Thursday 14 January 2016

DIN to RCA Converter and Switch Box

My father-in-law has a 1968 B&O Beomaster 1400 Stereo receiver which has beautiful sound.

Being from an era when there were no CD players and the myriad of other equipment we now attach to receivers it only has two 5-pin DIN socket inputs, one for phono and the other for a tape deck / aux. For years he swapped a DIN to RCA cable between his CD player and tape deck to cope with the one DIN line-level input.

At about the same time his CRT TV and turntable broke, the new TV adding an extra input (awful internal speakers) and both replacements with RCA connections. He shopped around for a solution but no store had anything helpful.

So I made a box with:

    3 RCA inputs switched to a single DIN output
    A direct RCA to DIN connection for the turntable.


The plastic enclosure is coated on the inside with RF/EMI shielding.



I used a nice selection switch which has a grub screw to hold it in place.




The underside has stick-on rubber feet.


Saturday 9 January 2016

Recycled Door and Mirror

A neighbor replaced a meranti (Genus Shorea) door which had partially decayed and he gave it to me. After leaning against a wall outside for a few years I sawed off the rotten bits and made this mirror from some of it.

The thick base and uprights are from one of the sides of the door and the edges of the mirror from a couple of the slats. The mirror glass was also recycled having previously been stuck directly on a wall.


The mirror hinges were surprisingly hard to get. We eventually found them at a huge hardware & timber store, no thanks to any of the store assistants who had never heard of such a thing.

Friday 8 January 2016

Small Problem

A friend's iPhone cable was working intermittently and he asked me to take a look. The broken wire was hanging on for dear life by a speck of insulation. So tiny.


It was a bit of a challenge to add the heat-shrink with such little space and not have it shrink while soldering so close. Forceps come in handy as a heat-sink. I'm sure that's why they were invented, or at least that's the excuse I used to buy it. I'm sure two would be better...


I didn't need an excuse to own a shifting spanner and a set-square, but they make nice heat-sinks too in a pinch.


One happy friend.


Thursday 7 January 2016

New Legs

For years a broken chair made from Imbuia sat in my workshop waiting for a use. My wife gave me a mirror whose plastic base had broken to fix and an interesting match was made. 


Spot the Culprit

My wife's sewing machine emitted the magic smoke with a nice bang. Spotting the culprit wasn't exactly hard. Quite impressive, split open underneath too. Fixed it with a salvaged X2 0.1μF part.

Warning: Be aware that X & Y safety rated capacitors operate at mains voltage. These caps are designed to fail open for safety.