3D CAD Skeleton Clock

The first thing I did was draw the complete clock in 3D with Solidworks.  This helped me see exactly how the clock works (I also now have every part drawn).   W.R. Smith used all the traditional tools to make the clock in his book.  He had a Myford Lathe, drill press, bandsaw, and other tools.  He did not use a mill whatsoever.  I however own a CNC mill and plan on using it to cut out most of the parts.  I also own a lathe which is required to make many parts. His book has no information about CNC so I had to do all that myself.  I also changed the design of the clock quite a bit to fit the limits of my mill.  The clock shown above does not look like the original clock in W.R. Smiths book.   I also changed materials quite a bit.  I used what I had around in my shop which should work just fine.  W.R. Smith calls for a lot of brass which is very expensive.  I plan on using brass for the gear train but I also used a lot of aluminum and G10 for the frames.

Clock Frames made of black G10

I cut the frames out of 1/8 inch black G10.  It is very strong and cheap.   I recommend cutting it out with carbide tools since its very abrasive.

Frame Standoff

The frame standoffs are brass and made on the lathe.   I changed the clock design so I only needed 3 of these instead of 4.

Complete Frame parts

Complete Frame Assembly

Ratchet Gear

Ratchet wheel finished.

This is the ratchet wheel. It is part of the drum assembly. The drum assembly with the great wheel is one of the most complicated parts of the clock.

Great Wheel

Cutting out the great wheel was a huge project. I had to cut it out with a 1/16 end mill. I wanted to have a 0.250 thick great wheel but that was just not going to happen with a 1/16 cutter. I broke 3 of them when I got 1/8 inch deep so I quit and fly cut the gear to 1/8 inch thick. I guess I will have to live with a thinner great wheel.

Cutting the drum assembly shaft

Drum assembly shaft complete

This is the main shaft for the drum assembly / great wheel.  It  is made out of steel. It will hold the 7 lb clock weight and will power the entire clock train.

Drum assembly parts.

Here are all the parts of the drum assembly. The drum, shaft, ratchet wheel, click, and the click spring. I cut all these parts out on the CNC mill except for the main shaft and the drum. The drum end caps were cut on the CNC.

Lower end of the clock.

This is what it looks like assembled together. Its starting to look like a clock now.

More to come.

My first thought was a possible defective battery however I quickly ruled that out with a second battery out of a working DS lite.

DS Lite

A quick search on the internet revealed quite a few websites on how to dismantle and repair a DS lite.  I was quite surprised to read that my problem is a rather common issue (blown fuses).

I am not going into great detail on how to disassemble a DS lite.  A simple search on google will give you detailed instructions on how to disassemble.  I think I even found a youtube video.

DS lite backside

Flip the DS  Lite over to reveal the bottom side.  Unscrew the battery cover with a small phillips screwdriver and gently pry out the battery with a flat tool such as a regular screw driver.  There are eight more screws to remove to get inside the DS lite.  Six screws have an odd driver called a “tri wing“. It’s similar to a phillips except it has only three prongs. I used a small flat screwdriver that fit in the tri wing head and was able to easily remove the screws.  I should buy the proper tool since they are cheap.

DS Lite Motherboard Exposed

Once the cover is off, you can see the motherboard which is full of small components. I have read on other sites that the two fuses F1 and F2 are a common culprit. They often blow out and you can easily solder a jumper across them to bypass them. You can buy them as well but they are so tiny I would not even bother.

DS Lite Fuse Location

The fuses are located on the right side of the motherboard. They are little green looking square parts that I highlighted in RED as shown. You can check these with a multimeter set to the OHM setting. Each side of the fuse has a little metal tab you can use to test it with the red and black probes on the multimeter. If they show a short (reading of ZERO), then they are okay. If they show a open circuit (anything other than ZERO) then they are bad and you need to use a small soldering pin and repair or jumper the fuse with some solder. If you have no idea what a multimeter is or a solder pin is then you probably should not be poking around in your DS lite. Repairing (jumpering) the fuses is very easy and is explained very well on this website.

Another view of the fuses

Here is another view of the fuses. You can clearly see the metal tabs on the sides that you touch with the multimeter probes. A Multimeter or OHM meter is the only way to test a fuse like this that I know of. You can buy one cheap at Amazon.com

I checked my fuses and they were both okay. I was not sure what else could be wrong so I started examining the motherboard for damage. I was surprised to find that there was a part missing! There is supposed to be an “Inductor” right below the power switch in the upper left corner of the motherboard.

