Today [2]

[tom982]

Well, I forgot to reply, so yeah...

Since I last stopped by here way over a month ago, alot has happened, like, alot.

I've started my apprenticeship -
Have been there for around 5 weeks, it's been awesome so far. It feels great to be doing stuff that makes an impact on someone else, example, I replaced 10 mobos in a class, and got half of it working faster, with the 10 spare boards I was able to get a further 3 machines working in another room!

We're in the middle of redecorating the house -
My parents room has been done, mine is being done atm, hopefully I'll be back in there soon.

I'm getting another server -
Since I last posted I've been using my servers a little more, hopefully I'm getting the DL360 G7, the one with 6 drives.

My netbook died -
Have been looking at EEEPad Tranformers, and I'm defo getting one!
When the netbook died, it was plugged into a car power supply, so we think that it just surged and fried. The hard drive is ok, was able to get most of my stuff from it.

It probs don't seem alot when you read it like I've put it, but the past 5 weeks have gone so quickly, it's unbelievable.

Tom, good luck mate, I'm sure they'll accept you

At the moment, I'm just about to boot to 64bit and try the new SA:MP 0.3d client, apparently it's quite nice, so yeah

Thanks for the kind words Danny

I'm glad you're enjoying your apprenticeship. You put a lot of thought into that decision and it's nice to see that it's paid off and you're enjoying yourself. Long may it last!

Nice server! That's a serious piece of kit. I don't know much about servers, but judging by the price on EBuyer it must be pretty nice

 

[MWRed]

So, I went to the Home Depot, bought my dad's christmas present, and ended up getting 2 big ass house plants( one being a 5ft tall palm tree).
Raining like crazy though, so there's not a lot I can do to wood when it's like this, so, back inside to relax.

 

[dinesh]

Today I thought of checking my subscribed thread at VF.

 

[tom982]

Today, I have my driving test

 

[tom982]

And today, I passed my driving test

 

[z3r010]

Well done

 

[Yard Dog]

Woot Woot.. way to go Tom . congrats at ya .

 

[tom982]

Well done

Woot Woot.. way to go Tom . congrats at ya .

Thanks guys :D

 

[The Howling Wolves]

Today, I have my driving test

Tom,
Did you enroll in the same driving school as Carl...and Gracie?
If so I am going to stay home for the Holidays! hehehe



Click on image and then duck...
Happy Holidays my friend!
THW

 

[niemiro]

And today, I passed my driving test

Well done Tom! Really well done!

It is really nice to be back here again. I became a little snowed under with work recently, but I hope to hang around here with everyone over the Christmas holidays, when I have more time. It feels really good to be back

What have I been doing? Well, not a lot (compared to normal, anyway!). I have finally got around to printing my Technology PCBs (all 7 of them - yes, it is more complicated than most GCSE students do, and features a 40 pin microcontroller with 600 lines of C code (which compiles to nearly 2000 lines of assembler) ). I have put some more work into my programs (SURT_Fixer is nearly complete!), and have a nearly complete two new programs, have taken up the piano again (just self paced self teaching - something I love to do - and my mother can play piano to Grade 5, and Violin to Grade 7/8, so I can ask her any questions if necessary), still climbing, and loads of other stuff - somehow, it all can be squashed into a finite amount of time!

Anyway, it is excellent to talk with you all again!

Richard

 

[MWRed]

Today, froze my butt off...short day of work, and afterwards, was outside a bit too much in the cold.

 

[tom982]

Today, I have my driving test

Tom,
Did you enroll in the same driving school as Carl...and Gracie?
If so I am going to stay home for the Holidays! hehehe

View attachment 24807
Click on image and then duck...
Happy Holidays my friend!
THW

Nope, I think you'll be quite safe!

LOL, that image is great. Did you make it Dennis?

And today, I passed my driving test

Well done Tom! Really well done!

It is really nice to be back here again. I became a little snowed under with work recently, but I hope to hang around here with everyone over the Christmas holidays, when I have more time. It feels really good to be back

What have I been doing? Well, not a lot (compared to normal, anyway!). I have finally got around to printing my Technology PCBs (all 7 of them - yes, it is more complicated than most GCSE students do, and features a 40 pin microcontroller with 600 lines of C code (which compiles to nearly 2000 lines of assembler) ). I have put some more work into my programs (SURT_Fixer is nearly complete!), and have a nearly complete two new programs, have taken up the piano again (just self paced self teaching - something I love to do - and my mother can play piano to Grade 5, and Violin to Grade 7/8, so I can ask her any questions if necessary), still climbing, and loads of other stuff - somehow, it all can be squashed into a finite amount of time!

Anyway, it is excellent to talk with you all again!

Richard

Hi Richard :D

Haven't seen you around here in a while! Welcome back.

7 PCBs!? Wow. What are you planning on making with them? That's some serious pieces of kit. For his DT AS-level, a friend of mine made a light that dimmed upon being touched. He spent a long long time doing it and that was under 100 lines of C, I dread to think how long 600 lines took you to code. Okay, he didn't spend all of his time coding, half of it was trying to work out why it kept blowing the fuses when he plugged it in at home!

SURT_Fixer is almost complete... I seem to remember you telling me exactly that a few months ago But it's good to hear you're still progressing with that.

Have you coded a C# time machine or something? I'm amazed you can fit all of that into your schedule.

Tom

 

[The Howling Wolves]

No Tom,
I didn't make that one.....Can't take the credit.
Got it from animated images of snowballs. I liked this one the best.
THW

 

[niemiro]

Today, I have my driving test

Tom,
Did you enroll in the same driving school as Carl...and Gracie?
If so I am going to stay home for the Holidays! hehehe

View attachment 24807
Click on image and then duck...
Happy Holidays my friend!
THW

Nope, I think you'll be quite safe!

