some odd reason my squash plants suddenly started pushing out about 10 at the same time... looks a little like a bundle of snakes, only yellow. I predict in another week or so, I'll have way too many squash, but none to harvest this week.

And besides, some things are hard to pick (like peas, chard, and especially beans) and they'd have to come harvest them themselves (which has happened in the past.)

Perhaps why I didn't plant any peas or beans...

My bell peppers have been a little disappointing so far, and only now are starting to bud out in numbers. I suspect the tomato plants grew more quickly and stole their sunlight before they could get going. Now that the tomato plants have shifted over somewhat the peppers are getting more sun light, and doing better.

I suspect the same number of plants spread out over a lot more area next year will be more than satisfactory. But I can't complain for my first semi-serious garden attempt.

JR

 

[gyraf]

Thanks! I'm off to watch my tree  ;D

 

[JohnRoberts]

Thanks! I'm off to watch my tree  ;D

With my fig tree you can literally smell them when ripe. They smell good.

JR

 

[crazydoc]

My wife started about 180 tomato seeds - almost all of them sprouted, We managed to give away all but fifty, which I planted in our garden. They are now in full production. We've canned 11 pints of salsa,10 pints of stewed tomatoes, about 50 tomatoes oven dried. Also 10 pints of pickled beets, 5 pints of jalapeño relish, 4 bags of frozen rhubarb, 10 bags of strawberries, 6 bags of green beans. We have squash, chard, turnips, stuffed peppers, and grilled tomato and cheese sandwiches almost too often, and have given away squash and tomatoes to keep the count down. We've only gotten about 10 cucumbers off of 6 hills - I don't what's wrong.

Days have been hot, 90 to 100F, but should be a little cooler now that we are under constant smoke from multiple wildfires here and to the west. We'll see what smoked veggies are like.

 

[JohnRoberts]

We finally got a half inch of rain last night.. more than the entire month.  I have been watering my small raised bed garden 3x a day and still lost plants.

Apparently I wasn't watering my squash and cucumbers enough as they withered and stopped producing Unclear where to water when they are wandering feet away from the original root. I am still getting new peppers and tomatoes.

Got one fig yesterday but still about two dozen on the tree not ripe yet.

JR

 

[scott2000]

Didn't want to start a new thread but this is pretty funny....

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Nqk_nWAjBus

 

[JohnRoberts]

Didn't want to start a new thread but this is pretty funny....

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Nqk_nWAjBus

Looks like electro mechanical whackamole...

[update.. I recall a classic battery operated toy from the 50s that did that with only one lever. Apparently there is some histroy behind the original invention. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Useless_machine

And now there are f'n clones.  :  [/update]

JR

PS: I feel like I may need to apologize to my neighbors. I have been hoping for more rain and now it looks like we have two tropical storms (hurricanes?) moving toward the gulf coast. These are close enough in location and time that it is not impossible for them to combine... I may get my rain since I am on the wet (east) side of one storm track. Do tropical storms obey social distancing rules?

 

[scott2000]

I have been hoping for more rain

I find that washing the car helps here.. Spraying for weeds or starting to paint outside would probably work just as well ;D

 

[JohnRoberts]

I find that washing the car helps here.. Spraying for weeds or starting to paint outside would probably work just as well ;D

good idea, my car is past due for a wash, and the rain will make it dirty again overnight.

JR

[updates washed a bout a years worth of dirt off my ride, if this doesn't make it rain, nothing will.. /update]

 

[pucho812]

I just finished a pair of u47 style mics. The fact that the only issue when they were finished was a bad multipin cable is pretty good. Otherwise they work great, both psu’s and mics check out.
Feeling good about now

 

[gyraf]

Finished my G14-S - the selectable-tube-or-solid-state version of our good old G14 - added only a extra step marked "S" to the bypass switch..

Has taken me forever though: I thought it would be relatively simple, so I announced working on it more than a year and a half ago. Which instantly and to no surprise dropped sales of the "old" G14. Had serious and unexpected trouble getting it behaving predictably, for the longest time I simply didn't get why - extremely non-intuitive err pattern, nothing like I've seen before (and I've been around some). I just work my way through this sort of trouble, knowing that I will eventually crack it. But it didn't resolve, even after a year of regularly returning to it. At some time I set aside one day per week to that project - still was not right ever, or even moving in the right direction.

