Help!

Ideas?

My Blue Aura

Right, I've been thinking my car was looking a bit dull for a while now and really needed something to separate it from the rest of the cars on the roads. Santa obviously got my letter, and wrapped up some 12" Blue neon's for me. Cheers Santa!

Yup, righto, I hear you. Those people with under body neon's are the people who you want to ram off the road as they speed past you in their fully riced up lawnmower. I had no intention of putting them under my chassis though. To start with I'm too old to be lying on concrete, trying to find a way to secure plastic lights. So I opted to put them where only the best will see their glow – under the two front seats...

Before I even started I knew there would be three issues. First, you need power. Second, you need to be sure the power you've selected can light the neon's. Finally, the purpose of this is still to unsure driver and passenger safety, and lights inside the car while driving at night can be a distraction.

Thanks to a suggestion from Santa that I had already considered, the best place to mount them would be at the back of the front seats, so the spill is mainly behind the driver's vision, and not in front. And when I last cleaned the car (that makes a grand total of the number I've cleaned the inside of that car to one now) I found that the driver's seat belt sensor could be unplugged. And even better, it registered twelve volts on my "oh, not stolen" multimeter. This should be a piece of cake right?

Wrong. To start with, I connected the Molex connector with the wrong polarity. Words beginning with "f" spill from my mouth. I donno about you, but I assume when I see a red and a blue wire; the blue will be the ground of the two. And then, to my dismay, I realised the second of my possible problems had come true. Being only a seatbelt sensor, it hardly needed the three Watts (hee hee, I said "Watt") to see if I put my seatbelt on (which I always do, even when backing out of the drive... Habit...) and as such, only half lit the neon's.

Bitch whore...

So now I need to find twelve volts somewhere in my car. To the idiot who just said take it off the battery, I don't have any more than a meter of wire, and that's before I point out the safety issues...

Four hours later, I found a set of wires heading to the rear of the car. I hoped to take a little bit of power off the parking lights (so the neon's would come on when I turn the headlights on). It only took me fifteen minutes to find a set with power in it, and another fifteen to find a set with twelve volts...

Not quite sure what the set of wires I found does, but they are "always on," which leads me to believe they have something to do with the rear boot light (the switch for which is based in the boot, how simple). And considering my other set of lights hasn't blown up yet, this seemed a good a set as any to take power from.

Extend my wire to the centre console, attach a Molex connector, plug it in, and voila! Under seat neon's! Reassemble the car (I know I took mine apart doing this, but I found long lost coins totalling $10).

Now to tuck this all away neatly I removed the much useless ash tray to mount a switch built into a PCI backpane (can anyone guess by now where these neon's were designed for use?) and drilled a hole in the plastic of the console to mount it. Silly me made the hole a touch too big, so don't play with it if you are in the position to do so, or I'll make you fix it...

Driving at night is a breeze with these, and don't distract me at all. The hardest bit is remembering to turn them off, because they're not visible during the day and remain on even when the ignition is off.

Have some photos of the car, or better yet, come for a night time drive...

Power to the Project!

After a couple of months of bitching, someone finally granted me a spare few months of spare time. In my first week of this spare time, I've been both bored, and inventive.

Sitting next to me is my now finished ATX power supply. With it, I am able to hook up my future projects to whatever voltage I desire without the need for masses of batteries, something that will no doubt save me many dollars in the future. Total cost of my money saving project: $3 plus a few hours of my spare time.

Parts required:

• That shit ATX PSU from that old PC sitting around. Under 600W, else you might as well re-sell it.
  
• Brain; if you have one already, then you won't need to find someone with one.
  
• Tools; call your nearest one over.
  
• Your preferred method of connecting wires (in my case, a terminal block).
  
• Switch; SPST is the minimum; rated to anything. You'll almost always have one in your spare parts box.
  
• LED's; any colour. Yes, don't lie; you do have some just sitting around.
  
• Two resistors; people recommend 330Ω, I used 470Ω. Reality: any that will make your LED's turn on with 5V will do.
  
• Heatshrink; compulsory. Yes, I know you wasted it on your last project because it's fun to use, this time you actually need it.
  
• Some form of non-conductive glue. Hot glue is perfect, I used bathroom sealant. Make your own choice here.

