Disassembly of a LED sword toy

One of the kids toys stopped working, and rather than just throw it out, we spent some time taking it apart to see how it worked.  Not sure where this particular sword came from, but if memory serves, this came from an amusement park (one of those carts of gadgets they push around at night, this thing probably set us back 20 bucks).

There were only a few screws holding everything together, and after things were apart, it was easy to see the problem.  Seems one of the cheap batteries failed/leaked, and melted some of the wiring. Pulling everything out of the plastic casing, stripping a few wires and connecting it to the lab power supply (+5v), the LEDs still worked - perhaps we'll keep them and make something else out of this small kit.   The toy contained 5 LEDs, 100uF capacitor, push button, and a small PCB (powered by 3 AA batteries).

See below for pictures...

Building a solder fume extractor

In efforts to breathe a little easier in 2017,  a solder fume extractor was built for the workshop, using the following parts:

• AC Infinity 120mm fan
• AC Infinity Turbo Fan Power Adapter
• Carbon Filters

The plastic components were printed on a Lulzbot Mini using ABS.  The final assembly is shown below.

Raspberry Pi 3 xdrp

The following commands will install some basic packages to allow remote logins and file sharing (thanks to source):

sudo apt install -y tightvncserver
sudo apt install -y xrdp
sudo apt install -y samba

Connect via RDP, login, and enjoy the headless pi...

Raspberry Pi 3 Setup 101

In order to support a number of upcoming projects, I've finally decided to take a step outside of the old/comfortable Arduino space, and do some work with the Pi.  The most immediate use will be to get OctoPi up and running on our new Lulzbot Mini (more on that on a future post).  But before I can do that, I need to get a Pi workspace up and running.

There are a bajillion setup guides for the Pi 3, so I will not attempt to recreate one here.  Below are my notes on the basics, so that when I forget all of this and need to do it again, I only have one place to look for my answers.

HARDWARE:

A quick trip to Amazon has everything you need: board, case/power, memory card:

Raspberry Pi 3 Model B
Smraza Starter Kit
SanDisk 32GB MicroSD card

The kit went together easy, but the screws for the case were awfully small - guess I'm showing my age, but I decided to pull out the Donegan Optivisor rather than accidentally scratch the board during assembly...

OS SETUP:

After the board was assembled, it was time for prepping the SD card.  Instructions were found at the Raspberry Pi site:

Downloading and installing the Raspberry Pi Software

I skipped the NOOBS option, and downloaded Raspbian directly, and burned it to the MicroSD card using etcher.io.  All worked as expected, and the Pi booted up without issue.

Basic Pi Configuration:

After booting for the first time, some basic house-cleaning was performed.

From a terminal window:

sudo apt-get update

sudo apt-get upgrade

sudo apt-get clean

From the Raspberry Pi configuration:

Localization:
Changed everything to US/English options, and the appropriate timezone.

System:
Changed the hostname and password, as well as choosing to expand the filesystem.

Finally the Pi was rebooted and WiFi connected via the toolbar app.  After a quick browser check to ensure everything was properly connected to the internet, victory was declared.

In a future post I'll list my notes on installation of xrdp, and getting the Pi to run in a headless manner (already tired of switching my cables, would prefer to remote into the device)...

Assembling a Lionel Covered Bridge (6-24117)

What a pain in the #!*&.  I've assembled a number of things over the years, but this one really caught me by surprise, primarily by the time and frustration factor...

The bridge in question is the Lionel 6-24117 Covered Bridge for O-scale trains.  I am not a huge "train person", but we do have one we use during the holidays with the kids.  The manual starts off claiming the kit is "easy to assemble";  That may be true if you have the hands of a child, or patience of a saint, but for the rest of us, it took a little more effort than advertised.

The assembly kit comes with 32 screws.  Really, its not the quantity that is bad, its the size and quality of the washer screws.  They are small, but not so small that a precision screwdriver can be used.  So instead, you need to dig through your toolbox and find the smallest non-precision screwdriver, and use that one with great patience.  Why patience?  Well - none of the screw holes are pre-tapped, and the screw heads strip very easily.  And fully knowing this issue, how many extra screws were included by the vendor - thats right, zero, thanks Lionel.

Your mileage may vary, but after stripping the first screw trying to assemble everything up front, this is what worked for me. Use one new screw, and pre-tap all the holes in the kit.  I did this by twisting the screw in a few turns at a time, then backing it out.  Lather-Rinse-Repeat for 32 holes in the product.  After that, follow the directions, using painters tape to keep the pieces steady while the parts are connected.

If you take your time, the kit can be assembled with good results.  See below for a few photos.

One final note: To power the lights, this 12VAC power supply was used instead of a Lionel accessory power kit.  Just cut off the female plug and solder the wires directly to the bridge leads, finishing the connection off with some heat shrink tubing.