Algemeen's Electronics and Bicycle Tinker Blog

Loading my e-reader for some travels ahead! One of those books on my want-to-read list, Critical Path by Richard Buckminster Fuller And another one I should be reading is Surreal Numbers by Donald E. Knuth

Recently my eye caught a modular and easy to repair (and opensource) laptop.  The MNT Reform, by MNT Research GmbH, Berlin. This totally would fit my other gadget, the Fairphone 2! Not sure though if it would be powerful enough for the tools I'd like to run. Might give up my idea for a higher spec laptop for FPGA work, since one can just hire some cloud computing for that when it's really needed. This project is using crowdfunding MNT Reform, latest news update  

We live in Apocalyptic times, where we are facing large challenges for the future. Some counter the problems of our wasteful society e.g. by restoring some great finds from the local scrap yards and posting very well narrated repair videos about those finds on YouTube. (Cheers to TPAI! ;)) Some react and cry where to find such gems, but the point is: those are usually right under your nose! What I usually find on my bicycle ride work are empty half liter PET bottles or empty energy drink cans of a certain unnamed Austrian brand sponsoring a Formula 1 team with a Dutch rookie driver (or half empty cans of similar undrinkable liquids). Occasionally, there is the odd tossed-out-of-car-window CD-R with some downloaded whatever music. I tend to archive those in the correct litter bin, and surely not bother to try and play them. However, last week there was clearly a real music CD shining between the roadside grass, in a very nice state. On closer inspection this seemed to be a BBC music ...

And Now for Something Completely Different: the kruishout (Dutch), or you might know it as a marking or scratch gauge. This is an essential measurement tool in woodworking! Note the sharp needle or point on the left side of the beam. This is used to scratch a line in the wood. This specific one was from my grandfather. He was a carpenter specialised in making ship interiors. Carpenters can own multiple of these gauges on a project, so they only need to set them to a specific size and have less work re-adjusting constantly. Some variations may even use the tip of a knifeblade to actually cut a deeper line, e.g. when the grain is too strong to make a proper straight line. Or to actually cut very even widths of veneer. The Japanese or Chinese variants seem to use the knife tips. I’m not so much into woodworking at the moment, but this surely is a keeper! It’s also fairly easy to make some of your own. If you know a special use of this tool other than most uses shown on youtube, please...

The Shimano 7 gear hub with a roller brake is a very common hub for city bikes in the Netherlands. Sooner or later one needs to be able to remove the rear wheel with this hub, e.g. to fix or replace a flat tire. Releasing brake cable for the Shimano roller brake is easy, just press the brake lever forward as, a like the good old Sachs drum brakes. A small trick to release the gear change cable for the Shimano 7 gear hub. See the small hole pointing backwards in the plastic ring closest to the gear/chain? Insert a 2mm Allen key there and use that to lever the ring forward, and use needle-nose pliers to release the cable end. Easy :)

For many years I've liked these Retro-Futuristic lamps that are floating around in the family house. They were collecting dust because each used a 40 Watt E14 incandescent light bulb, plus the cables didn't seem to make correct contact. However, the bulbs could not be replaced easily with LED bulbs because they have a mirror surface, really adding to the looks and design. But luckily I found these nice looking LED bulbs (tad pricey) in a Saturn electronics warehouse in Vienna some time ago. Only the cords with a switch were in a really poor state. It seemed a certain tinkerer (very well known to me) had a habit to put some solder on the wire ends. However, with age this tin will start to oxidise heavily on the surface, make contacts really bad! (always use press/crimp ferrules instead!) Also the plug style wasn't up to current standards so replaced it with a new transparent style Klopp Euro style cord. https://www.conrad.nl/p/kopp-140310090-snoerschakelaar-tr-140...

Just learned again that finding correct parts for an older bicycle can be challenge. Even parts for the here ubiquitous Dutch city bike can get hard so source when the bike is over 10 years old. Sadly the manufacturers either go for planned obsolescence, make it hard to repair or simply just not sell parts to consumers directly. Next time I will not buy this brand again. Note that the Batavus, Gazelle and Sparta brands are all in the same holding company I think, the Accell Group and suffer from very similar problems. In this case I needed to replace a worn chain, the rear chainwheel and the drive chain wheel. The right cranks are fused to one piece with the front chainwheel, and are usually sold in a set. Finding a replacement crankset was a bit of a headache. The square taper of the bottom bracket axle can be in two sizes, ISO and JIS. It has a minimal difference of maybe a tenth of a millimeter, but the 2 degree taper could result in a few millimeter difference when it is mounted...