Mark goes at it again... just bought a PL700/II!

[laatsch55]

I've seen worse. Lee?

Oh yeah....

 

[laatsch55]

I've done lots worse than that Mark...your story turned out good. NOTHING can be taken for granted..

 

[MarkWComer]

The video for LED meter calibration is finished, so is the one about correcting an error I made on the input jacks. I hesitate to post the "error" video because it may irritate a sensitive jerk on YT.

Monologue:
"Really, you should come over some time- I'm a fun guy (bites a mushroom: "fungi") some of my friends say that I'm quite vaccinating (squirts cyalume [glow stick juice] at the camera, "fascinating"). This would shoot the whole series into the tank...

 

[Vynuladikt]

The video for LED meter calibration is finished, so is the one about correcting an error I made on the input jacks. I hesitate to post the "error" video because it may irritate a sensitive jerk on YT.

Monologue:
"Really, you should come over some time- I'm a fun guy (bites a mushroom: "fungi") some of my friends say that I'm quite vaccinating (squirts cyalume [glow stick juice] at the camera, "fascinating"). This would shoot the whole series into the tank...

Nice video, I'll need when I do my 400 II.
That "unmodified" C-1 looks familiar. I know it sounds great even in it's native state.

 

[MarkWComer]

So... giving a demo to my nephew... and another Shpongle head created...

 

[MarkWComer]

Nice video, I'll need when I do my 400 II.
That "unmodified" C-1 looks familiar. I know it sounds great even in it's native state.

The only bad thing about the upgrade is the different size of the input jacks on the back. Will have to find a good way to desolder from the circuit board, don’t want to damage any traces. Thinking about a low budget desoldering device using a 4” cooling fan and aquarium hose.

New video series, I guess- the BillD upgrade…

And, yes, BTW- sounds excellent, and the holography circuit is wickedly amazing!

 

[laatsch55]

So... giving a demo to my nephew... and another Shpongle head created...

Yeah....got another one!!!!

 

[George S.]

The only bad thing about the upgrade is the different size of the input jacks on the back. Will have to find a good way to desolder from the circuit board, don’t want to damage any traces. Thinking about a low budget desoldering device using a 4” cooling fan and aquarium hose.

New video series, I guess- the BillD upgrade…

And, yes, BTW- sounds excellent, and the holography circuit is wickedly amazing!

Try some of this for desoldering, it is amazingly good. They give you 5 feet.

 

[Gepetto]

Try some of this for desoldering, it is amazingly good. They give you 5 feet.

So is the Chemtronics Soder-Wick. Both excellent for solder removal.

 

[MarkWComer]

Awrite... Posting the dreadful input jack error video...

The part that might eject from YouTube is at 11:14, but there's a bunch of cornball crap throughout, starting at about three minutes.

 

[MarkWComer]

Time for a third 8U…

 

[MarkWComer]

Demo’ed to my nephew and his friend today…
Sez he’s gonna try to scrape up enough kopecks for a 700/WOPL…

 

[laatsch55]

Ya got em now Mark..

 

[MarkWComer]

Ya got em now Mark..

We’ll see if he can collect the Rubles for this, he was envious enough, asked a lot of questions. I gave him the link to my WOPL vids.

 

[laatsch55]

Hell ya!!!!

 

[MarkWComer]

That "unmodified" C-1 looks familiar. I know it sounds great even in it's native state.

All of the BillD components replaced now. I didn’t use the blue LED, I used a white one- and it looks like a train headlight in a tunnel! Switching to the blue one…

I must have desoldered one of the jumpers by mistake, lots of crackly noise…

Yes, videos on the upgrade…

 

[WOPL Sniffer]

All of the BillD components replaced now. I didn’t use the blue LED, I used a white one- and it looks like a train headlight in a tunnel! Switching to the blue one…

I must have desoldered one of the jumpers by mistake, lots of crackly noise…

Yes, videos on the upgrade…

By messing around with the resistor/LED combo, you can tone the "train headlight" down

 

[D-500 Flogger]

I'm a picky little twit, pretty exacting, and more than a tiny bit OCD. Not exactly sure what I did wrong, but will check the assembly instructions against the circuit. Whatever I did wrong was done symmetrically, the problem is with both channels.
Assembly photos (rather LARGE and high resolution):

Mark,

Those photos were super sharp. If you don't mind me asking, what was the recipe that you used to take those photos?
Camera, lens, lighting, flash/no flash, f-stop, etc.

FWIW, my motivation is to leave plenty of photo breadcrumbs for anyone following behind me...and I'm never bashful to ask a fellow photographer how did they take a better than average shot?

Thanks in advance!

Cheers -

 

[MarkWComer]

Mark,

If you don't mind me asking, those photos were super sharp. If you don't mind me asking, what was the recipe that you used to take those photos?
Camera, lens, lighting, flash/no flash, f-stop, etc.

FWIW, my motivation is to leave plenty of photo breadcrumbs for anyone following behind me...and I'm never bashful to ask a fellow photographer how did they take a better than average shot?

Thanks in advance!

Cheers -

You'd be surprised at how many photos I take with a stupid little iPhone camera. A good portion of my video clips are also with that stoopid little thing! Surprising that it can focus that close!

The best clue I can give you is LIGHT! Your subject MUST be well illuminated. Turn off as many of the automatic features on your camera as the camera will allow- manual f/stops, shutter speeds, and sensitivity. If your camera has "live view," use it, connect some sort of HD monitor to the video output and judge your focus and exposure with that instead of the viewfinder.

I use a Nikon D7500, but still have some lenses from my old F3, and I've learned how to use the old manual lenses with the digital camera. The advantages are that the max aperture can be as wide as f/1.4, so I get a lot of light through to the image sensor. Again, use a lot of light, and know about depth of field- a smaller aperture gives greater depth from foreground to back, but MOST lenses are sharpest at the midpoint of the aperture scale. Another advantage with those manual lenses is that I can use extension tubes or an extension bellows for extreme closeups. Yeah, lots of fiddling there, but the result is worthwhile. Closeup lenses don't give as good a result, but for a lot of things, are more than adequate.

So, there really isn't any great hidden secret to it other than use lots of light and turn all the automatic crap off!

 

[MarkWComer]

Mark,

If you don't mind me asking, those photos were super sharp. If you don't mind me asking, what was the recipe that you used to take those photos?
Camera, lens, lighting, flash/no flash, f-stop, etc.

FWIW, my motivation is to leave plenty of photo breadcrumbs for anyone following behind me...and I'm never bashful to ask a fellow photographer how did they take a better than average shot?

Thanks in advance!

Cheers -

I have to add:

FILL YOUR IMAGE FIELD WITH YOUR SUBJECT! If you're photographing an entire 12" x 18" circuit board but the problem is a toasted resistor in the upper far right of the image, how does that show anything to anybody? GET TIGHT on your subject as you possibly can!

This applies to your family snapshots as well- DON'T put faces in dead center of the viewfinder, but include some context to the image. Too much "airspace" above your subject and cutting them off in mid- thigh looks dumb.

Further tirade:

"Vertical videos" made from cellphone cameras! People move laterally- action goes left and right- limiting view in a vertical format restricts the "stage of action" and also looks dumb, like looking through a keyhole...