Clap control for Music PC

When I set up my FreeNAS server, I lost only one program I actually missed: iTunes. Now dont get me wrong, I absolutely hate iTunes as its a restrictive, bloated, and useless peice of crap. However, the Remote app on my iPhone is fucking fantastic and even after trying out alternatives (Namely songbird), the remote control apps just dont cut it.

So ive resurrected my old Compaq (for the 4th or 5th time now), and installed my nLite XP SP3 disc.

Ive installed iTunes 10 on it from a archive site as the lates iTunes refuses to work properly (the remote app wont connect period) but the 10.0 release worked fine. I imported a directory from my NAS into the setup and got it working well with the Remote app. After connecting this setup to the external speakers i set up for my TV, i was able to play some music just fine in the TV area.

However, iTunes doesnt really auto-add new tracks in the folder like i want it to so i bought iTunes folder watch from here. Its a really great app if your going to suck it up and use iTunes. The registered program sits in the background, scans your watch folder and auto-imports the tracks into the iTunes db. Its got quite a few more featuers as well.

However, one thing i was a bit 'meh' about was getting home after a stressful day at work and fiddling around on my iPhone to get it to play music. As it had a internal mic i thought i might be able to work something out.

I then settled on working on being able to play/pause via a clap (i have done voice recoginition programs a long time ago but found them to be fucking frustating when they pick up your voice during conversations). I found a nice and simple freeware program (here) that detected clapping and would run your selected program/action/whatnot.

After a short fiddle around with that awesome program autohotkey, i had 2 .exe files to control iTunes - one for play/pause, one for next song.

All it took was to set up the clap program to run the .exe's upon clap detection and presto! I did rip the microphone and super-glue it facing outward on the exterior of the laptop shell (this compaq is literally falling apart, so it wasnt really a issue)
Now i can walk into the lounge and clap once to start playing music immediately.

The Project again, roadblock gone!

Finally, more work on the project.

Problem:

VGA-CAT5 adaptor works (discussed here), but now the monitor cannot detect that its plugged in. So whats been happening is that every time it changes resolution (pretty much start and end of any game) it pops up that annoying 'ANALOGE MODE' box in the upper left of screen for 10 seconds. Also, when the computers plugged in to power it displays the 'NO CONNECTION DETECTED' box that slides around the screen.
Massively annoying, as its a issue thats only cropped up.

Its taken me over a month to figure out how to fix it easily. Simple answer is splice a VGA cable, but damn I bet that would only cause problems down the track.

Reasoning

I figured that since CAT-5 cable has 8 cables, and VGA has 15 pins, obviously some pins arnt being connected. I also assumed that, since monitors don't display all the crap the moment there plugged into a PC even if its not powered on, it must be something hardwired into the plugs on the computer end that allows the monitor to detect its plugged in even if there's no power on in the PC.
It makes sence that it will run a lower power signal through one pin, and look for a reply down another ground line. But with 15 pins, what combination is correct???

Solution
http://www.monitorworld.com/faq_pages/q17_page.html. This is what got me started on the right track. I noticed on this some 'sense' pins and ground pins - this narrowed it down for me from something like 210 different combination's to try to 9 or so.
I hit on the right one on the second go - shorting pings 10 and 5 made the monitor turn blank ready for input like it used to.
From there it was a simple case of cracking open the cheap CAT-5 -> VGA adaptor and soldering a wire directly across pins 5 & 10. Put back together and re-insert. It was so simple! (Not!)


Creating a short that tricks the monitor into permanently realizing its connected on the analogue mode. Once the shell is fitted back on, its as if i hadnt modded it!

Freenas Transmission Tweaks

Blatantly liberated from http://code.google.com/p/freenas-rss-extension/wiki/MyTweaks.

