Hollywood Dinos

We were at Jurong Bird Park this morning for the Hollywood Dinos trail. Normally there would be more pics, but I only had a few as we forgot the camera and I was using my iPhone to capture some images... that is before it flew off under a bridge with around 2 feet of water below.

There were not that many varieties of dinosaurs and it seems the dinos were reused from the Science Center exhibit. So for people who went to both, it may be an outright rip off. For us, it was just not worth the effort... especially considering my iPhone drowned in the expedition, but kudos to the staff who helped me retrieve the phone from the murky waters. I thought it would take forever and even considered writing it off on the spot.

The phone will spend the next few days in an airtight silica gel box in rehab. In the meantime, my contacts are wiped.

Some pics here.

Lucas's Xmas Break

Well, his school is having a 2 day break today and tomorrow. San brought Lucas to the zoo with her friend and kids. They waited for almost an hour before Ping and kids turned up!

Anyways, guess they had fun at the zoo. Of course, a stop at the children's playground area is mandatory.

We watched Alvin and the Chipmunks 2 earlier, and there were a couple of Meridian gear in the show. The F80 and I think a DSP5200 active speaker. So Dave digs Meridian... We'll be going to some dino thingy at the Bird Park tomorrow.

Some pics here.

Clearing the room

With some projects out of the way (either completed or KIVed even longer... haha), it is time to clear the room as the carpet needs a good shampooing... However, the 2 bass traps have been sitting at the side of my left speaker for way too long. I really need to get them out of the way.

Time to hang it up at a 45 degree incline at the ceiling at the front and back walls... I've been delaying this as I could not think of a secure and nice way to do so... I was listening to my music earlier and was looking at the painting hanging on the wall... then I thought, "why not hang it like the painting?".

And that was it. I am testing it out to see if it can bear the weight of the panel, which i estimate to be around 8kgs. The 19 gauge wire that I used is supposed to be able to hold almost 16kg. I got the 9.1m spool of stainless steel wire from Home Fix. One spool is enough for tying up 2 panels with some wire left.

My Manfrotto tripod was used to help hang the panel up so that I can test the load bearing capability of the wire. If it works, then I will drill a hole in the wall and use a M5 sized "sailor" (think that's what it's called) to anchor a hook. A carabiner will be used to hook the panel onto the sailor.

Some pics here.

Lucas's 5th birthday party

We celebrated Lucas's 5th birthday party earlier on 19th Dec instead of Xmas eve. It was at Xplorer Kids, Downtown East. His friends were invited and they all had fun in the huge play area.

Catering and some in-party entertainment was provided and the event was entirely outsourced. We just had to cart the presents back home.

More pics here.

Only transport clocked

Only managed to install the clock for the transport. SPDIF reclock was not possible as the circuit that does the digital out conversion on my cd pro2 kit is somehow defective. I recalled that it does not work even prior to me doing the reclock as then, I tried to route the EBU signal from my transport to the pcb, but there is just no signal at the digital output.

So, only the transport is using the new 1PPM TCXO clock. Nick Tan helped me during the troubleshooting. Some tips to determine if the new clock works is when the TOC on the cd is read and playback is possible by the transport. This is exactly what I experienced, but the DAC does not seem to latch onto the digital signal. I had to tap the signal from the EBU right to the BNC connector for my DAC.

While I was searching the web for more articles on reclocking, it seems that the majority of the solutions out there reclock the DAC portion while totally ignoring the transport. There is also another school of thought that sticks with the DAC as non-oversampled and without reclocking. Well, this is audio. Lots of debate, sometimes heated, but still, the ear is the final arbitrator.

The comments I heard so far is that SPDIF reclocking sounds "hard and stiff". I'm not able to do an A/B for the 1PPM clock. There's just no easy way to do this. But I can be contented with the knowledge that even the best out there reclocks the transport. ;)

More pics here.

Edit: I suspect I know why the digital output section seems defective. It's a fundamental wiring error. Will confirm this tomorrow or so.

Further edit: My suspicions were confirmed. Last night, I looked at the circuit diagrams of the digital out section on the cd pro kit, trying to figure out where could have gone wrong. At the input connector, I noticed pin 1 is grounded, which corresponds to pin 1 of the EBU out on the cd pro transport. The only thing wrong was the wiring... I wired it with the connectors facing the same side up and pin to pin with a coaxial wire as in a mirror reflection. This resulted in pins being swapped. Signal from EBU would be effectively grounded upon input at the digital section on the pcb, thus resulting in no signal output. I overlooked this minor detail which proved to be the major screw up. I'm not listening to the cd pro2 clocked at the transport and also has the SPDIF reclocked. Can't really tell if it is better with or without the SPDIF reclock. My DAC should be slaved to the timing of the digital signal since it does not have an onboard crystal. That means it is using the new clock signals.

Even when audio reviewers A/B changes that are hair splitting, they would do extended listening before making a switch. That way, it may be easier to pick up slight changes. I'm not an audio critic, but would live with a reclocked SPDIF for now, before I do more comparisons... Or I can leave it as it is, and if I do have a DAC that has it's own master clock signal, it would still be compatible.

