So, I decided that I wanted to play an instrument and that I would try to teach myself to play the bass guitar. IDK, I need more hobbies like I need holes in my head (21 apparently).

I bought a used bass, and tried to set it up myself. It worked well enough, but I knew there was a ton of stuff wrong with the more I fiddled and played. The intonation kept drifting and I had a lot of buzzing from the strings hitting things. One of the first things I would need to fix was the worn nut. Tooling for that was about $150 so instead I decided that the best thing was to buy a new bass. I still want to fix the old one, but now I can learn how a properly set bass should behave instead of second guessing myself and spending more in time and effort then a replacement.

Like a few other items on the blog, these are some notes for me to self reference that I thought someone else could find useful.

Things to read

How to adjust the truss rod & action, after which you should set the intonation.

If your instrument sounds out of tune as you get further down the neck, you need to set the intonation.

Equipment I recommend

One thing that I’ve found is cheaper is not better, or necessarily versatile.

• Fender Mustang Micro Headphone Amp. This unit can connect to your bluetooth device as a speaker. So you can play along to bass tabs from youtube or music on your phone and not worry about ground loops. As an added bonus, the amp connects to laptop via USB-C as a sound card. And I believe the music being played over the bluetooth connection streamed out to the soundcard as well.
• Pedal Tuner. Seems to work well enough However, it isn’t the best for intonation, and you need a battery and cable.
• Stroboscope tuner is the standard for intonation (and with a price tag to match). But you may as well put the $30-$75 for a cheap tuner towards this and be done.
• Bass strap. I just liked how this one looked.

Equipment I Hate

• Vox Amplug 2. I hate this thing – using the aux port would give me a ground loop from hell and it never sounded right. The Mustang Micro was so worth switching to.

Other Misc Stuff

• bass guitar for dummies book
• Power supply to power just the pedal tuner
• Slinky Strings I like them, but I don’t know if they’re something for everyone or even every bass.

Have I mentioned I don’t really know anything about playing or working on the bass? I’ll figure it out.

Over the last few years I’ve heard a lot about how we need to “trust the science,” “trust the government,” etc.  Here is a compendium of reasons from reasonable sources (or well cited) that we should always ask questions.  I’m not saying that in every case below people were purposefully acting maliciously, although the Tuskegee Syphilis experiments definitely qualify, but if no one had challenged and questioned …. what would have happened?

I would like to point that as a child I was taught that science never solved anything.  And that by questioning the tests you strengthened the results.

The cases below are offered for your perusal, interpretation, and consideration into “asking questions,” which is not always the same as challenging authority.  The constitution and law has given us a process to challenge authority and it should be followed.

1. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Buck_v._Bell
2. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Agent_Orange#U.S._veterans
3. https://www.cdc.gov/tuskegee/timeline.htm Tuskegee Syphilis experiments
4. https://helix.northwestern.edu/article/thalidomide-tragedy-lessons-drug-safety-and-regulation. Thalidomide was a “wonder drug” for babies, and then they started being born short limbs.
5. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Catholic_Church_sexual_abuse_cases
6. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operation_Mockingbird
7. https://www.businessinsider.com/army-sprayed-st-louis-with-toxic-dust-2012-10
8. https://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/spoonful-sugar-helps-radioactive-oatmeal-go-down-180962424/
9. https://www.nhregister.com/news/article/Shocking-medical-experiments-are-part-of-U-S-11573849.php
10. https://www.cidrap.umn.edu/news-perspective/2002/11/gao-military-anthrax-shots-caused-many-reactions-prompted-some-pilots-quit. As a side note, review this. It states, “About 20 percent of those infected will develop difficulty breathing and a bloodstream infection that causes death. If treated with antibiotics, less than 2 percent of infected persons will die.” This is not for inhaled anthrax but for blood infection anthrax. The risk profile is so low that mass vaccination is not recommended. If anthrax becomes a used bioweapon the threat profile would change, though thankfully the vaccine appears to protect (per the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia link above) against inhaled anthrax as well. This is why military personnel heading into a high threat profile are vaccinated.
11. https://www.atomicheritage.org/history/human-radiation-experiments. Plutonium injections into 18 individuals, who were not informed of the injections.
12. Kellog’s Asthma Relief
13. COINTELPRO, illegal wiretapping and alleged assassinations. COINTELPRO style operations are alleged to continue into today according to the article.
14. Ruby Ridge, combined with WACO which forced the United States government into “compliance” with their own laws – funny how that works.
15. While it might be unfair to say that the government poisoned drinks during prohibition, they did add poison to various alcohols not intended for consumption.  An allegory would be adding laxatives to Scope mouthwash.  https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/factcheck/2020/06/30/fact-check-u-s-government-poisoned-some-alcohol-during-prohibition/3283701001/

This will be a rolling post, updated as I feel relevant. 

Backstory ….