** FOR THOSE SEARCHING FOR ERRORS RELATED TO "BLOCKLIST_UPDATE: Config directory not set"

The script below searches through FreeNAS' configurtion files to find the torrents 'Config' directory as per the below screenshot. This option is in the WebUI -> Services -> Torrents



You really really shouldnt need to, but if your still haveing huge problems you could try replacing the code:

config_dir=`/usr/local/bin/xml sel -t -m "//bittorrent" -v configdir /cf/conf/config.xml | /usr/local/bin/xml unesc`

With:

config_dir="/path/to/torrent/config/directory/"

Note: Make sure you put the torrent config directory in a location that allows write (i.e. dont put it willy nilly somewhere in the root filesystem - put it in your RAID or on the spare bit of your OS drive)

1) Fix for file permissions when using samba for windozer file sharing.
Why? Well, basically when you log in Anonymously in windows via SMB protocol, it forces your computer to work under FreeNAS's 'ftp' user. Which is fine, untill...
When Tranmission saves a file, it does so under the 'transmission' user. Also fine.
But when you browse to your NAS from windows (being forced to work as the 'ftp' user) and you try and move or whatnot a torrent file (which has been saved as the 'transmission' user) FreeNAS cracks a wobbly and tells you that you dont have permission to do that (as all it sees is one user trying to fiddle with anothers files)

So we can baindaid her up, with the below additions to the 'Auxiliary paramaters' section

This forces the windows client to pretend to be the 'transmission' user, not the 'ftp' user. So it all plays nice!

2) Blocklist updater.
By default, FreeNAS doesnt use a blocklist (in fact, it disables it quite semi-permantly). We can fixxer that up however.

The script below is also taken from the above wiki - I prefer this one because of the location it gets its blocklists from (Bluetack) and the felxibility of lists.

(Big note: If you copy this into notepad and save it onto the NAS, youll encounter one big problem: Windows uses CF+LF to dictate end of line (return). *NIX uses just LF. This confuses the bash interpreter and it will not run. Download and use Notepad2 and when you save the file select 'File->Line encoding-> Unix (LF)' to avoid those problems)

First off: youll have to stop FreeNAS from diabling blocklist. Do so by editing the rc.conf variables via System -> Advanced -> RC.CONF in the WebUI


Either way, before running the file, youll have to log into the NAS via SSH (Enable the SSH service, setup a user in the webUI with 'bash' as its shell, and point Putty to your NAS) and run some commands on the file.


Bonus geek points if you noticed the nethack.alt.org telnet settings!

First, use the SU command (and enter admin password to NAS) to gain 'superuser' privelages, browse to the direcrory using the CD command, and CHMOD +x the file. Then you can run it directly to ensure it works. Like ive done below.

(Note the LS -Gl [this lists the directory in colour mode] - the permissions list to the far left of blocklist.sh is -rwxrwxrwx. The x's mean its eXecutable, which is what we need to run the script (this is what CHMOD +x has done to the file - CHange MODe eXecute)



CODE: blocklist.sh

#! /bin/bash

###
# Select the blacklists you would like to download & use, all available lists
# (except exemptions) are listed below
#LISTS="ads-trackers-and-bad-pr0n bogon dshield edu fornonlancomputers hijacked iana-multicast iana-private iana-reserved level1 level2 Microsoft proxy spider spyware"
#
LISTS="bogon dshield hijacked iana-multicast iana-private iana-reserved level1 level2 Microsoft"

###
# YOU SHOULD NOT EDIT BELOW THIS LINE UNLESS YOU KNOW WHAT YOU ARE DOING
#
url="http://www.bluetack.co.uk/config/"
config_dir=`/usr/local/bin/xml sel -t -m "//bittorrent" -v configdir /cf/conf/config.xml | /usr/local/bin/xml unesc`
updated=0

if [ "$config_dir" == "" ]; then
logger -t blocklist_update -- Config directory not set
exit 1
fi

if [ ! -d "$config_dir/gzblocklists" ]; then
mkdir "$config_dir/gzblocklists"
fi

for list in $LISTS; do
file="$config_dir/gzblocklists/$list.gz"
lsize=`stat -qf %z "$file" || echo 0`
rsize=`fetch -apsw 5 $url$list.gz || exit 1`
if [ "$lsize" -ne "$rsize" ]; then
logger -t blocklist_update -- Updated $list

