Today I had a little time to fire up the TRS-80 to see if it was alive or not. Turns out it's in great condition. I opened the main unit to check the capacitors and they are very close to spec still. To check the capacitors I desoldered the ground lead (so they were out of circuit) and checked them with the ESR meter. I bodged together a DIN->RCA lead for the video, then realised that my DIN connector was 7 pin not 5 pin. So I ended up further bodging by removing the pins from the plug and sticking them directly in the back of the TRS-80.

This is what the tank looks like now. Unfortunately the Guppies did not like their environment at all and carked it. The Tetras and Rainbow Shark are doing well. On Sunday we went out again, this time to another shop to get some more fish for the kids. We ended up with a Scissor Tail, More Tetras, An Albino Rainbow Shark and also two Coloured Widows - one blue and one pink. Kel also talked me into getting a bridge. Since the last lot of plants died, I got some more. I got some Ambulia and some Anubias. The Amazon sword is still there in the back, but it's not looking great.

BBQ Beef Ribs =)

The fishless cycle has now happened and the Nitrite and Amonia levels have bottomed out. This means that the bacteria has been established in the filter media which take care of the Nitrogen cycle for us and make sure our water doesn't get toxic. The kids got some guppies. Kel got a rainbow shark and I got myself some tetras.

The pressure switch and manifold turned up from eBay =) It's now fitted and wired, set to go off at 100PSI.

I managed to talk Kel into letting me get two racks of pork ribs after my success slow cooking the chicken bits the other day. I used a basic rub based on garlic and smoked paprika powders with a little Cajun pepper and brown sugar. It caramelised really nicely. The only thing missing I think was a baste. In spite of not basting, the ribs were quite moist still and very tasty - with just a little warmth from the Cajun pepper. Same MacGuyver technique with foil over the grill and the adjacent burner on for a slow cook (2.5hrs).

Kel got some "Chicken Ribs" from RedLea to try. The biggest problem I've had previously with little chicken things is that if you grill them, they burn. If you cook them on the hotplate, you have to burn them to cook them through. So I decided to try and slow cook them, like you would if the BBQ had a lid. As I had no lid, I put the burner on under the hotplate and covered the grill in foil. They turned out really well.

I have "un-bodged" the EGR on the Barina after a lot of de-gunking and scraping of the mating surface of the block. Whoever had bypassed the EGR used a piece of tin (which is fine), but they also use this horrible grey gunk which was a pain. There was also a slug of the stuff in the intake side of the EGR manifold! Thankfully they also gunked the original aluminum gasket in with the tin, I was able to recover it. I bypassed the EGR this time around with a piece of coke can. Click the image on the right to see the rest of the photos.

I do this occasionally and it's really tasty! All that is required is a small amount of oil on the hot plate and you can cook these calamari rings and prawn cutlets on there, no problem.

Today I was fortunate to score a Tandy TRS-80 from a friend along with a collection of tubes and old transformers suitable for tube equipment. I look forward to firing the TRS-80 up, I have never actually played with one. The key I think is going to be to clean it (obviously) and check all of the capacitors and connections before I fire it up. I don't want to let out the blue smoke!

The kids managed to ruin their XO and I could not even recover it. So, back to factory setting. This is what the flashing screen looks like.

Today I pulled the back seat out of the barina so that I could get to the innards of the seat release. I have temporarily put a cable tie around the tie rod that is snapped off the plastic release button so that I can at least actuate it and release the seat.

Unfortunately it looks like the plants hate the new tank =) I suspect it's because the is no food for them (as I am doing a fishless cycle). There is no phosphate in the water. The rest of the level (ph, amonia, nitrate, nitrite).

A bit of hose and barbs from Bunnings plus the Gauge from eBay. The little compressor is now useable! It has a valve on the bottom of the 3 way manifold because I don't have a plug for it. On the right of the manifold is a Ryco quick release connector. The regulator is from some scrapped pneumatic equipment, an SMC AR30 which will allow 0-100PSI adjustment. The only problem is that the compressor doesn't have an automatic pressure shut-off.

Finally all the gear I've been collecting for the tank has been combined. The kids and Kel are away, so this is a suprise for them. We were given this 2ft tank maybe 2-3 years ago. It came with a hang on back filter and some pretty ordinary looking gravel substrate. The gravel substrate looked like maybe 3 generations worth with no replacement =) There was a lower layer of darker small river pebble type substrate, then ther were day-glo coloured pebbles, then on the top layer some generic fine pebbles.

I decided on the larger 5-6mm gravel with some fine black gravel for  a little path and a "Volcano". I plumbed the air with two valves and a tee so you can independantly control the volume of the bubbles in both air stones. The little house came with the tank, as did the volcanic rock.

The plant on the left is Ambulia and the one on the right is an Amazon Sword.

I opened up the aircon because the blower does not seem to start. After some probing around I rubbed up against the motor body and burned myself. Yep, it's probably got shorted/burnt windings. It gets really hot. You can sometimes start the blower by giving the squirrel cage a little push. The bottom blower has nearly the same mountings but is 90W, the bottom blower pulls inside air through the condenser and then fires it out the window duct. The upper fan is just 55W, but has 3 speed taps. I may just get the 90W part and cable all three speed relays together. Usually if you need this thing on, it's going to be going full boar anyway!

Testing this Chinese eBay power supply unit under load with halogens before I fit it. It's going in a TV at work that we are resurrecting. The TV has some stupid external power supply with an even stupider 4 pin security connector on it. I am fitting this inside the TV chassis and fitting an IEC connector on the bottom of the screen so it takes mains directly.

Looks like the engine won't start because the ECU is unhappy that this sensor line is shorted to ground. The loom appears to have rubbed though. A bit of heat shrink and some solder and it's all good.

Mail flows again from my LAN. I managed to totally destroy the config on the exim smarthost... Puppet giveth, puppet can taketh away lol. It was in the wrong host group. #puppetize :D

Playing around with a top view magic eye tube: The 6E5. Also a demo of the GR-211 Tubes and some detail on the sockets that I made for them.