Personal Projects I've Done

Intro.

• For pictorial entertainment.
• To provide hints for others trying to fix same machines I have
• For me to refer to if my machines need repairing a 2nd time.
• To list some DIY things a systems engineer is not afraid to do in his spare time that a programmer might less likely do (there being some programmers who claim to be software engineers, who maybe aren't really engineers, IMO Real engineers aren't afraid to use electronic, electrical, & mechanical tools etc, as well as software tools).

A few Projects I've done (excluding professional computer projects on my resume) & various software things on my remote servers & local computers etc

• Stripped & rebuilt lawn mowers.
• Analysed & re-tuned a Fiat 500/ Lucas voltage regulator.
• Washed out & resusitated a car battery (with goggles, but not reccomended now, risk to eyes, + pollution risk).
• Stripped & rebuilt a washing machine,
• Fibreglass insulated a loft. - Pig of a job ! Normal breathing mask insufficient. Sticks in hands (or write with gloves). Best fo in dead of winter else too damn hot & sweating.
• Written device drivers (M6800 parallel & serial & Z80 SIO) tweaked others (inc Minix floppy).
• Built & programmed a stepper motor driven device,
• Designed own computer, chips upward, inc circuit diagrams, timing, wire wrapping, hand assembling, logic analyser debugging etc. (To be scanned later)
• Insulated a loft,
• Installed a plumbed large hot water cylinder & thermostats for a house, ground & installed pipes & taps.
• Removed a large Volvo B20B car engine (Not advised, can be unstable when high, esp. if front of garage slopes away sideways, could tilt & crush one), changed the clutch, & big ends, & reground the cylinder head, & re soldered the radiator (& made the enhanced heat torch to do the job), brazed the tail gate (& made a hash of learning to weld - still my weak point!)
• Soldered all own constructions & repairs (except just once, when an ace solderer friend did some really fine work at high pitch density as he was more used to it),
• Built a pre-designed kit computer PCB, Analysed & fixed the burnt out middle layers of a friend's.
• Repaired a colour television at least twice (dangerous that, don't do it !), & a VHS
• Written lots of source code programs & enhancements etc,
• Built massive satellite unfixed TV mount, & wrote code to determine position (when no others were visible in Munich & it was hard to align).
• Repaired big TV a couple of times. Yes, & been damn scared, especially after a friend distracted me, & there was damn great bang, & then I had Twofaults to fix, not just One, but at least I was still alive :-)
• Mastered bootable CDROMs including complete operating system installation & rescue kits.
• Computer monitor Trivial removal & replacement of sheared screw needed unusual improvised structural support to avoid anything else breaking during repair.

• HP ScanJet conversion from NT to FreeBSD (conversions purchasable)
• Dishwasher repair (with a power saw on chassis).
• Washing Machine
• Chair upholstered (during creation of this page).
• Fireworks & Bonfire construction periodically for GEA
• UPS battery renewal
• Laptop repair