They are based on a design by Philippe Lafortune out of Montreal.
I made up some wall mounted units to display the Atari 2600 games I got from Sue Phillips (Chris Burger's sister) a few months back. These were part of my late friend's collection. I hope Chris would be proud. They still need some painting, but I think they look pretty good even without it. They are based on a design by Philippe Lafortune out of Montreal.
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Version 0.5 of the Build Instructions for the MIL Mod8/80 Reproduction Kit is now available from this website. It covers some newly discovered issues with the Mod8-8 backplane board as well as added appendices on troubleshooting and how to use a current loop converter to talk to the Mod 8/80 via a PC instead of using a 110 baud teletype. Today I received the reproduction boards that I designed from Seeed Studio in China. They look excellent. Now it is time to assemble and test them out. Hopefully there are no major errors. This year, my theme is "Old and New School Electronics". I am displaying/demonstrating various electronic projects using old school (i.e., tubes) and new school (such as Arduino etc.) technologies. Some items on exhibit will be a reverse geocache box, 3D printer, homemade tube guitar amplifier, Arduino powered astronomical clock that shows the current view of the heavens.
For good measure, I also brought my Henry Ford 1st Engine replica. Had a fantastic weekend in Toronto displaying and demonstrating my homemade replica of Henry Ford's first gasoline engine at the Maker Festival Toronto. We had perfect weather for it. Many people stopped by to see how one could make an engine out of plumbing parts. Had to tighten down some loose screws, and clean some debris out my intake valve, but other than that, the engine performed well. Had Nyssa as my sidekick both days, and on Sunday my friend Clayton, joined me as well. Came across lots of interesting people and exchanged some ideas for new projects. Even met a guy that did some metal casting using 3D printed patterns (to make moulds). He made this tiny owl which looked fantastic in aluminium. I definitely have to get my foundry up and running so I can make lots of other cool stuff. All and all it was well worth the time and effort to be a part of this community of makers.
Made up some business cards to hand out at the Maker Festival Toronto. Even created my own logo. The logo is derived from the latest photos of Pluto. Who would have thought that it would be such a cool looking planet.
Tonight I finally got the HF1E to run! Turned out the problem was that I did not have the timing advanced enough for it to work properly. Here is a short video of it running. Enjoy. Did a bit more work on the HF1E tonight. Raised the combustion chamber about a 1/16" so that the connecting rod is better centered in cylinder as it was scraping a bit on the top during part of the stroke. Then I removed the intake valve and filled the cap with lead. These two things didn't seem to help much. For some reason the engine doesn't ignite on every stroke, but every other stroke, or less. Maybe I have to play around more with the spark timing.
After a brief discussion with Leon Ridenour (the originator of the plans), I decided to get a heavier flywheel. Fortunately, my wife's uncle had an old post drill with a suitable flywheel. We got it off the beast and after painting it, I put it on the HF1e.
I also ordered a proper glass and gaskets for my oiler. Hopefully those arrive early next week. And hopefully, I can get the thing to run. :-) Today, I got the go ahead to display my Henry Ford 1st Engine at the Toronto Maker Faire on the weekend of November 22 and 23rd. SO if you are in the area, please come by and check it out along with a lot of other cool stuff from other Makers.
http://makerfairetoronto.com/maker/2014/charles-baetsen-building-henry-fords-kitchen-engine/ |
AuthorCharles Baetsen holds a Bachelor and a Master's degree in Engineering Physics from McMaster University in Hamilton, Canada. Archives
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