How to:

• After snipping off the assorted connectors take out your multimeter and measure the voltages from all the wires. Black is always ground, and if you don't know that, find someone to do the rest for you. After discovering that none of the wires seem to have any voltage, connect the green wire up to a black one. Try again. Oh... The green wire seems to be some sort of switch... Take note of that, as well as the voltages from all the wires. Also take note that same coloured wires are the same. Fancy that.
  
• Measure the internal resistance between 5V and ground. It's a switched mode power supply, and needs some sort of load to work. Mine was 100Ω. If it doesn't have a load, it might need a power resistor later on. If it works without, give yourself a pat on the back. Else you might need to look into a load later in the project.
  
• Leave it sit around for a couple of hours, disconnected from the mains. Anything with mains power these days is dangerous because of the quantity of components that hold power long after it is off. I've heard people recommend leaving it around for days. Your discretion here. If you feel like poking your hand around a capacitor with a couple thousand volts charged, be my guest; I take no blame for your stupidity; I did add "brain" to the parts required list.
  

• Open it up, once you've read the above note. Serious. I like you alive.
  
• Find some method for connecting a switch between the green wire and a ground one, use heatshrink to cover your shitty solder work and more importantly to prevent bare wire touching the case. Attach the switch to the outside of the PSU in your preferred fashion. I used the assorted nuts and washers that come with the switch, works a charm.
  

• Track down the purple, grey and two black wires and separate. Be inventive to connect up the LED's and the resistors here (series for those that are "brilliant" enough to ask). Again, heatshrink is compulsory. The purple will be your "Mains On" light; the grey your "Power Good" light. Mount. I used bathroom sealant.
  
• Close up that PSU. You should be done on the inside now. Test that plugging into active power lights the "Mains On" light and flicking that switch lights the "Power Good" light. Not working? See if I care, it worked for me...
  

• Separate the wires you want for your future projects. Can't remember what was what? I told you to write it down. Blue = -12V; White = -5V; Orange = 3.3V; Red = 5V; Yellow = 12V for most systems. Got a small brown wire? I'm informed it needs to be connected up to either 5V or 12V to work. Someone get back to me on this if that was your case. I had no such wire. Snip off the wires you don't want.
  
• Attach to your preferred method of connecting wires and neaten up remaining wires. I chose a terminal block because I can hook up anything with a screwdriver. I've seen people use banana plugs and mount them on the case of the PSU. It's already cramped in there in my opinion; the top of the PSU has plenty of room. If you do decide to protrude something from the case see my note before opening it up, and use heatshrink (it's like a condom for wires; protects you from shorts running around all over the place).
  

• Finalise... It took twenty four hours for my terminal to set in place on top of the case due to using bathroom sealant. It has a nice smell though now. Test. The case is part of the circuit, and you'll blow stuff letting wires touch it. Like the RCD in your house. It's there for your safety...
  
  

I'm now looking for more stuff to build/invent. If you have an idea of something I can build, pass it on. I have spare time and a desire to get electrocuted at least once these holidays.

VCE VET Electrotechnology

Anyone remember what my goal was in this subject?

Yup, I didn't just want a high score, I wanted to do better than anyone else and receive the Premier's Award – awarded to the top few students in any subject. It's ok to get a 50, it's something different to receive a Premier's Award.

Well, I haven't actually said it yet, but I think it's obvious: I got one!

I'm very very very happy about this; I really worked hard in Electrotech to deserve it.

So thanks to those of you that dealt with me talking about how excited I am about my project, ranting about how easy that last test was, and debating whether I should bother studying for the exam. Next step: Award Ceremony; where I'm missing out on a Math Test to attend...

Really busy at the moment, but I hope to make a post next week when I get back from Sydney.

Limited Information

Which pretty much sums up what photo's I can show you of Rosebud and our trip away.

Most of the pictures have been withheld, not because the actions depicted were illegal, just not required to tell a story...

So I was bartender, which was a lot of fun. Especially as Al paid for most of the alcohol... Cheers buddy... Amelia, Nick, Izzy and I went to the beach one day, which was a nice calming experience. Al and CVP stayed home to inspect the TV for subliminal messages, reports show that there several messages hidden, including a request from many for "MORE!!!"