LOL, that image is great. Did you make it Dennis?

And today, I passed my driving test

Well done Tom! Really well done!

It is really nice to be back here again. I became a little snowed under with work recently, but I hope to hang around here with everyone over the Christmas holidays, when I have more time. It feels really good to be back

What have I been doing? Well, not a lot (compared to normal, anyway!). I have finally got around to printing my Technology PCBs (all 7 of them - yes, it is more complicated than most GCSE students do, and features a 40 pin microcontroller with 600 lines of C code (which compiles to nearly 2000 lines of assembler) ). I have put some more work into my programs (SURT_Fixer is nearly complete!), and have a nearly complete two new programs, have taken up the piano again (just self paced self teaching - something I love to do - and my mother can play piano to Grade 5, and Violin to Grade 7/8, so I can ask her any questions if necessary), still climbing, and loads of other stuff - somehow, it all can be squashed into a finite amount of time!

Anyway, it is excellent to talk with you all again!

Richard

Hi Richard :D

Haven't seen you around here in a while! Welcome back.

7 PCBs!? Wow. What are you planning on making with them? That's some serious pieces of kit. For his DT AS-level, a friend of mine made a light that dimmed upon being touched. He spent a long long time doing it and that was under 100 lines of C, I dread to think how long 600 lines took you to code. Okay, he didn't spend all of his time coding, half of it was trying to work out why it kept blowing the fuses when he plugged it in at home!

SURT_Fixer is almost complete... I seem to remember you telling me exactly that a few months ago But it's good to hear you're still progressing with that.

Have you coded a C# time machine or something? I'm amazed you can fit all of that into your schedule.

Tom

Hello Tom!

Well, it is a model lift, complete with all the up and down buttons, opening and closing of doors, stopping the lift at the right height, moving the lift, routing and load balancing, etc. etc.

I have one main PCB, and then use ribbon cables to neatly transfer data to other parts of the model, where a tiny PCB converts the ribbon cable to output. But the big PCB is...well...big. It uses a 40pin microcontroller, a 16pin motor driver IC, 74pins worth of ribbon cable outputs (and the same number at the other end!), multiple voltage regulations, reverse polarity protections, IC life support, pre IC input processing, post IC output processing, etc. etc. In total, it comes to 312 solder joints.

So far, I have printed the PCBs, written the main bulk of the code, drilled all 312 holes, and intend to solder over the holidays. I am not looking forward to it! I am quite good at soldering, and I have a really decent digital soldering iron (I do a lot of solding!), but still, I have never done quite this many before! Previous highest was 174 for a new control box for someone's model railway (which was solding wires onto switches, as opposed to a PCB).

To be honest, for the control box, most of the time was spent cutting and stripping wires to the correct lenght. At least with the PCB, I can stick all the normal components in, bend their legs, and do each solder joint in less than a second (using a hot tip), or stick the DIL in a fixture, and do all 40 one after the other. Still, it is going to take a long time, and not be very pleasant. I might take it into the garden to do - slightly nicer that the garage which has absolutely no ventilation - fine for a few joints, but I don't really want to breathe in lead fumes from 312 60/40 joints!

Anyway! I managed to get the coding done fairly quickly, although it is absolutely horrible to code. Looks like this:

 // INITIALISE TIMER 2 + INTERRUPT 
 
 // Temporarily disable the TIMER2 interrupt whilst we are configuring it
 TIMSK2 &= ~(1<<TOIE2);
 //TIMSK2 |= 1<<TOIE2;
 
 // Configure TIMER2 to be just 'normal', with pure counting, and no PWM, etc.
 TCCR2A &= ~((1<<WGM21) | (1<<WGM20));  
 TCCR2B &= ~(1<<WGM22);  
 
 // Set the clock source as the internal clock
 ASSR &= ~(1<<AS2);  
 
 // Set to only interrupt when overflow
 TIMSK2 &= ~(1<<OCIE2A);  
 
 // Set the prescalar to F_CPU/128:
 TCCR2B |= (1<<CS22)  | (1<<CS20);   // Set bits
 TCCR2B &= ~(1<<CS21);               // Clear bits

Yeah, SFG was like a few days off completion in the summer, and hasn't progressed much Hopefully over the winter! lol.

Anyway, really great to talk to you again!

Richard

 

[HardwareHelper]

I'm Carl Lawrence. Recently (last June) my dad had a stroke and is coping quite well. I am not driving anymore nor is my Dad. We sold the car and are relying on public transport, which is pretty good around here.

 

[tom982]

I'm Carl Lawrence. Recently (last June) my dad had a stroke and is coping quite well. I am not driving anymore nor is my Dad. We sold the car and are relying on public transport, which is pretty good around here.

Hello Carl and welcome to the forums

I'm sorry to hear that! It sounds like you've been through a lot recently

Anyway, enjoy your time here, if there's anything you'd like to know then just give me, or any other member here, a shout and we'll do our best to answer

Tom

 

[MWRed]

Got our first "signifigant" snowfall last night...well, it's only like an inch, but it's so late in the year, we should really have like a foot or so on the ground already. It will all be melted by tomorrow though.
Today, cleaned, cleaned, cooked, and am no taking it easy, watching a DVD series I bought last night on shipwrecks. only 9.5 more hours of it to watch.

 

[Yard Dog]

Ha, snow, no thanks. Here in Florida, in the 70's, your snow would have no chance unless put in a freezer..

 

[MWRed]

Ha, snow, no thanks. Here in Florida, in the 70's, your snow would have no chance unless put in a freezer..

Want to trade?

 

[Yard Dog]

Well, we do have a cold front coming, gonna be in the 50's . brrrrr..