Monday 30 December 2013

梅艷芳 - 抱緊眼前人

抱緊眼前人

作詞:潘源良
作曲:林子祥
編曲:倫永亮/Terry Chan

本應相愛 本應相襯 命裡註定同行卻未能
捨不得不愛 巴不得一世 唯願抱緊眼前人

匆匆一世 深深一吻 就此以後無從愛別人
若只得今晚 可偷偷走近 誰又理得天鎖禁

*愛你就算將跌入永遠黑暗 但這一刻抱緊 多麼確實無用再覓尋
更多更詳盡歌詞 在 ※ Mojim.com 魔鏡歌詞網 
 浮沉人在世 快樂循環又傷心 但願愛得最動人

#一宵的愛 一生的印 儘管最後如同過路人
 捨不得不愛 巴不得一世 唯願抱緊眼前人

Repeat *,#

唯願抱緊眼前人


Tuesday 24 December 2013

DIY Tube Buffer for S/PDIF

最近認識 Lampizator 呢個品牌, 原來主事人 Lukasz 之前有教人摩 CDT / CDP, 主要係加個膽係 S/PDIF 輸出和摩改電容. 我跟住佢個 tutorial, 都做了一個這樣的膽Buffer.
材料是一些400V 電容, 兩粒幾uF 的MKP, 一些電阻 一支三極膽和一隻R牛.


 牛輸出180V AC 和 6.3V AC. 180V 整流穩壓後供給Cathode, 6.3V 供給 Heater. S/PDIF 輸入接Grid, Anode 接 S/PDIF 輸出.

做好的樣子
接PiCoreplayer (squeezelite) + DDC 

Tuesday 19 November 2013

Raspberry Pi Setup As MPD Sever - Part 2

This is to continue last post about Raspberry Pi setup as MPD server. With Arch Linux setup and ready to play music using MPD, the next thing to do is to make it read-only so as to minimize the wrap n' wear to the SD card.



1. (This step is copied from Voyage MPD with some modification. Credit goes to the creator of this script in Voyage MPD.)

1a. Create the following new service:

vi /etc/systemd/system/voyage.service
===========================================================
[Unit]
Description=Voyage Sync
Wants=network.target
After=systemd-udevd.service

[Service]
Type=oneshot
RemainAfterExit=yes

ExecStart=/usr/local/sbin/voyage-sync start
ExecStart=/usr/local/sbin/voyage-util start

ExecStop=/usr/local/sbin/voyage-util stop
ExecStop=/usr/local/sbin/voyage-sync stop

[Install]
WantedBy=multi-user.target

===========================================================

1b. Execute command to enable the new service, so that it starts automatically in every boot up.

systemctl enable voyage.service

1c. Copy from Voyage MPD, the files in "/usr/local/sbin" to the same folder in Arch Linux.
1d. chmod -Rf 755 /usr/local/sbin



2. Auto mounting of USB media and update MPD music library on-the-fly
(source from a tool called USBFlash  with some modification: http://code.google.com/p/yad/wiki/USBFlash)
vi /etc/udev/rules.d/11-auto-mount.rules
===========================================================
KERNEL!="sd[a-z]*", GOTO="auto_mount_end"
KERNEL=="sd[a-z]", GOTO="auto_mount_end"
ACTION=="add", PROGRAM!="/sbin/blkid %N", GOTO="auto_mount_end"

# Set environment
ACTION=="add", IMPORT{program}="/sbin/blkid -o udev -p -s TYPE -s LABEL %N"

# Global mount options
ACTION=="add", ENV{mount_options}="relatime,users,umask=0,ro"

# Filesystem specific options
ACTION=="add", ENV{ID_FS_TYPE}=="ntfs", ENV{mount_options}="%E{mount_options},utf8"

# Get mount point
ACTION=="add", ENV{ID_FS_LABEL}=="?*", PROGRAM="/usr/bin/basename '%E{ID_FS_LABEL}'", ENV{dir_name}="%c"
ACTION=="add", ENV{dir_name}!="?*", ENV{dir_name}="USB-%k"
 

# Main action
ACTION=="add", ENV{dir_name}=="?*", RUN+="/bin/mkdir '/var/lib/mpd/music/%E{dir_name}'", RUN+="/bin/mount -o %E{mount_options} /dev/%k '/var/lib/mpd/music/%E{dir_name}'", RUN+="find /var/lib/mpd/music -type d -empty -delete", RUN+="/usr/bin/mpc update"
ACTION=="remove", ENV{dir_name}=="?*", RUN+="/bin/umount -l '/var/lib/mpd/music/%E{dir_name}'", RUN+="find /var/lib/mpd/music -type d -empty -delete", RUN+="/usr/bin/mpc update"

LABEL="auto_mount_end"

# label must be cleared
ENV{ID_FS_LABEL}=""

===========================================================

(Afterword: I still prefer loading PiCorePlayer in my Pi. The next thing to do is to make a case for Pi.)

