In my various DIY experiments I often find that I need special parts created.  That part could be a control panel, circuit board, special bracket, or an endless number of other things that have to be custom made for a particular project.  Usually these custom parts are the most expensive aspect of the the DIY hobby.  Circuit boards and engraved control panels can cost anywhere between $30-$100 each.  Custom machined parts can be even more ridiculous, unless you can find a fellow DIY-er with better equipment to help you out.

Every time I spend a chunk of cash on one of these one-off designs I end up wishing I could just buy the tools to build them myself.  Up until recently those tools (usually some form of computer controlled drill or mill) cost $2,000-$3,000 for anything close to the accuracy I would need.  Thankfully, that has finally changed.

The fine folks at Lumenlab have recently unveiled their latest robotic manufacturing workstation, the micRo.  Now for a fraction of the cost I can have my own computer controlled drilling/milling machine to make circuit boards, cut and label control panels, and do hundreds of other cool things.

After a week of obsessing, I finally placed my order.  Unfortunately, the micRo seems to be so popular that it may take a month or two until I actually get my kit.  In the mean time, I’ve scored a cheap Dell PC that will serve as my new robot’s brain.  I should be able to keep myself busy getting it set up and learning about all the software that I’ll need to make this thing work.

Look for some more micRo/CNC posts in the future!

Due to a hectic work schedule earlier this year I haven’t been able to use up much vacation time.  For the last two months I’ve been taking every Friday off to burn up some vacation days.  Instead of spending my time playing video games or working on my various other projects, I’ve been dedicating Fridays to beer.

Brewing isn’t a very demanding hobby.  In fact, you can go weeks at a time without doing anything but stare at fermenting buckets.  Since I never do anything small and I had a weekly “free day” on my hands, I decided to see if I could brew a new batch every week.  I also started to reserve Fridays for doing the maintenance on my previous batches.  This basically consists of transferring beer between containers, taking readings, taste testing, and cleaning equipment.

With two batches in bottles and four batches in various stages of fermentation I’m amazed at how little work it takes to keep it all up in the air.  Even with the extra work of juggling multiple batches I can do all the maintenance and brew a fresh batch in four or five hours. Most of that time is spent sitting around watching TV on my Laptop and making sure the beer doesn’t boil over.

Unfortunately, there is a dark side to brewing large quantities of beer…bottling.  Cleaning and delabeling bottles is no fun.  Bottling itself isn’t so bad with my wife helping out, but I’d hate that as well if I had to do it solo.  To remedy this problem my parents got me a mini fridge as an early Christmas present which I promptly attacked with power tools and converted into a kegerator.  Now instead of making sure 50+ bottles are squeaky clean, I only have to worry about one five gallon keg.  Kegs are also cheap at about $25 each, so I can always get a few more if necessary.

I don’t know how long I’ll keep up the turbo brewing schedule, but it’s nice to know I’ll have plenty of tasty beer on tap for the next few months.

Last month I decided to start brewing my own beer.  I’ve had the idea (and the necessary reference material) for a few years now, but there was always one reason or another for holding off.   Now that I finally have the space and resources to keep several batches going at once, I decided it was finally time to take the plunge.

After reading a few books to get an idea of how the process works, I picked up a brew kit and some recipe kits from Midwest, an online home brewing store that has received a lot of praise in the homebrew community.  Lincoln has a decent homebrew shop, but even with shipping costs I ended up saving a ton by going with Midwest.  I did buy a few things from Kirk’s Brew, like a brew pot and a few other odds and ends.  I think Midwest will probably be getting most of my business while I’m still in the kit brewing phase, but I may go to Kirk’s if I start designing my own recipes.

Beer making isn’t a fast process.  It takes 4-6 weeks before the beer is drinkable, sometimes longer if it’s a complex beer and the flavors need time to mellow.  I worried over a few minor mistakes on the first batch (a brown ale), but yesterday was bottling day and and a quick taste test proved I didn’t make any horrendous errors.  It pretty much just tasted like flat beer.  I won’t know for sure for another few weeks, as the bottles still have some aging and carbonating to do before they’re truly ready.

While the brown ale was fermenting, I went ahead and whipped up a batch of German apfelwine, which is a dryer-tasting version of hard cider.  That has another week or two until she’s ready to bottle.  I’m also planning to brew my second batch of beer tomorrow afternoon (an English bitter).  If I stay interested (and my concoctions actually taste good) I’m going to try and crank out two batches a month.  Each batch makes two cases, so that should keep me pretty boozed up for the near future.

A few years ago I purchased a Linux based gaming system. The GP2X was designed to be as powerful as the DS and PSP, but completely open source. There was a lot of buzz about all the emulators that would soon be ported to the system. I had always dreamed of having a portable SNES/NES, so I joined the pre-order list and was one of the first people to get my hands on one.

Unfortunately, the GP2X got off to a rocky start. The initial firmware was buggy and the company was slow to release an SDK, which kept all but the most basic software from being ported to the system. The only thing I ever found useful was the built in DIVX support, which I used to watch movies any time I traveled. After about a year without any decent software my GP2X was boxed up and forgotten.

Fast forward nearly two years.

While I was searching for some long-lost Magic: The Gathering cards in the attic I rediscovered my GP2X. I was curious to see if any progress had been made on the console I initially had so much hope for. After a quick check of the GP32X Site I was amazed at all the software that was available. Just about every gaming system you could think of has been ported over to the GP2X, with many emulators working with near 100% compatibility. My dream of a portable SNES/NES is finally a reality, but I was also able to install Doom, Duke Nukem 3D, emulators for the Sega Genesis and Neo Geo, and even LucasArts adventure games. Everything I installed worked perfectly.

The best part is how easy it was to install it all. I managed to get more than half a dozen emulators up and running in only a few hours. That’s probably less time than I would spend setting up the same software on my PC. The GP2X has definitely come a long way.

Welcome to The Basement Scientist, where I hope to chronicle my various electronics projects and other DIY endeavors. My interests are varied, so I may be working on a module for my synthesizer one day and exploring the guts of an arcade machine the next. The one unifying factor is the desire to take something apart and find out how it works.