Inspired by electronics

So the other day I got to have a little play with this amazing DIY programmable sequencer built by a good friend of mine who's a damn talented hacker/creator/maker. The sequencer is called "Hextep" and has so much functionality I don't know where to start so instead I'll post the video!...



Brilliant isn't it! Seeing this in the flesh got me thinking about making some electronic music again as a side project from my current ongoing writing of instrumental stuff (I'll update on that soon). The thing that has finally tipped me over the edge into definately deciding to do some electronic stuff is this lovely post by Ashley elsdon about rediscovering my old ep. So I'll get to writing some stuff soon...(in fact with the wonderful Sunvox just releasing a new version it's kind of already started).

In other news I've decided that I am going to start collating the stuff about mopeds/puch stuff under a different blog and keep here more about music and electronics...will update when I get it off the ground.

Heatsinking my Pi

I haven't spent that much time with my raspberry pi but I aim to remedy that over the coming weeks. I have done a couple of things with it though...firstly I plan at somepoint to probably mess about overclocking it and so I thought I'd make up some heatsinks for the wee beastie. I found an old alloy heatsink off an old gpu chip which I cut into pieces sized for the proccessors and power regulator IC's I was wanting to cool. I attached them by using a small amount of thermal paste under the heatsink applied with a cocktail stick to provide a thermal bond but then to physically attach them I used a tiny amount of JB weld carefully applied (just tiny bits in each corner of the heatsink).

To go with my tiny screen I also picked up this wired usb keyboard/trackpad combo...I thought this would be a good compact solution that only took one of the 2 usb slots so that I still had an onboard usb slot negating the use of a powered hub (unpowered hubs aren't working so well with the pi). However don't buy this keyboard...its useless!...Unless it's just the one that I have is defective it seems to give random repeat keypresses and cut out etc...the trackpad works but the keypad is pants!

So had a play tonight for the first time with the Raspbian distro (I know I'm about 2 months behind the crowd!) which was great but I cracked and slapped the composite connection into a projector for some large pi action!...

I'm really keen to try some GPIO stuff with this...when time prevails!

Puch projects updates! Custom Intakes

Keeping tinkering with my Puch stuff...My main Maxi project is back on its feet again with everything running well...It's pretty much ready for its MOT test, I just need to get my ass into gear and order a numberplate for her. She's been christened "Newt" in agreement with my daughter as I've built the maxi under the watchful gaze of the newts from our pond!...Anyhoo I'm in no rush to get the maxi on the road as its fast approaching autumn and I will probably wait till early next year so I'll have all year to spin around on her without needing an mot in the middle. I've started messing with some ideas for whats next with the Puch stuff...I want to try a bigger carb and I have a pair of 17mm Bings which would give me a 3mm increase but would require a larger intake...the intakes I have are off a puch magnum x (childs crosser) so althought they fit they have 2 90 degree turns to throw the carb out on the opposite side than a maxi requires....like this although this diagram is hard to see what's angled where...

I have 2 of these intakes so I thought I'd sacrifice one to an experiment. The intakes are alloy so I can't weld them but I've made a new intake by cutting the magnum one down and rejoining the end using JB weld epoxy....blimey it's good stuff...

So this is after the JB had gone off and I'd cleaned it up a bit. I tried with a couple of pairs of wrench's to snap this joint and I couldn't so I'm pretty sure it's strong wnough for a while!

Quick lick of hi temp paint and she's finished and you can see the complete assembly in the top picture. Also in the top picture is a 2 shoe clutch assembly...in my main Maxi...sorry...Newt...I have a 3 shoe clutch widely regarded as the best clutch there is for the e50. In racier puch engine builds a common problem is that the clutch posts that hold the shoes on that stand off the clutch back plate eventually bend out of shape and the whole thing flys apart!..The solution is to build (or buy and mount) a clutch brace which is a plate that is bolted across the tops of the posts (which need to be drilled out and tapped). This 2 shoe clutch above is pretty knackered so my plan is to try and fabricate and mount a clutch brace and also to DIY reline the clutch shoes (brake pad material and hi temp epoxy) possibly increasing the contact area of clutch lining to get more 3 shoe like performance. (Even if this doesn't work out I should have developed a bit more as an engineer!)

I'm also stripping down my 2 other E50 engines to see which has the best crankcases for a kitted engine build and planning to build another spare engine out of the remaining parts just for kicks!. I also picked up really cheap of ebay this frame...

....which is going to give my welding skills a workout this winter! I could register this and aim to get her back on the road as she's still on the dvla database...but hanging around on the mighty netherlands forum Puchforum has tempted me to build a racer and maybe try and find something in the uk to race it at (or even maybe take a trip to the netherlands!)...pictures like this do not help me with this!....

as for racing I think Newtspeed is the team name!