# need to download to different folder than $config_dir/blocklists
# transmission seems to have trouble at times starting possibly by trying to parse
# gz'd files
fetch -qapw 5 -o "$file" $url$list.gz
gunzip -kqf "$file"
mv "$config_dir/gzblocklists/$list" "$config_dir/blocklists/"
updated=1
fi
done

if [ "$updated" -eq "1" ]; then
/etc/rc.d/transmission restart &> /dev/null
else
logger -t blocklist_updater -- All lists up-to-date
fi

Then its a simple matter of setting up a cron job to run it on a schedule. Below is my settings for midnight every Wednesday.

Note: Your path to the script will differ.

Freenas extras

So after trials in a virtual machine, and three installs on ol' Frankenputer, FrankenNAS lives! Insert demoic laughter and all that.

I was going to do a big walkthrough to installing FreeNAS, but my apathy knows no bounds. Plus, google can tell you how to install it. I think you can install it falling over, actually.

• Download FreeNAS from http://sourceforge.net/projects/freenas/
• Burn CD - imgBurn or the like will be a-ok
• Pop into CD drive, set BIOS to boot from CD and reboot
• FreeNAS will boot, and run off the CD
• Youll want to install it to a HDD or CF card (you can get IDE -> CF card adaptors)
• I went for a Full install + swap. Swap is always fun. Keep in mind that booting the OS off your RAID (if you have a hardware RAID card) is a terrible idea. Grab either the IDE->CF card or a 40/80GB HDD and boot it off that.
  
• Once its installed (all what, 15 seconds?) remove the CD and reboot. This time it will be off the HDD
• Youll end up back at the same menu now. (It runs off the CD exactly the same, however you dont want it to run off the CD permantly - it wont perform all that well)
• Now press 1. and setup the network (It's likely it guessed all that for you, but configuring it cant hurt) Youll have to select which network device to use (you may well only have 1 so go nuts) Im not sure how its wireless support goes here - I would advise against it anyway.
• Once thats configured, press 2. Here you should select DHCP (unless you want to manually enter a IP address) and select no for IPv6. It will now give you a funky IP address.
• FIN

You can now browse to that IP address in your webbrowser! As shown below, it will tell you the IP address you can log in with below.


The steam special is insanity. Oh, and also FreeNAS is shown.

Youll want to set up your hard drives first before hand, obviously.

This post will leave you to play with the webui. Google is your friend here.

Stay tuned for:

• Transmission (Torrent client) blocklist
• Transmission RSS auto-downloader
• Transmission RSS auto-downloader email hack
• Custom script ive used for email status reports
• PS3 Media server setup (The pre-installed uPNP server is shite, sorry)
  
• Performance Tweaks?
  

Conroy

Exert from a email response I sent in regards to our illustrious Governments filter. Posted here for posterity. Hopefully we can look back and laugh and go 'Conroy? Wasn't he the guy that campaigned to save us against spams and scams coming through the portal? Wasn't he the guy that was so stupid that the 2010 elections ballots had to be kiln-dried before talling because people laughed so hard as his name on the ballots they cried?'
Of course, if we get Gillard for another couple of years, you likely wont be reading this as it will be blacklisted as anti-government propaganda.

Quote: Me, in response to a discussion on the filter via email, 29 June 2010. Names omitted to protect the innocent

Its funny, because until this email I’ve never even looked at it that way. You two argue for and against a filter, I argue against the technical implementation of the filter.

I don’t even oppose A FILTER.

