See the full gallery on Posterous

First time I went to the Army Open House, and first time with the kids there. There were lots of stuff to check out, lots of queues for pics in the army vehicles. Boat rides on something (FCU, not sure what they stood for) that reminded me of the Tekong trips to BMTC when i enlisted into the Army.

There were kids stuff from partners such as Forest Adventure, a kiddy car operator, and others.

There were also the Army operated booths. One of them allowed a team to experience FIBUA (fighting in built up areas), with combatants donning the armoured vests and some laser detection equipment. They had to carry the SAR21 and were firing blanks. Lucas and San joined the queue for this. Lucas had lots of fun.

The "Canteen Break" area had very strong air con, which was a good respite from the heat, just that it was mostly overcast (lucky us). The tables were clean (Veolia did a good job there, or maybe we were not there during peak hours).

There was also a show that starts at 7pm, with fireworks at around 745pm. We gave this a miss, opting to catch the fireworks from some where near, but the view was blocked by the Singapore Flyer and some trees.

Permalink | Leave a comment  »

See the full gallery on Posterous

Got more LED replacements. This time in 12v MR16 types for the 9 bulbs that i want to replace.

They worked ok in Lucas and Lyra's room as the enclosure do not have an extra cover over the bulbs, but they are not able to fit into the ones in the living room and my room.

So, now, I have 7 MR16 warm light (CREE chips) to let go for only SGD30. Drop me a note if you need them.

Permalink | Leave a comment  »

See the full gallery on Posterous

Shipping of the kit took around 3 weeks. At the same time, i ordered some parts from RS Singapore. I think I will order from element14 next time. RS took a long time to deliver the parts. For parts that needed to be ordered from UK, it took them up to three weeks! And that is after I called them about the order.

As usual, I left out a few components and had to make a separate order for the parts. Now I'm missing a 5k multi-turn pot. Will probably get that from Koba one of these days.

The LDR will be part of the build for my 26 preamplifier. The problem with building stuff these days is that I have no place to fabricate the chassis... The kitchen is seldom free... especially with a domestic helper with us nowadays... I need a workshop of my own, with CNC, anodizing, spray painting, spot welding facilities. LOL!

Permalink | Leave a comment  »

I then turned to eBay to look for suitable bulbs. To my surprise, they are lots of GU-10 halogen lamp (with CREE chips) replacements available at much cheaper prices. I got 4 (for around SGD40 including shipping) from a Hong Kong based shop. Packaging was lousy. Just the bulbs in their boxes in a plasticky envelope package. Good thing it was not damaged.

Spent the next 10-15 minutes replacing the lamp and viola! Instant plug and play! Longer MTBF, lower power consumption, and a cooler room! I don't need to change the lighting fixture now (the lamp cost me more than SGD300...). ;)

I'm now considering if I should change all the halogen lamps in the living room, kid's room and my room...

Permalink | Leave a comment  »

Got them (MTE Tune Engineering) to do my 45k when it is at 41k all thanks to the supper trip. We heard stories of the ATF and power steering fluid mixing together even in new cars which required a SGD15k fix. Good thing that car was under warranty.

So that brought forward our servicing schedule for the fluids to be separated, each with their dedicated radiator. Everything was done by noon and the car was ready for pick up/drop off. The engine bay is very pristine now. Got to do the brake pads in the next 10k. Maybe will get it changed together with the regular engine oil change.

Permalink | Leave a comment  »

See the full gallery on Posterous

Went for a supper drive with the VolvoSG Club. These guys are quick. Right from the moment we left the Kallang carpark, I could tell that they are fast. Their acceleration was just superb.

With a large group, there was always some waiting and lots of chance to talk about cars and other stuff with the members.In one of these conversations, I was told their cars are tuned for at least 300bhp. I only had 180bhp.

Right after the petrol kiosk at the 2nd link, the convoy took off until i lost track of their tail lights. I was already at a speed that is double the legal limit in Singapore. The SWD right next to me kept telling me to go slow.

The good thing about the group is that they have a designated "sweeper" to bring the rear guys to the rendevous point. The last three cars eventually broke from the main convey. Me, being the cause. Good thing the Cooper S behind me knew the way and led us there. We ended up being faster than the main group, and at one less toll gate too.

Food was good and cheap. We went for a car wash and stopped to top up petrol before the Woodlands causeway. I topped up with the Shell Racing fuel. Does not seem that powerful... just smoother. I'll go for the standard stuff next time. LOL.

