Lucas's 4th birthday party

We celebrated Lucas's birthday last Saturday. Some of his friends were invited, plus a few of our relatives.

I have not gotten anything for him yet, but may get him a set of Bakugan as he have been asking for one. After the party in the afternoon, we went to a Christmas thingy with Suzanne and Andy. Edna and Lucas were running after each other the whole night...

More pics here.

Slow progress on the UcD

Progress is rather slow on the UcD. Took some time to put in the shield as it will not fit. The aluminum piece is a little too large. Had to round the corners off. Then, with the screw below, it is a little too high. Had to file off the top portion where the wiring is supposed to connect to the UcD modules. Then, one of the psu harness is too short. Had to route by the side... so much for consistency.

I hope to be able to start on the signal wiring when I have time. Now currently finding out more of Steve Millett's 6T10 Mighty Midget. Heard Tony's version of this 3 watter at NoiSing08 and was very impressed by it.

Just over the weekend, I heard it at William's place with the actual 300v PSU on his 9" field coil Feastrex. First up was the driver-tormenting Sheffield Lab Drum and Track Disc.

Silence(from me)... Wow(from me)... it was just incredible...

Field coil drivers aside, I've already ordered the Takman resistors for the 6T10. The GE tube and sockets for this baby will be arriving soon as well. Will be mono blocks and using 6X4 rectifier tubes and probably my stock of Mundorf M-lytic HV cap or a combination of a GE oil cap plus the Nippon Chemi-con cap that I got from HK.

Hmm... question is, with my backlog of projects, should I start on this first? Perhaps so... it satisfies my requirements of low wattage, and esoteric (I did consider building something like the Fi 421A).

What's up doc?

Lyra's starting to lift her head up for longer durations and attempting to crawl and flip around.

Have to barricade our bed when we leave her asleep on it.

Some pics here.

Building the Multichannel UCD

The SMPS modules for the 180UCD HG modules arrived like a month or so ago. This is for the very nice chassis meant for a 6 channel UCD amplifier. Just did not have the mood nor time. Luckily the CDPRO2 put me into the mood of thinking about how I want to mount the UCDs onto the very nice chassis.

The aim is not to drill too many holes onto the chassis. I elected to get two aluminium plates. One to mount the UCD modules onto for additional heat-sinking, and the other to act as a shield against EMF/RFI emitting from the SMPS power supplies.

I did the measurement and drilling of the aluminium plates and also the bottom plate of the chassis, only to realise that I forgot to buy the M3 screws required to mount the modules.

Went to Poey Huat, intending to get those stainless steel button head allen key screws, but the guy went 2 trips and got me the normal allen key ones instead. Too paiseh to ask him to change, so I accepted whatever I was given.

Looks like wiring is next.

More pics here.