Monday 18 November 2013

My Linear Power Supply for (CAS) PCs

After months of work, my linear power supply is almost complete.
This is a one box solution with 7 outputs:12Vx4 & 5Vx3. The toroidal transformer is a 300VA O-shape transformer made by Simon62:
http://item.taobao.com/item.htm?id=19559581859

Different outputs are designed for different PCs:
1 - 12V 5A - NAS (Atom 2800MT, 4T 3.5" WD Red) + My desktop PC (Haswell i3 35W TDP, SSD)
2 - 12V 3A - PC dedicated for CD ripping (AMD E2100 9W TDP, 2T 3.5" WD Red + CD-ROM)
3 - 12V 3A - PC dedicated for CAS (Celeron 1037u 18W TDP, SSD + 500G 2.5" WD Blue)
4 - 12V 3A - reserved
5 - 5V 3A - Network Hub
6 - 5V 1.5A - Fiber-Ethernet Media Converters
7 - 5V 1.5A - Power for hard drives of CAS PC.





HOLO Audio T.Rex MK II

前天收到了, 這是去年 Jeff Zhu 出的一台解碼的改版. 更新如下:

1. 供電重新設計
2. 不使用 IC op. amp, 改用discrete op. amp.
3. 增加了 RCA 輸出, 之前的XLR -> RCA 的方法現在不適用
4. USB 輸入改用 XMOS 方案, 跟之前的北極鷗 DDC一樣




 因為新的機箱未完成, 我收到的工程樣版用的箱是舊版的箱,至使尾板不適用.


 上面的是我的(舊版), 下面的是MK II 工程樣版.

Wednesday 23 October 2013

Raspberry Pi Setup As MPD Sever

Setup MPD on Raspberry Pi:
Credit to the tutorial below:
http://hempeldesigngroup.com/embedded/stories/raspberry-pi-setup-as-mpd-sever/

I've some updates on top of it...
1. Download arch linux image from ArchLinux Raspberry Pi page:
http://archlinuxarm.org/platforms/armv6/raspberry-pi

2. Load the image to a SD card with 2G or more. Win32 Disk Imager is recommended:
http://sourceforge.net/projects/win32diskimager/

3. After loading the image, put the card into Pi and power up, wait for 1 minute, then use IP scanner to find the IP address of Pi, just pick one below or google for others.
http://www.eusing.com/ipscan/free_ip_scanner.htm
http://sourceforge.net/projects/ipscan/
http://download.cnet.com/Advanced-IP-Scanner/3000-18508_4-10115592.html

4. Putty to that IP at port 22
http://www.chiark.greenend.org.uk/~sgtatham/putty/download.html

5. login ID is "root", password is "root"

6. Make private key for auto authenticate (optional)
You may follow the tutorial below for detail setup procedure:
http://www.ualberta.ca/CNS/RESEARCH/LinuxClusters/pka-putty.html

7. Change timezone
Run the tzselect script to figure out which timezone you should be in, then note the output – in my case its America/Toronto.
Add the following text to a new file called /etc/profile.d/timezone.sh – this will cause the timezone to be set whenever a user logs in.

TZ='Asia/Hong_Kong
export TZ

Monday 21 October 2013

Another ground box - My 2nd DIY ground box + power bar

With the power bar running for a month, I decided to further improve it so that it also act as an "earth box". An earth box is just a box with some "stones" inside that absorb free electrons produced by the electronic appliances. We all know that the "ground" of the AC main is just a relative ground with relative zero impedance. It has best effort to provide a zero voltage level with zero impedance to the electronic appliance so that in case of electricity leakage, the electricity will be drawn into earth (a large reservoir of free electrons) instead of going via human body. In realty, it will never be "zero" by all means. The earth box helps a little bit in absorbing (from my understanding) some free electrons so that the earth is "closer" to the ideal case.

The earth box, as you can see below, is just a box with some good conductors and some black stones. There're lot of DIYers doing similar earth box and they use different kinds of stones with different proportion. I don't have any experience in such detail, what I've done so far is just a random event.















A new life for my cubieboard2

With the release of voyage on cubie board 2 (a.k.a Allwinner A20), my A20 gets a new life.

Thanks to Mr. Punky Tse, the Voyage MPD is now being ported into A20 with support of audiophile quality music playback including DSD support. Mr. Pinky emphasised in the release note that "MPD binds to a single core while leaving another core for interrupts, etc.", that's a good idea!