Missing Part on Motherboard

I have read on other sites that this part can break off if you drop your DS lite on a hard surface. That must have happened. Well now where is it? It should still be inside the DS lite rattling around somewhere because there is no way for it to fall out. I actually found it stuck on the top edge of the DS by the cartridge slot.

Missing Part (inductor)

Re-solder part back onto motherboard

I used tweezers to hold the part back on while carefully soldering each end back on. This part has no polarity so it does not matter which way to put it on. I use a low wattage solder pin with a sharp point to solder small parts like this. It only took a few minutes.

I now re-assembled the DS Lite and tried it out. To my surprise it turned on and was working perfectly.

I gave it back to my daughter and it’s still working perfect days later. That’s it. It’s not too hard to repair these Gameboys if you take your time and look closely for the obvious.

Working DS Lite

My Simplicity 7790

I spent the next month rebuilding the engine and getting it back into good working condition.  All the parts had to be imported from Italy which cost a lot and takes several weeks.

I bought all the engine parts from here:  http://powersupplyequipment.net/

They deal with Lombardini parts and were able to get me everything I needed.  The total cost for the rebuild was $582 which included a gasket set, valves, bearings, and piston ring set.  I did not need pistons or jugs since they were within factory specs.

Engine

Starter side of engine

Valve covers

The engine leaked everywhere and had grease and dirt all over it.  Debris collects under the cowling and prevents air from cooling cylinder heads.  This will cause the cylinders to overheat and destroy the rings.  After every use you need to blow compressed air through the engine cowlings and blow all the grass and crap out of there.

Removed heads

The first thing I did was remove all the cowlings. Next unbolt the intake and exhaust manifolds and carefully unscrew the injector lines. The engine is a really simple one to work on and has nothing special to worry about other than its a diesel. I plugged the injector ports with a clean rag to prevent dirt from falling in there.

Valves

Examining my valves revealed a bad sign.  You can see oil everywhere which came from bad rings and leaky valves.  I needed to order a complete gasket kit, valves, and rings for this engine so far.  I also bought new con rod bearings as well.

Engine torn down

I bought this service manual by Clymer for this engine and I am not going to go into great detail on how perform every detail to an engine rebuild.
This book completely covers the Lombardini 10LD400-2 engine and I highly recommend it if you want to get your engine running.  I recommend that you have some mechanical experience before you attempt anything like this.   I cleaned everything and installed new valves and had the valve seats ground.  I also honed the cylinder jugs and installed new rings and bearings.  I took apart the injectors and cleaned them very carefully.  I had to replace all my fuel lines and a small copper gasket that was inside the fuel injector right under the nipple.

The engine is all cleaned up and put back together.  The manifolds are not on there yet but they will be shortly.

Injector Pump

The injector pump is a very delicate device.  Do not dismantle this unless you know what you are doing.

Engine Top after rebuild

Tractor

The compression on this engine was much higher after the rebuild and my starter could not turn it over.  I took my starter to a local starter repair shop and it had it repaired.   $100 later I had a rebuilt starter.   The tractor now starts easily and even in the winter it has little difficulty starting.   The rebuild was completely worth it.   I was amazed at the power that this little garden tractor has.  I mainly snow blow and rototiller my garden with it and have never had any problems so far.   I’ll try to post some video of it running soon and some pics of the attachments.

Simplicity 7790 Operators Manual

Simplicity 7790 Parts Manual

Engine Service Manual I used:

Custom Trigger

I finally got to work on my custom trigger guard for my Airforce Condor.  This mount will allow me to attach any of the AR-15 pistol grips.  I bought a Hogue Mono Grip which is rubber and super comfortable.  I plan on replacing the stock pistol grip with this one.   This is not a new idea.  I got the idea off of the Talon Airgun site.  I appears that many people do this and I thought it would be cool to make my own version.

Hogue Monogrip

Condor with Custon Guard

You can see how it will fit in the picture above however I still have to drill the mounting holes and mill some slots for the trigger and safety.  I also plan on powder coating them flat black so they will match the gun.

Milling the pocket

Here are some pictures of the CNC cutting out the parts.   It’s pretty cool watching it go.    I will post pictures of the completed trigger guard installed on the gun later this week.  I am working a lot of hours this week so I may not have a lot of time to play in my basement like I usually do.