Luke was our wonderful host, who ended up mowing the lawns himself. He didn't have to, but did it anyway... Sophie stayed a few days too, adding to our numbers, except in the mornings when she'd disappear for a few hours to check the surf. We had a water fight, and got pretty wet... We slept in, and stayed up late... We gave Al something of a male version of a make-over, with a new sleek black hair colour and a waxing of the back of his neck. Learnt some things about each other on "Truth or truth" night, cause no one could think of any dares (Though I've thought of several now that it's all over... I reckon watching Christiaan run up one of those hills would have been worth it).

Definitely a time worth remembering, plenty to take out of it...

And today we got our VCE results... Did almost exactly as I predicted, with two surprises:

One – English; I really kinda hate English, and sorta didn't try at all for it... So why the hell did I get a 39 for the subject???

Two – Electrotech; expected a little more from this one really, mainly because I know I'm better than the 43 I got. Though depending on the number of students that actually did Electrotech in the state, that 43 could still be the top grade (last year's top grade was 49, then 47, then 45, then 43).

Other subjects were really as expected, my 33 in Methods CAS got scaled up to a 40 and a 34 in Chemistry also went up to a 39.

Coupled with my subjects from last year, Biology and Geography, I pulled a solid 91.55 as my ENTER.

Which clearly fulfils my requirement of a 72.10 to get into Engineering at RMIT (it's the longest course name in the paper, if you want to know which Engineering).

Happy? Don't know... Hasn't sunk in yet... Maybe it never will... It is only four digits and a decimal place afterall... And if you don't get what you want this year, you do a year of something else and transfer... Doesn't count for anything really... Does it?

What’s that Lassie? James has been busy? We’ve gotta save him!!

Yeah, trapped down a well or something...

So I've had a bunch of exams since my last post, and I've still got a few more. Let's revise over them shall we:

• English – The one subject I viewed as the biggest waste of my time was just that, a waste of my time. The exam was easier than I thought it would be and I'm happy to announce that I did NOT study for English... In fact, I did not willingly write any essays all year. Any essays that I did write were SAC's or trial exams. I'm guessing my study sore will be about 32 or 33 in this subject, which is about what I've been hoping for...
  
• VET Electrotechnology – Ah yeah... IF you could call that an exam it was not difficult in the slightest. Please regurgitate some basic electronics, easy. Please draw lines to connect these batteries, easy. Please read this graph by telling us what happens at when the time is zero, easy. Please copy the picture above, easy. And most of those questions are worth five marks or more!!! If you're looking for an easy subject with no homework, you've found it. Estimated study score: 47+ and the Premier's Award (quite probably 50, but they didn't give one last year).
  
• Math Methods CAS Exam #1 (Tech Free) – The one exam I've feared since year nine was everything it was hyped up to be I reckon. I didn't do badly, just ran short of time. And it was a fair bit longer than I expected it to be... That's ok though because tomorrow I have:
  
• Math Methods CAS Exam #2 (Tech Active) – This will be fun, I'm looking forward to going in there, answering it all and walking out to hear everyone whine like they always do. Math is my strong point, assuming I have a fancy calculator to do all the fiddly bits on (seriously, who does that unit circle shit in their head? And why?). I'm hoping to get around 35 for Methods, remembering that it's harder to get a better score in CAS (cause more smart people do it) and I did sort of shit on the tech free, but that mark could very easily be a 39 as well. Oh, and if I haven't told you enough already, CAS is harder and hence gets scaled more, so don't tell me it's easier cause we have a fancy calc, we have to LEARN more :P
  
• Finally, Chemistry – This is my wildcard at the moment. I'd like to place this in my top four, with English, VET Electrotechnology and Biology (or Methods if it makes it) but it could quickly. Did well on my trial in comparison to everyone else, but I didn't do that well on it (if that makes sense). Need to learn that whole redox/electrochemical series stuff and how to use it, especially as half the paper will be on it. I'll read my text book Tuesday and Wednesday probably. Estimated Study Score of about 38 – 42, but could be as low as 35.
  