I bought this thing in early 2017, and was never quite able to get it running.  At the time, it was mostly do to my inexperience with 3d printers.  I ended up buying a Monoprice Mini on Black Friday, and there’s quite a few projects on the blog detailing my usage.  At the beginning of the year, I started having trouble with my monoprice. I was thinking about getting a prusa mini, but decided to that it would be a better idea to bring this back online.  I already had the Anet (just never quite got it functioning) and it had a much bigger bed.  What could go wrong, I asked myself.

So, my “process”

The biggest issue with the Anet A8 as I purchased it was that the bed didn’t stay flat.  So, I built a wood cube to both store it in and help keep the flat down.

In the anet OEM firmware, when a thermistor dies the firmware turns the heaters on to try to ramp the temperature up.  This could result in the printer trying to burn your house down.  So, I tried to install the marlin firmware following this guide from all3dp. I had trouble compiling the firmware, but in the process of trying to update the firmware I managed to wipe the board.  So, I had to figure out how to recover the firmware.

A brief guide to recovering the firmware on the anet board

Anet doesn’t burn the bootloader to the board, so to be able recover/upgrade the stock firmware you’ll need and ISP programmer.  While ISP programmers with specific headers are available at various places, I wanted this now at 1AM on Saturday. You can press an Arduino Nano into service as an ISP programmer: http://www.martyncurrey.com/arduino-nano-as-an-isp-programmer/

One modification I made was to put a 1PDT switch inline with the 5 volt power line of ISP programmer so that I could isolate the Arduino (and this my computer) from the Anet’s board.  You could use the switch, or make sure that you aren’t powering the board from the wall while burning the firmware.  Make sure you tie the reset pin on the arduino to GND with a capacitor otherwise you’ll get a weird error that means nothing – in my case one of the three checksums would be correct but the rest would fail.

The design is kind of overkill, but I always seem to get myself into trouble and need random things like this.  Next was to build an ISP header to match my board to the anet ISP header.  I found image below on instructables.

After that, connect the arduinoISP to the isp header.  Start the Arduino IDE, and use the “Burn Bootloader” function in the IDE.

I still couldn’t compline the marlin firmware (compilation errors), but wanted to get the printer up and running so I decided to reinstall the oem firmware which is/was available at the Anet website.  Anet distributes a hex file, so off to the command line to flash the firmware

~/arduino-1.8.12/hardware/tools/avr/bin/avrdude -c arduino -P /dev/ttyUSB0 -p m1284p -b 115200 -U flash:w:A8_chuchang20160525.hex a -C ~/arduino-1.8.13/hardware/tools/avr/etc/avrdude.conf -v -v -v -v

Can I print yet?

Technically, yes by running an SD card I could print.  However, I’ve started to really like printing with OctoPrint in control.  Remote control, better file management, onboard webcam.  Mix in a relay to control power to the board (which I had to modify to use a car relay because the anet uses more amps then the stock relay on the board).

setup octoprint to control the relay by some custom mixing in the yaml file

Originally, I had the camera mounted to the ceiling of the cube, but I couldn’t tell if a print was lifting or not. I also had an issue where the filament bound and I wasn’t able to detect an issue from the ceiling.  So, I made an from some 3/32″ tig wire so that as the z axis rises through the layers, the camera maintains a view of the nozzle. Depending on how fast the nozzle is moving I can get some shaking in the camera but I’m not trying for an instagram quality video feed.

I was still having a problem with the print lifting off the bed.  At that time in the basement, start up temps are 5/6°C (42°F).  While the bed and nozzle maintain temp, the rest of the print doesn’t.  I added a panel to the back of the cube, and a door to the front.  This seems to have solved the lifting problem.

I also built a hanger for the filament spool in the cabinet.  So far, its working great.

But can I print yet?

I did run a number of prints.  However, one night I again experienced trouble with getting the bed up to temp.  And here is what I discovered:

The bed connectors are technically rated for the load, but have gone bad. So, the printer is once again trying to burn my house down.  So, off to Grainger for a suitable replacement. I went with these screw terminal connectors.

We’ll see how these work out.

So you can print now, right?

Yes, but I still want to get the marline firmware installed on the board. However, I think I’ll put that in a new blog post once I manage to accomplish that.

Final thoughts:

I should have bought the prusa.

I thought for this month’s blog post, I would break down the tools I keep in my desk drawer at my main work space at home.  My desk tool drawer has a small pouch with a basic set of tools (broken down below), a fluke 87v multi-meter, x-acto knife, calipers, micrometer, imperial/metric set of sockets, and a small battery powered screwdriver.  My main tool box and tools are in the basement, two flights of stairs down and then back up.  95% of the time, I can deal with a problem, or get better eyes on it, by having these tools at hand.

Breakdown, from left to right:

1. Mini Needle Nose Pliers
2. Mini side cutters
3. Pump pliers
4. #0 Phillips
5. 1/8″ Flat head
6. Utility Knife
7. Crescent Wrench
8. Custom 3d printed bit organizer, with 5/32 Hex end, T20, T10, #1 Philips, 3/16″ & 1/4″ flat head bits.
9. Bit insert & ratcheting handle set. I bought this originally as a bostisch but now Stanley is selling them. The Wiha 74996 is a good alternative as well.
10. Klein Mag2 tool magnetizer & demagnitizer.
11. Stanley 68-107 screwdriver
12. Hakko Wire Strippers
13. Tape Measure I got from a trade show long ago. Standard\metric.

