I haven’t posted since May.  I’ve had a lot of side distractions since then. In mid May we took a vacation.  We were supposed to try a river cruise back in 2020 for our 35th anniversary.  Well, we finally got to take that trip in May.  We flew into Prague where we stayed for a couple of days before bussing to our riverboat – the Viking Aegir.  We boarded in and toured Passau, Austria.  The next day in Linz, Krems, and Vienna Austria.  Then Bratislava, Slovakia and finally Budapest, Hungary.  We particularly enjoyed the vibe in Prague. The beer we…

There are still a lot of lighting parameters I don’t know.  I’ve tried to work out a general wiring mechanism that will hopefully be expandable and reasonable to both install and service. The shortwave light is big, clunky, and complete.  I have it wired with ventilation fans and I have it able to be removed before the shelf is removed. The top section is getting to be a bit like a game of Tetris to get everything in there.  It has to be done in the right order. Part of the electrical wiring is getting that so it can expand…

We took time away to drive down to Dallas for the April 8, 2024 full eclipse.  We made our “reservation” with my wife’s sister a couple of years ago when the path of totality was published. We weren’t all that optimistic on the drive down from the Kansas City area to Dallas.  The forecast not only called for clouds but for strong storms. For the eclipse of 2017 the path of totality was nearby.  It was an easy trip to get to a spot where we could set up.  I had brought my daughter and her new tracking telescope with…

Work on the display case has followed three areas. Room Finishing This part is time consuming and mundane.  The room that the case is in is a combination office, workout room and more than a little bit of storage space.  That means when the walls get painted there’s a lot of stuff to move out of the way.  Most of it is “keeper” stuff, but some of it, particularly old framed prints will probably be donated. The paint on this room went back to its original finishing back in 2003.  It was really in pretty good shape except for the…

These experiments involve the addition of a “RAMPS 1.4” board.  I realized that for a lot of this stuff, making my own board was silly.  For less that I could make some very basic stuff I can buy a board that is exactly made to go with the Marlin software that does a things that I was about to do. Some of that is little things.  Reading a thermistor?  It needs a pullup resistor and a capacitor is a good idea.  The RAMPS board already has that installed and the values in the software already are aligned with the components…