Also, I've got myself a job recently. I'm now a food and beverage attendant, which is a fancy name for waiter. I've worked three days now at Flemington during the races and its lots of fun but really tiring:

• Saturday 3^rd November – First day of work. This was by far the toughest day. I was working in the birdcage which is a corporate like area. Each company has this tiny footprint the size of a shoebox and builds an ultra-modern square thing in it. They then go and invite everyone they know and cram them into that tiny room they've just built. I was working in the Longines corporate shoebox, where the manager or something has some special ties with the company I was working for or something. So when a usual function has one waiter per twenty-five guests, this function had one per ten guests, to make sure the best service was offered. Longines is some overseas watch company (we think it was Swiss) and hance had boxes built into the walls to display their products to the people who were already aligned to their way of life (EVERYBODY had an accent and had just got off a first-class overseas flight that morning). My supervisor was so tight... He had a ruler out before the guests arrived and was measuring the distance of the glasses from the edge of the bar to match them perfectly on both sides... Talk about tight... So I'm given a marble platter, about 3cm thick, 40cm square, and it weighs a tonne. They go and pile it up with food, dips and some stupid decoration, tell me to carry it with one arm and place napkins arranged all decoratively in the other hand. Hold the platter out from the body and go and serve the food, don't come back till it's empty. So I spent my day in a hot, tight, crowded room with my arm shaking, yelling "excuse me" or "would you like some fresh prawn cutlets with mango and lime dip?" or some other gourmet food to the guests. I had one break, eight hours into my shift, no lunch, and no water all day...
  
• Tuesday 6^th November – Melbourne Cup. This was the complete opposite of my first day. Assigned to the Phar Lap enclosure I was expecting more loud noise and drunken people. Instead, I was blessed with a nice plasma television nearby, and a collection of old people helped by a young generation (about 25ish). I was working the buffet, which meant I got to stand there and dish out whatever crap was in the thing. "Beef, Glazed Virginia Ham, Spinach and Fetta Pie and over here we have Chicken." Of course, if you read the menu in front of you I wouldn't have had to repeat myself 400 times (800 guests, and I seemed to repeat it every couple). But I had a good work mate, a New Zealand Chef who was supposed to make the food look all fancy and fresh by cutting the meat up while I served it. I explained to him what a stubby was (I still don't think he believes me...) and together we sussed out the turf, provided the "I got a spot for you right here under the counter" commentary and did the whole "who would you fuck from that table?" thing. Heaps of fun. Plus I had dessert for lunch.
  
• Saturday 10^th November – Emirates Stakes Day. Originally I was working as a bartender in the Ascot enclosure for "Make a Wish Foundation" but then got moved after an hour of work to "The Cancer Council" tent, also in the Ascot enclosure. And after a total of 3 minutes working there, I got moved again to Trackside, which is quite literally track side. On a raised platform on the bend just after the finish line, we were within a distance to drop items onto the track, or throw them at the horses that just lost our money. The setup here was like the Longines suite, but it wasn't as corporate and everything was more spread out with more room. Again, the audience was a little older than Longines, which made life quite enjoyable. The blokes drank beer and the chicks drank champagne. The older people all drank mixed drinks. The atmosphere was light and relaxed, though I did some grazing again (damn heavy platters... these weren't as bad though). One of the younger girls (about 25) had me follow her friend around with food all day, just for fun. Another one was insistent on giving me tips for being the opposite gender presents (she was really trying to get me to spend $1000 on a Tiffany's anklet...). A group of adults kept asking me to leave the platters at their table, which I can't do, so instead I just stood there at their table chatting while they finished off a basket of dim sim's or whatever it was. Another group kept wanting me to sit and actually share a beer or two (or twelve in one hour by my count). A set of older ladies were quite impressed when I offered to cut the queue at the bar for them and bring the drinks straight to their table (when in fact it gave me an excuse to stand around for five minutes instead of carry food). And some lucky bugger in our tent spent $2 on a quinella, and won it, winning $604,000. Damn, I'm jealous...
  

So that's my recent happenings. With a few more to go exams to go and Ryan's party thing on Saturday, there should be another one of these next Sunday, but no promises... After all, there will be a new puppy which might be stealing my attention...