PS. It's difficult to A/B especially since I am using tubes. Need at least 30mins to warm up the gear. And my RCA 83 mercury rectifiers on my pre and power would need around 3 mins to be preheated.

Reclocking the CD Pro

It's been approximately a year since I put together my CD Pro2 transport. I'm going to take the plunge and modify it with a better clock and also to reclock the SPDIF output.

With some help from Nick Tan, the daisy website and some blind faith, I took the risk to remove the crystal onboard my transport and get it ready for the reclock module on the pcb kit.

I realised that I do not have the appropriate 16.9344Mhz crystal, so a 1PPM TCXO is on the way from Vintage Audio Lab. I hope this USD20 crystal would do some tricks...

Also need to get a few of those 2 pin jumper plugs to connect the regulated supply input, 75ohm signal input and TTL signal to the reclocker board. Time to go Sim Lim Tower.

Some pics here.

Nixie Tube clock updates

The clock is finally completed and in an enclosure. I thought for a long time before deciding what the enclosure should be. I searched for aluminium ones from farnell and also RS, but could not find one of the form factor that I am looking for. I then decided to do one from scratch.

I remembered that I have some aluminium sheets in my cupboard. I found a suitable 3mm thick piece that can be used. There was a pair of them, but I could not recall what I initially wanted to use them for. I just need to saw off one end to have a suitable form factor for the tube clock. Time for some muscle power to do this... Sometimes I wished I had one of those rotary blade grinder to do the cutting... ok, I'm hardcore... I even wanted to learn welding so that I could fabricate my own enclosures.

Nice real wood of the size that I wanted would be difficult to find; or maybe I had no idea where to look for pine, ash and such wood in Singapore. For simplicity, I decided to go for MDF. I arrived at the dimensions while on the way to Syed Alwi Road for the MDF which would be used as the base. I always go to this shop as their cut is very precise. Down to the mm. The dimensions of the MDF would be 3/4" thickness and 67mm x 40mm (2 pieces) and 185mm x 40mm (2 pieces). I also wanted to go to Lam Chuan to get some nice wood grain veneer to cover the MDF base in order to achieve look that I wanted. But I am not sure if they would sell just a piece to me... and the office is real far off... in Sungei Kadut area.

While I was at Plaza Singapura shopping around, I walked into this scrape book supply shop. I've noticed this shop for some time, but did not pop in to check out their stuff. They always seem to be packed when I walk past. There were lots of very nice paper there. I liked it so much that I decided to use the paper instead of veneer. I thought it would look real cool. Lucas chose the colour of the paper for me. I actually wanted a darker green, but in the end, we settled for a lighter shade of green of "Embossed Polka Dot Cardstock" from Made with Love. I liked their sparkly paper too... and their other one... and... well, you get the idea...

I went to Robert's place to have the 3mm aluminium plate cut using a 20mm hole saw. There was this dot punch that I used there. Just needed to push it in and it will punch down. Very neat... I should get one of these. The drilling turned out much better than I expected. I think I surprised myself at the accuracy of my markings. Hahaha... after drilling the first hole, I thought the second hole would overlap into the first, but it did not. All 6 holes are very well done. Thanks Robert, for loaning the bench drill, digital vernier caliper and the hole saw.

The aluminium plate was sanded using my orbital sander. Hah... this I bought, cos sanding by hand is really very tiring. It was then sprayed using a metalizer spray that I found in my store. It did not give the super gloss effect that I wanted. I think I should buy one of those Mr Hobby Super Gloss and redo the surface. The MDF with the polka dot covering was sprayed using a flat matt lacquer from Mr Hobby.

Not everything went smoothly... Murphy's Law always seem to hit me... First, there was not enough clearance length-wise for the pcb to be fitted into the enclosure after all the sides are glued to form a frame. Luckily it was MDF and cutting slots along the edges are not too difficult. This can be done easily with a pen-knife with a large blade. Just be careful when doing so. This proves to be an advantage as the pcb can be "slotted" into the MDF frame without having any screws to hold it in place.

Second, an angle connector for the SMPS had to be used as there is just not enough clearance width-wise for a straight connector. I went to Sim Lim Tower to hunt for one. I could not find any new ones, but I eventually found some in a section where the connectors were taken from some other equipment.

Third, don't believe the markings on the wires of different SMPS devices. They are obviously not universal. I soldered the SMPS to the angled connector by observing the markings on the wire. I matched the same on each, but apparently, the polarity was reversed... Only suspected this after I turned it on and the tubes were not lit. I then checked with my meter and it was confirmed... Turned out that the on board fuse at the pcb was blown. It could have been worse. After replacing the fuse (well, i need to get the correct one later... 800mA fast blow), it worked.

Overall, this is a fun project. I'm tempted to get the GPS unit, but there would be no space for a GPS adaptor... unless I wire out that connector... Guess I will pass. I know of 3 more guys who are gonna get this kit from Jonas. Have fun guys!

More pics here.