It was a good experience in all. Made new friends, had good food, had fun chasing the main group.

Permalink | Leave a comment  »

Bought a Saris Bones 3 to transport Lucas's bike. The ironic thing is that we delibrately got a wagon in the hope that we can put all the bikes at the back. Unfortunately, it is not possible unless the wheels are removed from the bike. And that means we will need to install a quick release to the wheels, change the brakes so that it is quick release as well, etc, etc...

Too much trouble. A Thule roof rack would be good, but it is costly to get the rails and the accessories to mount the bike. Also, overhead lifting of the bike will probably break my back.

In the end, we got a Saris Bones 3 from Treknology. Service was good, they helped me choose a Saris model and helped fit the rack onto the car. We got the Barney purple one. Some part of the profit goes to Cancer research.

Have not tried the rack yet. Will probably take a picture of it when mounted with bikes.

Permalink | Leave a comment  »

See the full gallery on Posterous

Should have taken more shots of the V60.

Permalink | Leave a comment  »

Permalink | Leave a comment  »

See the full gallery on Posterous

A quad of 6D22s from Russia. Gonna use them in my 808 build. ;)

Permalink | Leave a comment  »

See the full gallery on Posterous

I did not take a peek under the hood until a few nights ago. The parts under the hood were made up of some good stuff. I saw Mundorf Silver Oil coupling capacitors, Black Gates, very nice wire wound rheostats, japan made 100R 2W pots, aluminium-clad power resistors, James 6123HS output transformers and a 10H James choke, and a large power transformer that can be used for 808!

I have the 30W version of the same James output transformer which I initially reserved for the 808 build. Guess I can use this 20W version since the 808 would be around 10W. I just need to get a transformer for the fixed grid bias and I'm ready to do some prototyping.

Spent the afternoon removing the parts.

Permalink | Leave a comment  »

It's been some time since the last post.

We went to one 15 degrees where we chartered a yatch to bring us and some friends out to the southern singapore waters. It started with a quick tour around Sister's Island, St. John's Island and Lazarus Island (supposedly a failed land reclamation project by the government to turn it into a holiday island resort).

We stopped to get onto the beach at Lazarus island and were greeted by 2 islander cats at the jetty. The nicely built, but unoccupied Visitor Center is a stone's throw from the jetty. It's just there collecting dust. The beach on the other side of the island had nice fine sand nearer to the water breakers and is a nice spot for swimming with the kids.

The kids also took turns on a jet ski when one of the owner of the charter came to say hello.

After the beach, we went back to the sea for some fishing. My initial thought was that "there's no fish in Singapore". This was based on my own experience more than a decade ago when fishing with my dad and sister in Singapore seas. I could feel the fish biting, but their mouths must be smaller than the hooks we used. Prior to this, we fished exclusively off Malaysia, many hours off into the South China Sea where heavy lines were used for baracudas, snappers, parrot and other fish.

It was to my surprise that we got a total of 5 fish around Lazarus island. The sonar really was accurate. Lucas started the spree with a small fish. The largest one was hooked by Aik Peng just seconds after she cast the hook. I had the pleasure to reel it in. Quite a good fight put up by the promfet looking fish. I was trying my best not to break the line.

It was a fun trip and we may want to do just a fishing trip next.

On the audio front, I will be back to work on my DAC which was long left to collect dust. Future projects would be to get rid of the cd player in my audio chain. I want to move to CAS so that i can organize my digital songs. Just deliberating between the Mac Mini or the Macbook Air as the source. MBA is due for a refresh in April/May, but it does not seem to be a quad-core addition... And maybe, build my ultimate tube project... the 808.

More pics here.

Permalink | Leave a comment  »

See the full gallery on Posterous

We celebrated Lyra's third birthday yesterday (actual date is today). She had 2 of her child care friends over, and some of her child care teachers, as well as other friends and relatives.

One of her gifts was a wooden mamooth that had to be fixed together. More a boy's toy, so Lucas got a bonus gift. Took us a couple of hours to put together. It walks and roars like an elephant. ;)

Like Lucas's previous birthday, guests were encouraged to bring a cheque made to World Visions instead of bringing gifts.

Lyra and Lucas are supposed to sleep in their room with the newly added bunk bed tier from today onwards. But of course, it's not smooth sailing. San had to sleep on the floor to accompany Lyra.

I was up doing work with the newly created space vacated from where their matteresses used to be.