New Boxes

Yawn! I feel nice and tired! And I know it was last night and my final speech night I'll be a part of, my final speech night that I'll walk across stage for... *tear...*

It wasn't until after I'd walked across stage twice and received all my awards that it fully set in how close to the end I am, how much I'll miss it all.

But now I have another decoration for my wall and a gold medal I apparently can't eat... The subject prize for VET Electrotechnology was no surprise for me, I thoroughly deserved it, being the top student in every aspect... But my high distinction was a little bit of a shock to me, because I didn't think I'd done all that well in some of my other subjects. A high distinction is defined at Haileybury as someone who manages to achieve a majority of A+'s throughout the year (Distinction is majority A's) and I hardly feel like a had a large proportion of A+'s... Though it could make sense considering I'm a member of Haileybury's Honours Society - with a total acheivements for the year of zero!

But the real shock to me was a Barney Allen Gold medal, for high performance in a number of areas around the school. I have Academic Honours, Drama Honours and Lawn Bowls Colours; which I'm led to believe is enough performance for a gold... Alastair got a silver, because he lacked a sport probably. Christiaan also did well, with the subject prize in Drama, which he was very impressed with (he is the best after all). Luke recieved one of the more... lethal... prizes of the night, with a trophy that's heavy enough to be a doorstop for his excellent contribution to the school, plus a Malthouse contribution to drama award (I feel like I'm missing something with Luke's prizes...). Our resident prefect, Matt, also wandered across the stage to receive a Editorial prize, plus a Citizenship prize.

And it seems that once again, the males at Haileybury have been discriminated against... Girls who received two prizes got two plaques, but males with two prizes (High Distinction and VET Electrotechnology) only got one...

But I forgive them for the fact they are in a new type of box to last year, more sturdy... And harder to open!!!

Skid Marks

Did the Skilled Drivers Course a few weekends ago... Lots and lots of fun.

About half the people there were there on court orders, the other half had had serious accidents and wanted to learn to be safer drivers. Everyone, including me, was there for the 10% discount.

The morning consisted of some theory (but you didn't have to take notes) of accidents and how they occurred, how they could have been prevented and other contributing factors. We discovered accidents could be narrowed down to one or more of three things:

• Driving too fast;
• Following the car ahead too closely;
• Lack in concentration.

For those of you who are going to try and kick up a fuss and claim something like alcohol ain't there, that falls under concentration...

Also catching up on news, school is speeding along, and now that we should have finished the coursework, we are doing our trial exams.

Setting up the exam tables was quite fun... Until I woke up the next morning and felt my shoulders.

Exams completed to date: 2 of 5.

• English, where we had to write four essays. I did: Part 1, Citizen Kane (I can tell stories!); Part 2, Inheritance (Toilet paper...); Analysis of language (I did quite well I thought); and a Point of View (where I got really pissy with sporting people as a whole... It was worth it...).
• Methods CAS Tech Active. I found this far easier than I thought I would, which is a good sign...

I might as well explain my trial exam policy... I believe the whole purpose of trial exams is NOT to study your ass off, so that you can find out what you don't know. That way, when you get them back, you know what you need to study in the coming weeks and you don't repeat yourself by studying the wrong things. You can focus in on the areas that require work...

I will study for one exam though, Electronics. We've already been given the exam we'll be tested on next week and it's now a race to see who can memorize the most correct answers... If you want to see how EASY this exam is, check out the box down the bottom... Really really easy...

Now I'm at school again on the weekend, doing this aerobics thing. They took a break for lunch, where I assumed I would get more CD's to play, as I had run out...

They tried to start again without me having any CD's... Boy, was that ever cut short. I felt sorry for the girl that was on stage waiting for people to provide me with a stack of CD's to play. I felt sorry for myself, having an entire audience stare at me waiting for me to do something. I just stood there...

And as I wrote that sentence a CD I was supposed to play wasn't there... Nothing I can do, someone ran up and provided me with the CD for that one, as well as the next one (which was also missing). Thanks to whomever you were, with your spindle full of matching CD's...

So I'm stuck here till late tonight (finish about 10:30, but running an hour or so late) watching all these fake-tanned, underage (ie. Too young for ANYONE who reads this blog, even you Matt), barbie dolls prance about in their tight fitting, almost non-existent leotards to music that has been mixed really badly... Anyone watched "Little Miss Sunshine?" This reminds me of that...