By following the setup guide provided by Punky, I have loaded the Mubox into A20 successfully within 30 minutes. The sound quality is similar to cubox.

After running it for two days non-stop. I decided to give the A20 a solid case so that it can be placed in my Hifi rack safely.

The case is an aluminum alloy metal case with 2mm thickness at the front, rear, top and bottom, 4mm thickness at the sides

First of all, mark the positions for holes...

After working on the metalsmithing for two hours, the case is shaped to fit with A20 perfectly.




The three wires are used for serial link connectivity. Green is TX, white is RX, black is Ground.


Saturday 19 October 2013

好耐無出post,先來一個

由這post起,我會用英文打,因為用英文可以有多人可以分享交流

Tuesday 10 September 2013

給 LX800 一個殼

之前玩個LX800出到聲, 發覺它唔錯, 正正常常好穩定, 於是就去揾個殼給它...
揾左好耐, 原來要揾做合適的殼給它是十分困難的. 最後揾左個比較高身的殼, 連運費$60HKD.
安好的模樣
前方開左兩個孔放黃LED(network activity) 和綠色LED(power)


  開孔因為全人手, 用手鋸, 手銼, 整左兩個鐘好辛苦...
前前後後做左四個鐘. 煲了一晚都好正常, 只係微暖.

Tuesday 3 September 2013

做個 Power Bar

先多謝 Tony 兄, 介紹左個 active filter. 不貴, 買了個玩玩.
加埋三個古河插座: 炭纖鍍金, 鍍銠和鍍金三個.
現在只有鍍銠過 filter. 會給 DIY 牛用
個箱$350,  插座2千多,filter $400. 簡單易做.




Monday 2 September 2013

Adnaco-S3B – USB 3.0 Over Fiber Optic Expansion System

先多謝網友 Blau 兄的幫忙, 令我順利買左 Adnaco-S3B. 唔買Adnaco PCIe 係因為唔想花太多錢去再買埋張USB卡.同埋Adnaco-S3B體積也較小,client 只要一個5V 500mA的供電已經可以.




Sunday 25 August 2013

LX800 上裝 Voyage

經一位網友指點, 我得知原來有些二手的LX800可以買入來安裝 Voyage MPD. 於是上星期便拍了一件回來.
星期一收到的


收到後當然第一時間試試, 我先把 Voyage 安裝在一張4G CF 卡上, 插上, 給它5V供電 (是的, 雖然它有12V和5V, 但其實它只要5V), 通電後 3秒它發出 beep 一聲. 但過了很久, 我還是不能找到它的 IP address.

有可能的原因是:
1. CF 卡不被它認出
2. CF 卡能認出, 但 boot機途中出現錯誤
3. CF 卡能認出, boot 機也沒問題, 只是找不到 eth0...等等可能性

因為沒有 serial cable (RS232), 而且它是沒有VGA的, 我只有靠估...
試了很久, 心想, 沒有顯示, 這樣等也不是辦法, 於是又上去拍了 Serial to USB 和 Serial female-to-female 回來...
到了星期四, 收到這些線


插好, 用 putty 打開 COM7, 給電, beep, 過了3分鐘依然沒有畫面... 問了賣家, 他的回應是, "我也不知".... 我心想, 莫非真是要放棄?

因為有別的忙, 又放它一邊沒理會...

到了星期六(今天), 又拿它出來看看, 給它最後機會吧, 如果都唔得便拿落樓下的電腦回收(剛好今天有流動回收車來), 仔細看看, 原來它是有個 15針的VGA 接口, 但不知何故沒有銲上插座. 我想是不是這板子有不同的版本, 因為大量生產便有些沒有銲這VGA接口, 即是可能就算我加上接口座也不會有訊號... 但唔試過又點知, 於是下午我就出去買左粒 D-sub 座(要成 $6 HKD, 拍回來的話不用 $1 RMB !!! 但我心急)

安了上去,通電, 即時有畫面, 原來是 work 的, 這 $6 也沒有白費哦!
原來這東西只有128M RAM, 是 AMD Geode GX-MMX (LX800), Primary Master 的 hard disk 是一個 mini IDE 的插槽. Primary Slave 才是 CF 卡的插槽.

看看它的開機畫面:

開機到一半出現這句:
ide_dma_sff_timer_expiry: DMA status (0x41)

又攪了三四個鐘, 上網找, 試不同的設定, 終於找到解決方法. 是要叫 Voyage 不要用 DMA.


 最後, 原來有一個 LAN port 是不能用的.