I liked the previous plan installing filters on parents PC’s as they:

· Moved responsibility to the household, and ultimately the parents

· Provided some level of security

· Bypassable unfortunately (Which any solution is. ANY)

I don’t like the proposed filter because:

· It WONT WORK

· It wont stop child pron at all

· It gives your wife a false sense of security in thinking your kids protected

· It will impede our broadband development and speeds which are already behind – This directly impacts economy too

· Extra cost at ISP level – either they pass on the expense to us or what, the GVT will pay – which is us again

· It wont stop torrents, FTP, IRC, what not where the actual harmful stuff is shared

· It should be AT LEAST opt in (As a young bachelor, why do I need content filtering?)

· Its extremely EXTREMLY bypassable (And legal to do so, so duuuh?!?)

· Christ, it will cost people like me even more for internets because ill likely pay for a encrypted proxy connection – internets expensive enough!

· Massive breech of privacy. They will be inspecting each and every packet of information to and from your PC

· Private blacklist means abuse. I think it’s a guarantee it will be abused in some way if its there – power corrupts and all that.

Closing points:

This makes me so angry, only because were being sold a square peg for a round hole!

Ive got a secret for your wife. Don’t tell anyone – the GVT doesn’t want you to know!

You have a filter at home. Its cheap, easy to install, failproof, doesn’t require government funding, sponsorship, and whatnot. It wont impede your privacy, internet speeds. It will also help you grow a true bond with your children and will allow you to explore the wonders of the internets with safety and ease together.

It’s a chair. Move the PC out into the living room (kids shouldn't need more crap in their rooms to give them even more reasons to sit in them all day) and install a chair next to the PC. Install parental ass into said char. Your new filter is set up and ready to go. Even set up free software on your PC to lock the internet out on the kids accounts at certain times, and have designated internets time.

RAID Rundown

A rundown of what I intend to do with FrankeNAS, RAID, and OS differences. Please note its written from a Home media NAS perspective (with some additional services like UPNP, torrents, etc) Not a corporate enviroment.

What is FrankenNAS?
Well, I have a always-on server sitting next to my TV called Frankenputer. Its name came from its origin - it started its life with me as a throw-out desktop from work. It had been sitting covered up by archived paperwork in a small and forgotten shed. I was given it free, and cobbled bits and pieces of it and old hardware I had lying around into a working computer.
Its been running a custom version of XP I made up for a while. Unfortunatly, all ive done is add 1tb external drives to it. These drives have all my digital files, no backup, are tying up a full powerboard, and full, making organizing files a nightmare.
I intend to make a RAID home server, basically a Network Attached Storage (NAS) PC. Hence, FrankenNAS

Kryten says: Frankenstein was the creator - not the monster. It's a common misconception, held by all truly stupid people!

Yes I know Kryters, but I think people will get it.

Porject Goals

• Numerous Terabyte hard drives linked into one volume under RAID-5
• Web administration
• Email notifications
• Run headless (No screen/keyboard/whatnot)
  
• Torrent client with web administration
• MP3 player with iPhone remote capabilities
• Reliable (Windows PC kept dropping of the network for no apparent reason daily)

Whats RAID?
Redundant Array of Independent Disks (Originally Redundant Array of Inexpensive Disks, but thats not longer the only option). Its a number of disks set up to work together. Depending on your RAID level config, it can provide a level of redundancy (i.e. one or two drives can fail, and you wont lose your data), possibly performance increases, and a godsend to me, one volume between all the drives.
So in my RAID-5 setup, 3 x 2tb hard drives would show up as a single 3.7tb 'drive', which can suffer a single hard drive failure, and keep chugging along OK.