Deadlines...

Those dates and times are fast approaching, and I'm doing my best to delay preparing for them as much as possible.

I have three math assignments that I still haven't handed in (at least I handed in the one that was due last year last week). Thankfully, there's no other overdue work (that I remember).

But exams approach. I have Chemistry on Wednesday (or is it Tuesday? :P). Thursday is a busy one, with the GAT in the morning (thankfully you can't study for it, but you can try if you're an idiot) and a Math SAC in the afternoon. And Friday is the last of my unchangeable dates with my English Oral right in the middle of the day!

And with that much work it would be logical to be studying for them or writing a speech right? Not me... The only Chemistry study I've done is the stuff we did in class, which is one practice exam. Math SAC? I was planning on none at all, hopefully natural talent will get me far. And my English Oral? Well, I do actually have to do something for it, as much as I hate English. All I've managed to do is to write an opening paragraph for my 10 min speech (I suppose if I talk reeaallllyyy slllllloooooowwllllyy).

A lot of people have asked me how I'm doing my English speech and thankfully I actually have planned something. I will talk for my 10mins about water recycling like a politician, making promises I don't plan on keeping. For those of you who think it's stupid, my English teacher thinks it's bloody brilliant!!!

For those who think I haven't left enough time on these approaching deadlines, you're probably right, but I'll do well anyway... I always do!

Oh! I also have an Electrotech assignment due first day back of normal classes, but that can be done with my eyes shut.

Have fun this week with your exams or lack thereof!

Proposal

I just finished my Electrotechnology Proposal and if you're curious, I've posted the final circuit diagram here - If you don't know how it works, ask and I'll do my best to explain it (its easy when you know the theory).


Total Cost: $151.61, assuming I don't blow something up!

Life's a little hectic at the moment... some of you might know why; but consequently some things are moving a little faster, and I might be picking up some benefits along the way (no promises). Though it generally doesn't mean things are any easier...

This week will be a busy one... I've got something written for every day except Thursday, which means that Thursday will be really busy, it always is.

And finally, my favorite video from YouTube: Kiwi!

Time for an Update

Yup, it's that time again... it's time for an update:

By reading Matt's and Luke's blog you'd already know that everybody who does English Texts and English Journeys (I do Journeys, but I'm told that they are essentially the same) had a SAC (School Assessed Coursework for those of you too far away from Victoria to know) this week. I did fine; I wrote on a Part 2 topic which everybody seems to think is a huge massive crime against nature cos we haven't done them before. My middle finger salutes those who tell me off. I'll print my mark in the next few weeks when it gets back from being corrected by two, maybe three teachers, then we'll see who did better...

Also, those who do Chemistry got to complete (or not complete, depending on your speed) a SAC this week based on the gravimetric analysis of fertilizer... boring... I'd rather be practising to mix Hydrogen Sulfide, for when the end of year comes around; and that's not for the exam! Nevertheless, our results were delivered the next day unlike the English (Lazy humanities teachers... always thought they were evil with their messy desks) and the marks were varied. Out of thirty, some of the lower marks were in the single figure range; from what I can gather the average was about 17; the majority of the 'smart' people scored between 23 and 28; the top mark was 30 and was by Chris Loh, but there might be others. I scored a 28.5, which was far better than what I could have hoped, but being that close I would have preferred a 30. Next SAC for Chemistry is probably in two to three weeks, and this time on Volumetric Analysis (of Fertilizer).

So yeah... busy... and I still need to start my Electrotech proposal. I'm going to be building an 'Asian Wonder' like the ones we used in the Tattoo only it won't be DMX controlled unless I get the time and enough money... I'd rather build a second one then upgrade the first... more light. So I need to write up my proposal with a budget, timeline and a detailed description of the product. I have ideas, but I'm still not 100% sure how I want to power it... Whether I have a transformer that plugs into the wall or have one built into the light (which raises I whole new level of safety because I'm not qualified). Meh... I'll work something out...

I feel like I'm missing a subject? Ah.. Math... boring...

Write something again next week perhaps.