CNC cutting the trigger guard

Contouring out the thape

The CNC is taking 0.050 inch every time it goes around the contour shape.  Its about 0.500 thick so it has to take 10 passes.  I think it took 2hrs to cut one out at about 2 inch per min feed.  I can go faster but I did not want any surprises to why not go slow?

I’ll post more pictures later this week.

Mounted on the Condor

I finished the mount and bolted it to the gun.  It fits nice so far.  I had to buy some shorter cap screws  for clearance reasons.  I hope to powder coat it black this weekend.

Finished trigger guard after powder coat.

2400 Carbine

I mounted a red dot 50MM scope made by BSA.  It cost about $39 and works well.   The carbine is about the same size as the 2260 and perhaps a bit longer with the compensator installed.

2400 Carbine & 2260 Rifle

Steel Compensator

The overall quality of the gun is excellent.  Everything is metal except for the stock and it looks well made.  I shot about 60 pellets through it and so far it is a tack driver under 20 yds.  I typically shoot 15 yds in my basement and have no trouble shooting dime sized groups.  The first CO2 cartridge was pushing my Premiere hollow point pellets around 630 fps.  This however leveled out to about 580 for the next several Co2 cartridges.  My explanation for this was there was probably oil in the barrel from the factory.  I noticed that the gun was particularly oily when I opened it up.  Once the first 25 pellets or so cleaned out the barrel, it shot at its normal 580 fps.

I can not wait for summer……I want to test the red dot scope out on some birds.   This is definatly going to be a fun gun to shoot.

Well anyways, I started collecting airguns again and  I recently purchased a Crosman 2260 which is a CO2 powered .22 cal rifle.  It’s pretty cheap at about $80.  I also  ordered the steel breech from Crosman’s website so I could mount a scope. The Crosman 2260 is highly customizable and there are unlimited aftermarket parts for this gun.

Crosman 2260 with steel breech.

This is my first CO2 powered rifle and I have to say it is a pretty good one for the money.  I can get about 25-30 shots per 12g CO2 cartridge.   This gun is a entry level gun and is perfect for a 1st CO2 powered rifle.

Crosman 2260

15yd Range in my basement

It is winter here in Michigan so I can not use my outdoor range.  I built a nice setup in my basement and can shoot 15yds+ with ease.

Homemade Pellet Trap

My pellet trap is homemade out of scrap wood and it has thin steel plates in the back to stop the pellets.  It works perfect and will stop a 32 grain pellet out of my Airforce Condor @ 1150 fps.  I put sand in the bottom to catch the pellets.  I have not had one pellet bounce out of this trap yet.

Crosman Hollow Points (left) JSB Exact RS (right)

Pellets

So far the gun shoots exceptional.  The pellets on the left target are Crosman premier hollow points (14.3 grain) and the pellets on the right are JSB Exact Jumbo RS (13.4 grain).

Original mill before CNC conversion

The mill is old and uses worn out ACME lead screws.  This is not ideal for a CNC machine so I had to upgrade the lead screws to ball screws.  I bought a length of 5/8 ball screw rod and two Thomson ball screws from Mcmaster Carr.

Thomson Ball Screws

I had to make an aluminum adapter to attach the ball nut to the table.  So far it works fine and aluminum seems to hold up well.  The nuts did not fit well in this mill.  I had to modify the mill table by machining off about 0.250 inch from the underside to allow for clearance for the nut.

Ball Screw Adapter

Connecting the ball screws to my existing handles and using my existing table bushing was important so I machined an adapter that is identical to the fitting on the end of my ACME lead screw.  I used two set screws and clamped down on the ball screw.  This was my cheap alternative to buying the very expensive ball nut mounts.  So far I have had no problems with this setup and it has minimal backlash.  Some day if I ever wear out the bushings I will just CNC a bearing block.

Steppers with a 2:1 gear reduction

Now that the ball screws are all installed I had to buy some stepper motors.  I bought 3 Keling stepper motors from Dan Mauch who owns  Camtronics.  He helped me pick the correct size steppers for my machine.  Dan was a great help and gave me a lot of advise on my setup.  The X & Y axis ended up with two 385 oz-in steppers with a 2:1 gear reduction and the Z axis has a 495 oz-in with a 2:1 gear reduction.  They are plenty strong enough and I can get 50in/min rapids with ease on the x-y and about 20in/min on the Z.  Thats fast enough for me.  I also extended the shaft so I could attach my original handles.  Now I can still use it as a manual mill just like before.