What are the numbers after RAID for?
Theres different 'levels' of RAID. the most common are 0, 1, 5, and 1+0 (usually written as RAID-10)
RAID 0: Multiple disks as one volume. No redundancy, and therefore not a true RAID.
RAID 1: Contents of one disk is identically mirrored to another: Total capacity is half the total raw storage space.
RAID 5: Using funky XOR binary mathematics, parity, and a little fairy dust, Shares data and parity amongst disks. Total storage capacity is the total storage space of the drives minus one hard drives worth of storage
RAID 1+0 (RAID 10): A combination of RAID 1 and RAID 0 - pairs of RAID 1 (i.e. mirrored) drives in a large, single volume

Why RAID 5
Better storage capacity. For example, a 4 x 2tb RAID 5 has 6tb (minus 7%) storage space and can handle one drive failure. A 4 x 2tb RAID 10 drive has 4tb (minus 7%) storage space and can handle one drive failure per pair. So if the two failures were HDD 1 & 2 of a pair, goodbye data.

My decision: RAID-5, balance between storage space (I'm not made of money) and some redundancy (can lose a single drive OK)

Oh, so RAID = backup! Yay sausages!
No, and if you dump important data on a RAID and lose it all you had it coming.
RAID DOES NOT MEAN BACKUP.
RAID will give you some level of protection vs hardware failure. It will be useless if:

• PSU dies, taking 2+ HDD's
• More than 1 HDD dies
• If using hardware RAID - If a hardware RAID card dies and you cant get a similar replacement, same diff
  
• Someone breaks into your house and sledgehammers your box
• Flood, fire, acts of god, etc

Always have a backup plan.

Why minus 7% on total capacity?
Manufactures rip everyone off with their total storage PR crap. A drive may have 1TB of storage space avaliable, but your Operating System (OS) must create a file system to archive it, which takes storage space. Usually this is approx 7% of the total drive. It would be like getting a 1000 page blank book from a publisher and filled it with information. You can just dump it in, you have to have contents pages, index pages... So your actual information usage will be less than 1000 pages, it may be more like 930 useful pages and 30 pages for administrative stuff (legal, contents, index, etc) - or 7%.

Software RAID and Hardware RAID? WTF?
Theres two main ways of seting up a RAID - Software and Hardware.
Hardware involves a RAID card (PCI usually, i think, but you might be able to get ones for faster slots). The RAID card (If its any good) does the calculations on parity/sharing/whatnot on it, which means the computers main CPU isnt tied up doing all sorts of crap. Hardware is expensive (>AUD$150-200 for a 8 port RAID controller) but is supposed to be the shiznit.
Software RAID is managed through a OS (Linux, BSD, Windoz, etc). This means the CPU is doing the hard work on calculations. On the upside, its cheaper (cheap as free in many cases) and should do OK for a home system if the budget is tight/Female of the house requires new shoes.

My decision: Software RAID (Not made of money, blah blah)

Which OS to use?
FreeNAS

• Webui
• Torrents build in
• Software RAID
• FreeBSD-based
• Some argue not as mature as a Linux NAS system
• UPNP (Fuppes) Built in
• Basically read for Home server use
• OS so small it can run on next to nothing hardware and can fit onto a CF card into a IDE->CF flash card. This means no HDD specifically for the OS
• Can mount + share other OS's drives (NTFS etc). So if a mate comes around, you can plug in their external USB drives and share it.

The problem I had was when I ran the torrent program, it shut my internet down. After a lot of fiddling, I've found that it was my cheap-o router which was the problem. (I think torrents + it are the reason i was having problems in the past - after 24 hours of torrents my internet connection died and it required a restart)
The security log showed it was blocking massive amounts of SYN FLOOD. Basically the amount of data the 'transmission' torrent program was throwing up was triggering its firewall protection. So, considering ive never used its firewall, I disabled it and all is right again (hopefully even better now)

OpenFiler

• WebUI
• No torrent built in
• Software RAID
• Linux based
• Arguably more mature codebase
• OS needs hard drive
• Cannot mount existing file systems - have to format and copy across

Due to the above.. Meh! Its built toward professional deployment, which is what it is best used for.

