WOPR succeeds XPC

Ah technology, that thing we have been acclimated to adopt as literally an extension of our mind, and now find we cannot live without.  I struggled to save the XPC for months.  XPC died in early January, and I have been replacing various pieces, and parts over the last couple months.  Finally I had to accept that my XPC was dead, and I have to move on.  However the spirit (software) of XPC will live on in a new host, WOPR.  WOPR is an AMD A-10 processor with integrated Radeon Graphics Processor, a much better physical representation indeed.

I was amazed at the speed of integration.  Everything worked the first time, and installed with amazing speed.  I had none of the hassles that I had become so accustomed to.  The operating system installed in less than 30 minutes, with no driver headaches.  I was able to restore my archived data easily, and now less than 12 hours later all of my software tools are installed, and usable.  Plus they all run much faster.  I should have done this a couple years ago when XPC suffered its first hard drive crash.  The part I was most worried about was my CAD software.  I was able to install it in 15 minutes, again no driver headaches, and it ran the first time.  XPCs spirit (software) lives in WOPR now... 

Mike's Solder Smoke Suckers

This began as a plan to make something useful out of scrapped parts that serves a useful purpose.  I work in a shop that mandates the use of no clean solder flux which is very irritating on the mucus membranes, and there is a need to keep this smoke away from you.  Scrapped computer fans do this very efficiently.  I then built a motley set of very scrappy looking Solder Smoke Suckers.  But then after building a dozen fans I ran out of scrapped components, and had to source parts.  This is when I went to the surplus electronics store, and bought surplus components to build the Solder Smoke Suckers.

Now rather that relying on what I could scavenge out of the scrap bins, I could specify parts, and literally design a product.  These look much better than the early Smoke Suckers on blocks of wood.  This also let me redesign in a way that minimized the foot print, and noise.  I chose a ball bearing fan that is extremely quiet.  The base has been reduced to a piece of Aluminum sheeting with silicone rubber feet.  The speed control potentiometer also has a power switch now, and I added a nice blue LED for the power on indicator.  I can build one of these with surplus components for less than $20.

Tanner Electronics also had some nice chrome plated fan screens that look cool.  I picked the right size stainless steel hardware, and nylon insert lock nuts to hold the mechanical pieces together.  If I was to source the parts to build these fans with new parts they would still probably less than $40.  Eventually I will run out of surplus parts, and have to build them from new parts.  I've been sourcing new parts, and building the bill of materials to build a new Solder Smoke Sucker, which eventually I'll offer for sale here.

Maybe eventually this will be my little hobby thing that turned into a business...