I had to make all the mounts and I bought the timing belt and pulleys from McMaster Carr.  I decided to go with belts and not direct drive because belts are very forgiving on the install.  Belts still work very well even if you make crooked mounts and your holes are not perfect.  It also allowed me to use smaller (hence cheaper) stepper motors.   There are lots of places online that sell motors.

Making the stepper standoff mounts

Mill Fully Converted to CNC

Now that the mill is fully converted.  I needed a way to control it.  I ended up buying a Gecko G540 controller complete with box & 36v power supply from Dan Mauch at Camtronics.

Back of Controller

Front of Controller (I added the labels)

The controller was complete with power supply, cooling fan, power switch, & motor disengage switch.  It works perfect and was worth every penny.

CNC Mill complete with Controller & PC running Mach3

I currently run a demo version of Mach3 to control the CNC.  It is a really nice piece of software.  I also tried EMC2 which runs on Linux and can be downloaded free at www.linuxcnc.org.  EMC2  also is nice and does not have the 500 line limit that demo version of Mach3 has.   I have not played with it too much but you can run it off a CD-ROM without installing Linux permanently.  I plan on using it

more this year.

Here is a video of it engraving.

Finished tool with engraving.

Here is the finished engraving.

Here is the complete McMaster Carr  parts list:

14 Tooth Acetal Pulley  (3)         57105K14

28 Tooth Acetal Pulley  (3)         57105K24

Urethane Timing belt (3)             1679K21

5/8 Ball Nut  (2)                            5966K16

5/8 Ball Screw  (2 feet)                 5966K261

The motor mounts are all homemade out of 1/4″ Aluminum Plate.  I also did not use the expensive ball nut mounts.  I used the standard bushings that were in the mill table and the standard anti backlash nut.

Here is a typical 12 dB omni directional antenna on one of my installations. The white box houses the access point. I will use these for the base station if multiple clients are used. This particular antenna links 9 houses that range from 2000ft to 1 mile in range. The antenna is mounted on a roof.

The diagram above shows how the system works. Its just like setting up a wireless router in your house except all the antennas go outside. One house will have the router and internet connection and the “other” houses will connect as clients just like a laptop connects to your home wireless router.

Line of sight is very important. I live out in the country and can see for miles in every direction. A few trees will not interfere much but a forest or huge buildings will severely cripple the signal. The farm in the distance is 1 mile away and has WiFi. I have a perfect signal from where I am standing. Roof top height is more than ample for this technology as long as you have line of sight.

Houses that are clients get a panel antenna. It’s about 12dBi gain and is directional. I just aim it at the base station antenna and it works perfect. The AP mounts inside this particular panel antenna.

Here is another panel type antenna on a house. This one does not have an inside spot for the AP so I had to mount the AP in a separate box under the antenna. It still works perfect.

Getting power to the AP is easy. What you need to buy is a Power Over Ethernet (POE) injector. The one on the right is $5 and works excellent. What this does is injects 12 volts from a power adaptor and sends it over the unused CAT5e pairs. The Access Point is “smart” and can be powered right from the CAT5e cable. This injector will sit under your desk by the PC and plug into a wall outlet.

The access point is made by En Genius and is the most expensive part of the setup. They are roughly $130 but there are other options available today that are cheaper. I have bought about 20 of these and will gladly vouch for their quality. I have some that have been in service for 4 years outside without a single reset.

There is more to this than just the hardware setup. The networking, TCP/IP setup, and DHCP control is another subject on its own which will not get explained here. You will have to do some reading on that subject on your own.

UPDATE:

I no longer buy the $130 access points.  I have bought 3 of the Bullet2 Access points made by Ubiquiti for about $38 each.  They are 200mw power which is plenty for 5 mile links.   These are excellent and are small.  I simply connect them direct to the back of a panel antenna (shown above).  No need for the rootenna or external box.

Bullet2 Access point

I’ll post some pictures of the actual Bullet2 in a few days.  They really are great and cheap.

Homemade stuff:

There was a time when I had no money but still liked to play with wireless stuff. You can make your own equipment fairly easy if you want to. I made many antennas and they all worked well.

Here is a very simple 1/4 wave omni antenna called a “spider” and is made from a female N type connector. It has one vertical radial and 4 ground radials. This antenna works very well for what it is and is very small. It works very well for war driving.

This antenna has no gain.

This is my favorite homemade antenna. It is called a bi quad and is directional. I use this exclusively for war driving to identify where the signal is coming from. You can also use these to feed an old dish network dish for increased range.

