I am thinking about selling the old girl. We’ve been together for quite a while but she is not getting ridden much these days. At 207Kg wet weight (or 458lb) She is classed as a middle weight but I am finding her a bit heavy to move about, especially compared to the 97Kg (214lb) Address. Read more
The windscreen wipers started immediately – not sure if this is good news.
The engine would not start – this is bad news Read more
An update to the Tiny Mixer Preamp to add Mic/instrument balance control Read more
As I have moved over (almost) completely from windows to a MacBook I think it’s time I consolidated my original post.
I am almost completely Appled. But I have an Android Tablet that gets used extensively for reading books with Readera, Web browsing with FireFox, and reading magazine with Readly.. Read more
Quite a few years ago I put a wordpress site together. It took a lot of effort and I could not get it to look the way I wanted it. Then updates to Wordpress and the plugins I used kept breaking the site and I finally went back to an html site. I have been using a html editor to maintain my sites for a long time. Then I went and bought a Macbook.
There is no decent html for a Macbook. Nothing comes anywhere close to Microsoft Expression Web 4 (MEW4 or EW4). But Wordpress sites can be created on any platform with a web browser… Read more
We don’t have a TV in the Van, and we don’t miss it. When we are away we tend to be out and about or, if we are in for a while, we read quite a lot. But it would be nice to occasionally watch something.
I have recently bought another tablet, a Samsung Tab A 10.5. I bought from Amazon as “renewed” for £145. It looks brand new to me. My other tablet, a Samsung Galaxy Note 10.1, is still working very well but many newer apps won’t work on the older operating system.
So I looked at the possibility of downloading programs or films from our streaming services (BBC Iplayer, Netflix, and Amazon Prime) to look at in the Van.
Firstly I needed to see how much memory I’d need. Read more
After years of Windows (from Windows 3.1 through to 10) I have finally bought a Macbook.
Why? My Lenovo was starting to have battery problems – only lasting a 2-3 hours. My Samsung never lasted long on battery and it’s really too big for a laptop. I use a lap top on my lap! Both are windows 7 machines and some of the newer apps are not supported… Read more
This is about a preamp I made for personal use with the Home Made Busking Amp. but it will work happily with any amp or PA system. It works fine with our Behringer B208D for example.
It is all contained in a 2″ x 4″ die-cast box which can be attached to the mic stand (I use a niece of an old motorcycle inner tube) or simply laid on the floor.
It is powered by a 9V PP3 battery.
It takes about 1.2mA from the battery when in use, slightly more if the clipping LED operates. Read more
I play in Tin Taxi, an acoustic duo
We do some busking and also the occasional spot in various locations. This is a description of the amp I made.
We had been using a VOX DA5 for busking. It wasn’t bad. It had a guitar input with tone control and lots of special effects which we didn’t use , a single mic input with a volume control and an aux input with no control at all. The sound was good, but it was not really ideal for an acoustic duo. But it had a nice enclosure and a nice speaker, so I used those. Read more
We were 100 miles into an 800 mile 4 day round trip, and we pulled into a service station. It was very cold so I went to turn on the Truma heater. It wasn’t having it. There was no spark for the ignition. I tried changing the battery in the igniter, but to no avail. So we faced several nights in the van at temperatures below zero without a heater. Oh the joys of motor homing.
But we have two other back up heaters in the van…. Read more