While at NAMM in january, I and my US distributor Frank "OneF" went to a dinner with Ruari, Dave Collins and Ron ‘Spider’ Entwistle..  Across the first fifteen minutes of pre-dinner drinks I realized that this was probably some of the sharpest company I've ever found myself in - and I've never, ever, been in a situation concentrating this much hands-on-knowledge on the topics I find most interesting.

So somewhere underway I mentioned the ongoing trouble I had with  G14S.. explained the basic circuit, the troubling symptoms, what I tried already.. Then follows a quick negotiation around the trouble, and out comes the verdict: "..that tube, the 6922, wasn't that made for UHF television tuner front-ends?" - "..you probably have oscillations going on at some very-high frequency.."

Way too simple, I already checked for that, repeatedly, off course..  ..but my equipment won't go over say ½GHz tops, I never, ever want to do that sort of signals or work..

Then I had a chance of borrowing a GHz analyzer setup - and to my horror; sure enough; in not-tube-mode I saw clear oscillation building just under a G, spreading to supplies, messing up ground plane currents and whatnot

They knew that all the time, didn't they? The reference to tv-tuner front end and all  :-[

..from that point it has more or less just been manual work to try out different types of tubes and silicon to find combinations that we perceive to be suitable. The only slightly tricky thing was to find a solid-state amplification strategy that mixed well with our traditional tube circuit - we didn't want the unit to change character (or the feel of the actual equalizing) too much when flipping between tube and solid-state topologies..

..that dinner with Ruari and friends - that's something I won't forget..

/Jakob E.

 

[JohnRoberts]

The dirtyPCB boys tell me my boards have shipped, so in 1 to 8 weeks I will be assembling my buffer/bump box.

My amps (Hypex UcD) require 2.5VAC for full output, and the cheap digital decoder only puts out 1VAC.. Nothing very remarkable about the design but I have to use premium CMOS op amps (AD 8656) to get good performance from 5V rail.  I have incorporated a novel blinky LED display. A variant on my very old FLS invention that lights one LED for the loudest GEQ channel, this lights one green LED following the loudest surround channel. Then in addition I sample the common emitter of that 6 input LTP fo a red overload LED.

JR

PS; Got great ripe fig yesterday  8),  almost 2 dozen still on the tree not ripe yet.

 

[zamproject]

Hi

I recently build an opto compressor... the OC904

-using JLM audio opto sidecain as main part
-line I/O by Studer eurocard laying around (tarfo I/O)
-a protoboard also in euro format, for JLM as daugther board on it, as proper Vu driver (the one in the JLM pcb don't track well ?? )
-standard MW smps  ;D
-front panel and 2u rack from Frank, very nice grey powder coating with UV print

Now in the rack since few days for real life crash test.

Best
Zam

 

[fazer]

Very nice looking piece zam.  Hope sounds as good as it looks.  Is the input transformer?  Mastering lab would lose the transformers on the 3A.  Been thinking about that. 

 

[pucho812]

Very nice looking piece zam.  Hope sounds as good as it looks.  Is the input transformer?  Mastering lab would lose the transformers on the 3A.  Been thinking about that.

and the 2a's

 

[zamproject]

Very nice looking piece zam.  Hope sounds as good as it looks.  Is the input transformer?  Mastering lab would lose the transformers on the 3A.  Been thinking about that.

Hi fazer

Fore the moment I'm happy with the sound, it's a simple opto, so just the usual opto "magic"...

Yes tranfo in and out. I used a so called "balancing unit" which consist of a sym trafo in to asym out and asym in to sym trafo out
I "just" interface the JLM sidechain in between

Best
Zam

 

[crazydoc]

Planted another garden - only 41 tomato plants this year, and 40 various peppers. Tried something new - Three Sisters - American Indian method of planting corn, beans and squash to promote the growth of each and get all the requrired amino acids in the diet. Plant corn, then after it's up a few inches, plant pole beans, then after they're up, plant the squash. The pole beans climb up the corn, provide nitrogen for the corn, and the squash provides shade so the ground doesn't lose so much moisture.

Also, made a rhombille tiled (tumbling block) guitar.