Windows
Ill break down the windows option here in installation steps

1. Throw out CD
2. Save time, just take a sledgehammer to your HDD's
3. Same result, less time
   

My decision: FreeNAS!

FrankenNAS?

Alright, its not the project. The project is ready to be sanded and painted, which will take a bit of time.

In the meantime, I'm thoroughly fed up with my headless server sitting next to my plasma/PS3. Its got 1TB external HDD's all over it, and its starting to look like Medusa's hair with all the cables snaking over it.

Im out of HDD space AGAIN, and Its completly disorganized, requires a whole 8 socket powerboard for itself, and its running... XP. But a customized XP, if that makes it any better.

Ive sucked it up and forked out for 3 x 2TB HDDS (for a start, im anticipating ending up at 8 x 2TB when i have more disposable income) and I plan to be running a RAID 5 array shortly.

So tonight, while im recovering from the damn flu, im playing around with FreeNAS on a Virtual Machine. Looking pretty good currently!

More parts

Well, the parts finally arrived so I've been able to get more work done.

What I've imported from China is a VGA to CAT-5 adapter. It was only a few bucks off ebay. This has enabled me to easily pass a CAT-5 cable through the hole between the top and the bottom bit, instead of attempting to splice a proper VGA or DVI cable. I felt this was a much better option.


Right angle VGA adaptor (about 3 pounds from UK delivered) and two male VGA-CAT5 adaptors (about $3AUD from China)

Next up came finally getting all the cables together and getting them to pass between the top and the bottom. I had to get the dremel out with a drum sander attachment and tweak the hole size until it fitted. Wrapping up the cables in some electrical tape was enough to slide it through.


All the top cables taped and slid through the hole. Looks just about right.

Anyway, so the top half's wiring is pretty much complete. My main concern before screwing the lid shut is just doing some real-life testing first, take it to some peoples places, etc. I think I may have to superglue down some cables to ensure I get no cable-rattle.


Top part pretty much done - all the wiring here is done. Just to clean up and fix any rattles/loose cables

Side panel

Well the side panel is almost done. I spend this weekend attempting to finish it off but every time I went ouside it started to rain, and I prefer not to get electrocuted.

I outlined where everything was to go on paper, cut out a cardboard section to make sure it would all fit, drew that onto the metal and dremel'd myself stupid. Unfortunatly, the USB holes arnt perfect (even after spending about a hour hand-filing them) but they should clean up neat later on.

The panel here is missing a network port. The one I currently have is a bit of a pain to fit well, so I might hunt around for another type.

Layout of the panel	Work area outside Work area in the BBQ area
Side panel dummy-fitted into project	Testing out the plugs

Project Addition?

Mate sent me a link from hackaday (Thanks murph) - a guy that built a small usb plug-in multi-video-games-system that plugs into a computer and allows you to play emulated games via the authentic controllers (Link)

Now, considering ive already planned to use that 15-pin adapter linked up to the I-Pac, why not do the same for the project.

In this light, I have started looking around for original controllers to slowly start buying up.

Also, check out his arcade room! (Link)

Audio again?

Ok, so I haven't finished with the audio. I realized I hadn't done the last part - support for external audio.

Playing on the jukebox made me realize just how bad the speakers sound for actual music. I would much prefer to have support for external audio. This will mean a additional cable from the top to the bottom, but I think its worth the effort.

So today I have unsoldered the Line Out adaptor and ran another extension cable for it, so that i can put a Line Out in the bottom . To test this, I whipped out my trusty alligator cables and tested it out. After a bit of fiddling, I have a working Line Out jack that disables the internal speakers when a external source is connected.


Working trial of the external jack - disables internal speakers when external audio is plugged in.

Wiring win!

Tested out the 240V wiring that I completed last year. I was waiting for the sparky at work to continuity check it, but every time I brought in the project he wasnt there, every time i didnt he was there, and now hes on holdiays in New Zealand. Dammit.

