Rise of the Tweaker

tweak*  (twk)

tr.v. tweaked, tweak·ing, tweaks

1. To pinch, pluck, or twist sharply.

2. To adjust; fine-tune.

3. To make fun of; tease.

*Source: http://www.thefreedictionary.com/tweak

I am a Tweaker by birth. Although the term is not present in Oxford ALD, but defines my cravings for electronic, mechanical and electromechanical stuff very well.

Of the above meanings, my idea of tweaking goes more with the 2nd with added tactics of 1st one to achieve my goals and sometimes the 3rd one as well for recreation. But my subjects are mostly inanimate articles from the long forgotten boxes full of broken inventions and some curious metal and plastic contraptions that tend to stay at home long after their useful period has elapsed due to their virtue of catching the curiosity of a Tweaker like me.

I already have mentioned my other DIY project that is about to jump on the drawing board. Last day one of my as geeky cousin called up to seek my help in rigging up a cheap surveillance system comprising of web cams, motion detectors, limit switches, GSM modules (or cell phone itself) and so on...

Discussed the plan for about one and a half hour and this is what fell into my bucket:

"Write a program to receive Boolean status information from any of the devices connected to a LPT1. The system will then have to take some action based on state of the connected devices. Possibly send a Boolean signal to one of the few signal pins on the LPT1 to trigger a low power relay that in turn triggers a high power relay that powers up an alarm or blah blah blah..."

A dive into this realm of electronics seems to be very fascinating and I am keen to explore more and more of this geeky entertainment. Being a techy, I believe that controlling an LPT should be less pain than trying to impress a girl. Holds true at least for me ;-)

So be sure to find some cool projects coming up soon. That reminds me! Summers are here and I need to fix our desert cooler for the season. Will do this weekend if I can find enough time. Its a lots of work. Again for fun, I am doing it myself, if anything goes wrong, we always have mechanics to fix them ;-)

Well, now I am thinking that mine would be a lucky wife to have a plumber, electrician, mechanic, all in one!

Ahem! Ahem! No self praise!

Okay then. Take care. See you again soon with my first rough rough (yes those are two roughs!) plan of the HLD and stay tuned for this LPT prototype as well.

Good nighties!

The headlight leveling device - 1

Hi there again!

I mentioned a headlight leveling device that I plan to build (or fail on it) for my bike. Overall I am looking for some DIY fun. (Look for other posts with the labels in this post)

Till now I know that this apparatus is going to be a contraption of some electronics, limit switches, reduction motor, worm-gear and wiring. And also that it has to be housed in a water tight enclosure. So, it left me wondering how I will construct a container for such an arrangement. Because the components have to be precise, I needed some very finely built container that can house all the components and also allow them to operate (adjust the headlight up and down).

Acrylic sheets was the first option. But where to find them. Maybe some glazier has them. I could have also used aluminum sheet but working on that might be a bit tough with the tools I have got. So acrylic was the way.

Now there comes another need to cut it in precise shapes and that too in correct alignment. Don't think it is just a box that will be needed. Although I have not drawn anything out yet on paper, I can imagine that there will be holes, slides, locks etc to hold various components in place in the assembly. Quite interesting!

The moment of discovery was when I went to get my car's acrylic number plate fixed. I saw that they can cut quite precise shapes and pretty small fonts out of a 5-10 mm acrylic sheet!

"Cool", I thought and asked the owner that if I get them an engineering drawing sort of image, can they cut that out of one of those sheets?

He said, "why not"?

So there we are! All I have to do is get a drawing of each component that makes up the whole housing of the leveling device and get them cut out from them. I may have to file or sand or even get some redone but there is a very good possibility that I can get any kind of contraption cut out of my choice of acrylic sheet and then screw them together in shape. Although nothing is on paper yet, this, I would say is the R&D phase. :-)

Stay tuned!

The headlight leveling device - 0

Hey! I have been bitten by DIY bug lately. Although I plan to do a lot but this one really entices me.

I hope you know I got a ride few months ago. I am having a great time with this one and it is a pretty nice riding bike as well.

I used this to ride to office along with a pillion, usually my sister. Towards the time we are home, it would be dark and I would have to turn the headlights on. Now, I had to tune their tilt for an optimal position for when I am riding with headlights on with or without the pillion. It is somewhat inconvenient when riding in the condition that the lights are not adjusted to. For example if they are tuned for pillion rider then without the pillion's weight, beam will focus too high. In some cases I feel that I need to focus more on the road to see the potholes. I think that is too much to demand from that bike but what stops us from demanding.

Adjusting headlight require to loosen a screw on the underside of headlight assembly, then slide the headlight to appropriate position and tighten the screw again. Needs few minutes, you have to get a tool and need to be off the road.

I thought, what if I can adjust them in a few seconds using some electronics while I am still riding it? Sounds cool doesn't it? Just like the one's we have standard on all cars.

So I have decided to give it some thought and find it pretty feasible with the skills and resources I have. I will discuss more on this soon.

PS: You can follow this and other DIY tasks using the labels attached to this post.