I have connected up to a mile with this antenna and the PCMCIA card below.

It has 11dBi gain and can have 24dB if used to feed a old dish network or direct TV dish.

Here is my old laptop PCMCIA card and homemade pigtail. I use this for war driving and site surveys for new clients. It’s a 200mW card and I have connected miles away with this card.

More to come……page under construction.

Quick guide to Upgrade your KPC-3 (non plus) and other obsolete Kantronics TNC’s

Well if you found this by searching the internet you are probably wanting to know how to upgrade your old KPC-3 (non plus) TNC to the latest 8.2 firmware. Well Kantronics no longer supports this great TNC and they would rather you buy a new model than fix your old one. That is rather irritating to me so I went on a mission to solve this problem. Well fret not……You can buy an inexpensive EPROM chip and a programmer and fix your own TNC. Once upgraded the TNC works great on APRS.

IMPORTANT – Write down all your TNC settings. The following process will erase all your TNC settings such as your call sign, settings, and any mail you have saved in your mailbox. Save it, write it down, do something.

Take the little screws out that hold the top cover on the TNC. Once the cover is off, one of the bigger chips inside the TNC will have a white sticker on it that states the “KPC-3″ and the firmware version. This is the chip you will replace so make sure you put the new one in the same way the old one is. You will see a little notch on one end of the chip (see below). Make a mental note on the chips orientation.

Above is a KPC-3 (non plus) with a v5.1 firmware chip.

Above is a KPC-3 (non plus) with a v6.0 firmware chip.

I took my version 5.0 firmware chip out of my TNC and pulled the sticker off. It’s a very common M27C512 EPROM chip. They cost about $5 and you can buy one from many online stores such as:

www.mouser.com

www.digikey.com

www.futurlec.com

The chips come in many speeds but my original chip is a 200ns.  You can buy anything faster than 200ns and it should work fine (example 150ns, 120ns, 100ns, etc.)  Avoid the slower chips like 250ns.  They might not work.

You do not have to pull your sticker off just leave it on. I removed mine to idenify the chip.

Here are two chips I purchased online. They are the same and you only need one. It is possible to erase your original chip by exposing it under strong UV light however I discourage this. I would keep your old firmware chip in a safe place in case you mess up.

Now you need an EPROM programmer. I bought a cheap Willem EPROM programmer off Ebay for about $30. There are many cheap programmers that will work just make sure it supports the 27C512 series EPROM chips. Do a search on google or ebay to find one.

The programmers come with easy to use software and support USB or the printer parallel port. Mine even came with a cable.

All you have to do it plug the new M27C512 chip into the programmer as per your instruction manual, run the software that came with the programmer, and finally load the 8.2 Firmware file. Press the “Write” button and wait a few minutes while the new firmware chips is being written. Its just like burning a CD on your computer.

When its done, you can reinstall the new firmware chip into the TNC and turn it on. All your original TNC settings will be erased and you will have to reprogram your call sign and settings back into your TNC.

Thats it.

Download the Firmware below:

KPC-3 (non plus)  5.0 Firmware

KPC-3 (non plus) 5.1 Firmware

KPC-3 (non plus) 6.0 Firmware

KPC-3 (non plus)  8.2 Firmware

Manuals:

KPC-3 (non plus) Manual

KPC-3 v8.2 Rom Manual Addendum

Good luck.

Note: If anyone has other firmware versions, send them to me via email and I’ll post them here.

Firmware for other Kantronics TNC’s:

KPC-9612 (non plus)  v6.0 Firmware

KPC-9612 (non plus) v7.0 Firmware

KPC-9612 (non plus) v8.2 Firmware

KPC-9612+ v9.1 Firmware

KAM+ v5.0 Firmware

KAM+ v6.1 Firmware

KAM+ v8.0 Firmware

KAM+ v8.2 Firmware

KAM+ All Firmware, Schematic,  & Parts List

KPC-2 v5.02 Firmware ,  Schematic,  & Parts List

KPC-3+ v9.1 Firmware

KPC-4 v5.01 Firmware,  Schematic, & Parts List

Excellent old packet TNC software PaKet v6.2

I found the plans for this engine on the internet. It’s a Lamina flow engine based on the sterling cycle from what I have read. I honestly do not really know how this engine works but it runs on a external flame. It’s a really simple engine to build and there are tons of examples on YouTube.

Here is a Video of my engine running.

Lamina CAD Drawing

Click Image for larger view. This is a basic plan for the engine.