So, before I start, I have a new job. It’s exactly the same as my old job, in the same place, but with ‘Senior’ prefixed to my job title. Despite the interview, I managed to get it. Err, so yes. Go me :)
The main purpose of this post though is not this self congratulatory back slapping, it’s a different bit of self congratulatory back-slapping.
So, in my last post I delighted in the joy of my 47p radio. Today I upped it to a total cost of around £3.50 (if you exclude the eventual decision to buy a hot-melt glue gun and the ultra-short stereo 3.5mm / 3.5mm jack cable – then it ups it to around £12 all in). It now works as an amplifier with a stereo-in (which becomes mono).
It’s got a bit of a potential design flaw, in that now both the audio from the radio circuit and the audio from the stereo jack plug are subject to the mono-ising resistors (two 1kΩ resistors in parallel when it’s the radio (so 500Ωs)). Which might be why it’s such an awful radio, but I suspect given the givens that the 1960’s Fergie was a pretty crap radio to start with. I’d forgotten the joys of waving the small plastic box around to get decent MW reception, and the terrible cheap 1960’s transistor audio sound.
But it was never intended to be awesome quality. It’s for wanting to listen to NPR’s Wait Wait Don’t Tell Me or the BBC’s Friday Night Comedy Podcastin the garden. It’s for hearing Transport Evolved as I dink with my Minor in the garage, or Kevin and Ursula Eat Cheap whilst I paint the trim. All of which don’t require the high quality audio of my Hi Fi. If I wanted that I’d need to lug the Cambridge Audio amp everywhere I go.
So here it is:
The orange lead flying up to the back of the case is the original audio feed from the radio circuit to the volume control (and thence to the amplifier), it’s now routed through the 3.5mm jack:
Which neatly disconnects the radio and connects that 3.5mm jack…
Up in the other corner the…orange wires…I really need to get some more colours… connect up the 9v input socket:
That fitted better, the 3.5mm jack was a little short on thread so I had to countersink it into the case slightly.
After a good clean and the addition of some silver marker to the lettering, the dials are looking much more respectable. Still useless, given that I’ve no idea what frequency any of these stations were on…
But the thing as a whole, just a reminder of what it looked like before, when it was just out of the store:
And now:
So yay to me.
Also, yesterday’s rendering has taken this:
To this:
Which is looking much better, if you ask me. I need to break out the paint when it’s dried off a bit, and then I can carry on with the decking :)
All in all, I’m feeling pretty good about progress at the mo. Which is a novelty.
Of course, all isn’t happiness and joy. Oh no. I think I’ve caught a cold. Certainly I’ve got a sore throat and feel feverish, and since I’m starting nights today, well… that’s unhelpful.
