View on GitHub

Quorten Blog 1

First blog for all Quorten's blog-like writings

Interesting Golang program here for taking Markdown source files and publishing them onto a Confluence wiki. Why would you want to do this? You might have a company wiki that is in Confluence, but that’s the only reason I can think of as to why you would ever be using Confluence.

20181101/http://github.com/jesselang/dox

There is also another Markdown to Confluence converter, but this one is written in Groovy, I believe, as it is written to be a Gradle pipeline plugin.

20181101/https://github.com/qwazer/markdown-confluence-gradle-plugin

Some useful things for controlling serial/parallel execution in Ansible.

  • forks=1 can be set so that one host task is executed at a time until completion before the next task is started.

  • serial can be set per-play so that all tasks run to completion on one host at a time.

  • Playbook strategies can be set. The default behavior is linear. A serial strategy is also available. Finally, a free strategy is available that allows hosts to continue running subsequent tasks before all hosts completed the same task.

So, some words on dust control for for film negative scanning. I think I can now succinctly state the general rule and best compromise approach for home film negative scanning. Dust setting is related to air flow. You can observe this from a vernacular layperson perspective easily. If you set an object out on a table in a typical indoor room, after a month or so, you’ll notice a significant amount of dust will accumulate on the object’s horizontal surfaces. But, if you place the same object inside a drawer for a month, you’ll notice it won’t be quite so dusty after the same amount of time. Why? Well, with air flow, that’s easy to explain. The open room gets more air flow than the inside of a drawer. The air carries dust, and out of the air the dust settles on surfaces, a little bit at a time.

In this understanding, you can also make some very interesting analogies to explain dust in air. Dust in air is not dissimilar to a suspension in a liquid. A suspension, unlike the other mixture types, colloids and solutions, has particles that can settle if the liquid is left stationary. The settling of dusts is not dissimilar to water carrying sediments that settle onto the ground. Another great example is mixing some kinds of drinking beverage powders into water. If you just pour it in to your glass of water, it may settle to the bottom and just get stuck there. But, if you are more forceful with the liquid motion by stirring it up, the powder that settled to the bottom with mix more evenly throughout the liquid for a short time. But, if then left to unstirred for a long time, the powder will settle back to the bottom of the liquid.

Read on →

Interesting, the Wikipedia article on LED lamp. So, yes, if you want to know more about LED bulbs used in place of incandescent bulbs, this is it. Indeed, the filament-style LED bulbs have been designed to emulate the equivalent incandescent bulbs for their lighting performance.

20181027/https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/LED_lamp

Suppose you need to run some command-line only software on a remote Windows machine and you do not want to run a full Windows remote desktop session just to do this simple task. How do you go about doing this? This is my recommendation.

# Install chocolatey, so that you can complete the remaining
# installations via a console (possibly via EMS/SAC) rather than a
# GUI.
@"%SystemRoot%\System32\WindowsPowerShell\v1.0\powershell.exe" -NoProfile -InputFormat None -ExecutionPolicy Bypass -Command "iex ((New-Object System.Net.WebClient).DownloadString('https://chocolatey.org/install.ps1'))" && SET "PATH=%PATH%;%ALLUSERSPROFILE%\chocolatey\bin"

# Install OpenSSH for Windows, with the server-mode enabled.
choco install openssh -params '"/SSHServerFeature /KeyBasedAuthenticationFeature"'

# Install vim so that you have a console-only text editor.
choco install vim

# If Perl is required, install strawberryperl.
choco install strawberryperl

# Use refreshenv to pickup environment PATH updates.
refreshenv

Also note that nano is available for Windows too, if that is your preference over vim.

Read on →

The lowdown on JST connectors. So, definitely the verdict is that the connector type you are looking for isn’t actually a JST connector. This is a great page listing many similar “small white plastic connectors.”