Permalink | Leave a comment  »

See the full gallery on Posterous

It's a place that I've been wanting to visit when I saw it on the locality map at the MRT. Since I had to bring Lyra somewhere while Lucas was having his lesson, I brought her to the "balancing" playground opposite our place to play for a while before bringing her to look for the Japanese Cemetery Park.

The cemetery turned out to be around 29000 square meters in area, and has 910 tombs within it's grounds! It used to be a rubber plantation owned by a Japanese brothel owner who then used part of his land as a burial ground for Japanese women who died in destitution. During World War 2 (1942 - 1945), the cemetery was used to bury Japanese civilians and solders who lost their lives in the battlefield or illness.

According to the plaque, this cemetery park, it is the largest in South East Asia.

Permalink | Leave a comment  »

See the full gallery on Posterous

So I measured the cathode resistors just to be sure the voltage drop is correct and that it is not due to the CCS. One tube measured 1.058v and the other measured 1.048v. On the spot as far as I'm concerned! (The cathode resistors are Kiwame 820R and the Rset on the LM317 should be some Dale 1% 1k resistors. But this just shows how accurate the CCS is!) This can only mean that even the 5691 can vary from tube to tube! And the ones I have are matched to 58/60 and 58/68 according to the guy I got them from...

Well... anyways, next would be to put these stuff together with the Sabre32 dac and the Placid power supply.

Permalink | Leave a comment  »

See the full gallery on Posterous

See the full gallery on Posterous

I'm doing the DN2540 cascode with LM317 so that i can set the current to exactly what i want. In this case, it is to load the RCA 5691 red base tubes with just 1.2mA of current per tube. This should be sufficient for voltage gain from the Bufallo DAC into the BCF, more importantly, I can draw from the same B+ rails that powers the BCF.

With the previous MJE350/BC557C and LED version, I could not get the resistors for the B+ correct. Quite frustrating when this has worked for me before...

Schematic is the same as Figure 13c from Jung. Rset is 1k to give 1.25mA.

Permalink | Leave a comment  »

It's past the tourist season and there was not much crowd anywhere. Restaurants are mostly empty except for Orkid Ria. We had dinner there one of the days and there was this singing and music in the background. I went to see if there was someone next door singing, and it turns out to be a cd playing from the restaurant. I asked them for the artist and they told me the cd is "Best of Noon". Ok... quite skeptical that there is such an artist, but I managed to find one such cd from Gramaphone.

I got the last Noon - Better Than Anything cd. The thing that caught me is Noon's different rendition of the jazz usuals that I heard in the restaurant. Hope this cd is just as good. Have not had a chance to listen to it yet.

More pics of the trip can be found here.

Permalink | Leave a comment  »

See the full gallery on Posterous

I'm expecting the DN2540 DMOSFET to arrive today. Don't think I'll be up to building the CCS replacement for the Buffalo2 project tonight. The ones that I did based on MJE350 had difficulties getting the correct resistor settings even after following the instructions to a T. The DN2540 cascode with LM317 in theory will make it easier to set the current. ;)

Permalink | Leave a comment  »

See the full gallery on Posterous

If all goes well, I may be able to solder up the connections tonight. I was listening to the amps with crocodile clips from the power transformer to the IEC inlet yesterday afternoon. Got some new cds - A Mei's Are You Watching Me (she's one of my favourite mando-pop singer), Eason Chan's cd with a duet with Faye Wong and the new Lady Gaga album - Born This Way. My ex-colleague gave me 2 pcs of signatured Olivia Ong posters (thanks Angie). Maybe I should frame it up for my room...

Of another note, I put in an order for 100pcs of Supertex DN2540 from Mouser this morning. Gonna share it with Yeo and Sanjay. I should be able to proceed with my Bufallo build soon.

Btw, I surfed to JC Morrison's website over the weekend. Interesting read... check it out if you have time.

Permalink | Leave a comment  »

It really took a long time. Cutting the IEC inlet and the hole for the switch, measuring the angle bracket to fit under existing holes so that I can use the screws to tighten the angle bracket, tapping the required holes (i used the power drill to do the taps this time round. M3 and M4, all done quite nicely), rounding off the edges of the aluminium panel, sanding it again, wiring up to the power transformer... All this for just one channel. I'm also working on my Buffalo 2 dac at the same time. Having some problems with the CCS. More pics of the 1626 here.

Permalink | Leave a comment  »