Blog

I'm posting an update on Simple Blaster OS.  A number of people have built it and some have had issues.  First, I'm a bit surprised to have gotten as much feedback as I have. So to everyone, thank you.  Second, several of you have correctly pointed out that there are some problems with the connections in the diagram.  I also think there were some problems with the DFPlayer Mini code but thats tricky. More on that in a bit. First up the diagram. Some of the builders got it working but it didn't help that a few of the connections...

Moving things along!  I have now made a Washington Capitals and Las Vegas Golden Knights jersey.  The Capitals and Knights jerseys use a vinyl protective pocket that will give better protection against water.    I went all out on the Knights jersey. It not only has the 64x64 LCD screen but also about 800 addressable LEDs connected to a WLED controller. It's also sound reactive. The LED can be controlled from your smartphone via WLEDs built in interface.   The LEDs and screen can all be powered from a single power bank.  With the LEDs and the screen using a...

Star Trek has a bit of history with starships in a bottle. In both the The Next Generation and Voyager you can find episodes where a crew member has built a starship in a bottle.  I wanted to try my hand at it but I'm also a Star Wars fan. So I built one of each.  I have an X-Wing fighter and USS Voyager in their own bottle. I printed some terrain to shape to go in the bottles as mounts for the ships.  Both are loaded up in beer sized bottles complete with corks.  The Voyager model already sold....

Following up on my Z scale train in a box, I had some track left over so I decided to do a small layout in book.  I ordered a one of the cool boxes that look like a book on Amazon.  It's about 12"x9" on the inside.  Just enough for a Rokuhan Shorty loop layout. The box cover wasn't something I really loved though. So I decided to recover it black "faux" leather and put some engraving on it.  Turns out engraving on black leather doesn't really show up well. So my next option was to use foil.  I read up...

Done! I finished the layout and the box and I am really happy with it.  The biggest change is that I realized I can't run both trains, the switch, the lights and a single board LCD screen on a 9v battery. Duh. The lights on the cars didn't have enough current to light. Also, when I turned on the lights the max train speed would drop in half. The switch wouldn't work reliably either as the 9v discharged.  I tried using a 3s 650mah lipo and that worked. Except the current drain was pretty high and I took it down...