Category Archives: Hardware

Hardware reviews

Canon S90

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S90's image is on the left, the SD850's is to the right

After several years of trusty service (the first few months were a battle, but that’s besides the point), I’m replacing my PowerShot SD850 IS with something a little more advanced. Since I’m not ready to take the plunge into the world of DSLR, and didn’t want something terribly large, the S90 fit the bill. Simply put, there are too many things to love about the S90. It’s small (though slightly larger than the SD850), has a fast lens, has a large (for a ‘point and shoot’) sensor, and has a control right around the lens.

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Wood Hard Drive Case Mod Part Four

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Now for the fourth set of images for this project. I finally found some stain that I liked, and hence went to town staining the wood case. The stain is a gell stain, which I’ve never worked with before. Since it was old (found it in a bunch of old wood working tools) I was surprised it was any good. It says to apply liberally and wipe off after 5 to 10 minutes. Due to it’s age, leaving it on that long would result in it drying too much, a very bad thing, but nothing a little water can’t take care of.

The case all fits together now, but the mounts for the hard drive are causing some problems that allow it to power up but Windows will not recognize it. What is happening is the little converter board that plugs into the hard drive gets tweaked and the data connector loses it’s connection. This will require redrilling mounting holes in the bottom aluminum plate, this time I’m going to use the drill press and hopefully that will be the end of the project.

-John Havlik

Masking the status/power LED window.
Testing the gell stain on the inside.
After removal of gell stain.
Applied gell stain to the outside.
Another view of gell stain on the outside.
First removal, nice color, but too light for this mod.
Closeup of the one side, the color is nice, but not what I’m after.
Another picture of the case with the lite stain.
Overall view of the lighter color.
Application of second layer of stain gell.
After removal of the second layer of stain gell.
Another view of the richer color.
Soldering up the status LED.
Closeup of the lead on the status LED.
Status LED connected to board.
Glueing the status LED into the window area.
Using a bit of hot/thermal glue to adhear the status LEDs.
Notice how tall that is, it didn’t fit so I had to redo the status LED.
After a bit of clipping, the status LED now fits properly.
Adding more glue.
A better closeup of the new, shorter assembly.
Nice rich color of the outside of the case.
Overview of the stained case.
Everything is put together now.
Time for a little testing, the white LED is for power, blue for activity.
Here you can see the white LED better.

Wood Hard Drive Case Mod Part Three

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Onto the third set of pictures for the wooden external hard drive case. As of now all that really needs to be done is to stain the wood. Since I don’t have the stain I want to use at hand, that part is not complete yet. Since the last set, the attachment mechanism was figured out. Turns out wood glue works good for tapping wood for M3 screws. The activity and power LEDs were mounted together, and the polycarbonate window for them was placed in the case.

-John Havlik

Going To Use Some Wood Glue To Thread The Holes
Using Wood Glue To Thread The Wood
M3 Screw In Glue To Cast Threads
M3 Screw All The Way In
All Four M3s In Glue Waiting To Dry
Removing Screw After Glue Dried
The Glue Threaded Hole
Drilling Out The Power/Activity LED Hole
Frosted Polycarbonate Window For Activity/Power LED
Second View Of Frosted Window
Using A Little CA Glue As A Screw Locking Agent
Blue + White LED Joined By CA Glue

Wood Hard Drive Case Mod Part Duex

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Here is the second set of photos from the external hard drive case mod. I ran into a few problems, some out of haste, but oh well. The wood also decided to warp due to the increased humidity that accompanies Minnesotan summers. Anyways, like last time the photos are in the gallery after the break.

-John Havlik

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Vostro 1400’s 5.1 Surround Sound

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Believe it or not the Vostro 1400 does have built in 5.1 Surround Sound and can drive analog outputs for such a setup. The plug-order from left to right on the front of the laptop is front (green plug), center/sub (orange plug), rear (black plug). After plugging into the ports, go to your control panel, and open up the SigmaTel Audio panel. Under the “Jack Setup” tab right click on each of the jacks (which each should have a green check mark over if you have plugged something into them). In the pop-up menu select the appropriate setting. Then back in Control Panel go to the Sound Panel select the Speakers/Headphones option/device and click on the configure button, select “5.1 Surround” in the Audio channels list. Continue on through the setup and when done everything should work in full 5.1 surround goodness. Naturally, the on board sound isn’t as good as the sound from my X-Fi, but I don’t have the 5.1 breakout box for the X-Fi yet. Dell’s choice to place the audio jacks on the front of the Vostro isn’t the best of design choices as they get in the way of the keyboard a little bit. However, it really isn’t that bad.

I really wish all laptop manufactures would standardize on a common docking station interface which would consist of a PCI Express x16 connector plus an express card interface located in the port (plus power of course), which in the base station would allow for full sized x16 graphics card to be installed and either a normal PCI, x1 card, or express card to be installed as well, plus 4 or so USB ports on the dock. That way you can game with the laptop when docked (Geforce 9800GT anyone?) yet get the power benefits of having an IGP while mobile (I really enjoy my 5+ hours of battery life with the normal 6 cell battery).

-John Havlik

[end of transmission, stay tuned]