20181020/DuckDuckGo jst connector detail photos
20181020/https://www.rcgroups.com/forums/showthread.php?1493712-JST-connector-confusion-the-real-story/page19
20181020/https://www.rcgroups.com/forums/showthread.php?1493712-JST-connector-confusion-the-real-story

Indeed, this may be the actuall part you are looking for. JST EH-style connector.

20181020/http://www.jst-mfg.com/product/detail_e.php?series=58

So, for the Raspberry Pi 3D scanner, camera, measuring device, etc. The verdict is clear. I will be using an optical viewfinder on the camera when I need to see what the camera sees. Now, the problem just comes down to where to buy the part? Well, you can’t really buy a readymade part for this purpose. Your easiest options are to scavenge the optical viewfinder from a point-and-shoot camera or build your own optical viewfinder. After some tough searching, after failing, with the fist idea of searching for a readymade device, I found a great site that has this nice lens search tool for finding precisely the lens you need, without needing custom manufacturing. Otherwise, that was the second best option when you need a very specific lens size and focal length, but all else equal being plastic.

20181019/DuckDuckGo build your own plastic lens
20181019/https://digital-photography.wonderhowto.com/how-to/howto-build-your-own-camera-lenses-0118179/
20181019/https://www.diyphotography.net/build-your-own-lenses/
20181019/https://www.surplusshed.com/

BUT, beware. So I did a search on their site, and although you can get lenses alright, there don’t appear to be any markings on the materials of the lens. Plastic? Glass? I don’t know.

Also, there are other interesting parts on there. LCD for a Sony rear projection TV for only $18? How, you could make a pretty spiffy digital video projector with that! If only you could figure out the signaling on that cable, that is.

Read on →

Important! Thinking about using a Raspberry Pi as a replacement for a typical desktop PC? Well, then think again. For that particular purpose, there are a lot more market options to consider that may be better. The primary use of a Raspberry Pi is if you want to do a lot with hardware. Robots, weather stations, things like that. If you’re just interested in checking your E-mail and surfing the Internet, there are better options for you that are cheaper. Yes, through away the ability to connect with exotic hardware and you’ve got a much cheaper and more computationally powerful system to boot.

20181019/http://viewfinderdesign.co.uk/archive/815/is-the-raspberry-pi-a-rip-off/

So, now I go searching for a one-dimensional CMOS image sensor… and it turns out such devices are extremely hard to find. Oh my! I was hoping I could use one such sensor to reduce cost on a simple one-dimensional barcode scanner design. Well, I guess my best bet is to salvage the sensors from old flatbed scanners. Finally, at the end of some frantic searching, I’ve found a usable device from at at least two manufacturers. Yes, indeed in a forum asking why it is so hard to find these devices on the Internet.

20181018/DuckDuckGo one-dimensional optical sensor barcode reader
20181018/DuckDuckGo one-dimensional image sensor
20181018/DuckDuckGo line scan camera
20181018/DuckDuckGo single line camera
20181018/DuckDuckGo barcode reader image sensor
20181018/DuckDuckGo raspberry pi one dimensional image
20181018/DuckDuckGo one dimensional image sensor
20181018/DuckDuckGo one dimensional cmos array
20181018/DuckDuckGo one dimensional ccd array
https://www.electronicspoint.com/threads/ccd-array-line-scan-sensor.27702/

Important! How do you practice soldering? The alternative to a “breadboard” is a “hole board,” or “strip board,” or “perf-board.” Get one of these if you want to make a finished project with all connections soldered.

20181020/https://learn.adafruit.com/pocket-pigrrl/buttons
20181020/https://learn.adafruit.com/pocket-pigrrl

Half-sized perma-proto product page, the improved design of this idea.

20181020/https://www.adafruit.com/product/1609

Quarter-sized.

20181020/https://www.adafruit.com/product/1608

Ooo, a flexible perma-proto board. It can also be easily cut with scissors. Unfortunately, it is also really floppy, so it will probably need additional support if it is holding components in place.

20181020/https://www.adafruit.com/product/1518