So I continuity checked it myself twice, double-checked the whole circuit, ensured all points were well and truly insulated, and plugged it in. First with no load, second with the speaker powerpack plugged in, third with the monitor included, and fourth the whole thing. It worked perfectly.

Please note: DONT TRY THIS AT HOME. GET IT CHECKED BY A QUALIFIED ELECTRICIAN, OR EVEN BETTER, DONE BY A QUALIFIED ELECTRICIAN.

Now that im not suffering from a bad case of death, its onward to other areas of improvment.

Audio circuit round #3

"Today I have debugged the sound system (Lost a channel of audio, pulled the whole thing apart and later found it was the wire snapped off its solder on the audio circuit, and was stuck in place with the plastic so I couldn't tell it had snapped), got the 240V wiring done, and finialized the audio circuits." - Nat Allan, Jan 24, 2010.

Audio finalized? Bwahaha, what a idiot.

Over the last 3 days I have struggled with the audio stuff more. I had massive trouble extending out the potentiometer for the volume control... When I did so, the voulme got jammed at maximum and moving the volume knob just tuned RADIO STATIONS. Immensely frustrating, even if i did manage to get the footy scores.

Of course, not only did the potentiometer turn out to be broken, but some moron who will remain nameless used single wires from a roll he had to extend the volume pot, not sheilded audio cable he specifically bought for that exact purpose.


Braided single core wire mixed with audio = fail.

At jaycar, I bought (Amogst other stuff I didnt specifically need of course) a A10K Double-Gang potentiometer. The old one was linear (B10k) but I decided to try out a logrithmic pot, as they are supposed to be 'correct' for hearing (as human hearing works on a log scale as well). Unfortunatly, ive found this computer speaker amp hits a comfortably loud volume at 1K ohms, so having a 10K pot is overkill anyway.


Working temporary rig with cannobalized 50k pot from spare parts. The Project was playing a random SNES advertisment at the time, and as i took the pic it summised my feelings on finially getting it working.


Working log scale double-gang pot. Hooked it up temporarily with alligator clips to ensure I had it marginally right.

Above, you can see ive purchased spare alligator clips (Sooooo handy). When I was trialing with the pots earlier,l i only had 2 alligator clips, so i spend hours soldering and unsoldering when it didnt work. Big pack of alligator clips pre-made at Jaycar for $11 bucks has already saved me hours.


In non-audio news, ive also wired up the 80mm case fan mounted in the top of the box (to help remove heat from the monitor/sound adaptor. This has been directly wired into the DC input of the audio board (dammit, go away audio). I thought this would be a terrible idea in terms of noise on the audio's power line, but it makes no audiable difference. I did have to wire in two 100ohm resisters into the cable however to trim back the fan speed as it was two loud. These i wired in parallel to get a resistance of 50ohm (I think thats how the maths goes) as i couldn't be bothered finding a 50ohm resistor in my spare box when i had two 100's in front of me. Below the resistors are spliced in-line under the green shrink-tube.


Two 100ohm resistors wired in parallel on the top fan's power to bring down the speed to keep it nice and quiet.

Sound

Well, Ive done a little work on the sound circuit as shown below. Since ive removed the variable resistor from the circuit and basically added a extension cord, ive had to make up a bracket for it

Work continues

Well, now its coming up on a year of being going, sigh. Epic Project.

Today I have debugged the sound system (Lost a channel of audio, pulled the whole thing apart and later found it was the wire snapped off its solder on the audio circuit, and was stuck in place with the plastic so I couldn't tell it had snapped), got the 240V wiring done, and finialized the audio circuits.

I decided to put the audio circuit in the top part of the box, to help de-clutter the base. This will mean more wires needed to run to the base (as the volume control variable resistor requires 5 wires) but will easily fit.

New workplace	Mains circuit complete
Mains wiring halfway	Audio circuit finished