And packed down.

This is the small tool kit I’ll grab to throw in my goruck if I think I’ll need tools while traveling.  It covers my bases pretty well.  Any more, and I probably need a work bench to.  Off to the basement.

Fedora 28 was released this month. Here are my notes from moving into a new install. I make periodic backups on some external hard drives, so for $BACKUPDIRECTORY$ I’m using the path to my backups on the externals. The $DRIVER KEY DIRECTORY$ refers to where I store the key that I made for my UEFI system to self-sign my virtual box drivers.

Notes are offered, questions may be answered.

use ‘mediawriter’ (install from repos first) to make a bootable USB

when installing, delete sda8 & sda9. These are the /boot/efi && luks-encrypted root partition (Note – I’m using a guided install but not separating my Home folder from the root drive like Fedora does. Your sda8/9 will vary.)

use the guided partioning, then delete /home, and delete the partition size of /. Apply, so that /home is stored in /

Reboot to fresh os

copy dotfiles back from backup drive

run move-in.sh

pop a terminal run this:
time cp -r $BACKUPDIRECTORY$/Documents/ . > /dev/null && time cp -r $BACKUPDIRECTORY$/Music/ . > /dev/null && time cp -r $BACKUPDIRECTORY$/Pictures/ . > /dev/null && time cp -r $BACKUPDIRECTORY$/Downloads/ . > /dev/null

pop a new terminal and run this:
su -c “dnf install -y cura youtube-dl chromium firefox thunderbird wget pulseaudio-equalizer hexchat vlc geany geany-plugins-* gimp yakuake keepassx ImageMagick optipng php && dnf groupinstall -y ‘Development Tools’ && dnf -y update”

With firefox & thunderbird installed:
cp -r $BACKUPDIRECTORY$/.mozilla/ . && cp -r $BACKUPDIRECTORY$/.thunderbird/ . && cp -r $BACKUPDIRECTORY$/.config/chromium/ ./config/

Now at least you can get firefox & thunderbird back up

With thunderbird, you’ll need to do “Repair Folder” on your inboxes/folders/etc

Fixing themes:
Window Borders: Adapta
Icons: Breeze-dark
Controls: Adwaita-dark
Desktop: Adara-Dark

Install Virtual Box:
su -c “dnf install VirtualBox system-config-users VirtualBox akmod-VirtualBox kmod-VirtualBox -y”
add user to groups vboxsf & vboxusers
reloadvbox in .bashrc

And copy over all your old VirtualBox stuff:
cp -r $BACKUPDIRECTORY$/VirtualBox\ VMs/ . && cp -r $BACKUPDIRECTORY$/.config/VirtualBox/ .config/

Sign the drivers with:
su
/usr/src/kernels/$(uname -r)/scripts/sign-file sha256 $DRIVER KEY DIRECTORY$/driversigningkey.priv $DRIVER KEY DIRECTORY$/driversigningkey.der $(modinfo -n vboxdrv)
/usr/src/kernels/$(uname -r)/scripts/sign-file sha256 $DRIVER KEY DIRECTORY$/driversigningkey.priv $DRIVER KEY DIRECTORY$/driversigningkey.der $(modinfo -n vboxpci)
/usr/src/kernels/$(uname -r)/scripts/sign-file sha256 $DRIVER KEY DIRECTORY$/driversigningkey.priv $DRIVER KEY DIRECTORY$/driversigningkey.der $(modinfo -n vboxsf)
/usr/src/kernels/$(uname -r)/scripts/sign-file sha256 $DRIVER KEY DIRECTORY$/driversigningkey.priv $DRIVER KEY DIRECTORY$/driversigningkey.der $(modinfo -n vboxnetflt)
/usr/src/kernels/$(uname -r)/scripts/sign-file sha256 $DRIVER KEY DIRECTORY$/driversigningkey.priv $DRIVER KEY DIRECTORY$/driversigningkey.der $(modinfo -n vboxnetadp)
systemctl restart systemd-modules-load.service
exit

Thanks to https://gist.github.com/gabrieljcs/68939c7eeadfabfdbc6b40100130270d

Cura preferences – Cura does not like restoring from the backup.

Install your printer software again, HP Deskjet 2600 is still not supported:
su -c “dnf install hplip-libs hplip”
system-config-printer
Add with the system-config-printer wizard
Change the page size – right click the printer, properties, Printer Options, Page size

Chirp
system-config-users
Add user to tty group
will have to reboot to take effect, or you can su – $(whoami) && chirpw to get around it temporary like

Good time to make a waypoint in your backups
mv $BACKUPDIRECTORY$/ $BACKUPDIRECTORY$/$(date +”%Y%M%d”)

This time, 4 months have come and gone. What have I been doing this time?

As luck would have it, not much. I have honestly been quite stagnant over the last few months. But I’ll try to mention a few things.

Diplexers

To follow up on last month’s comments building a diplexer, I ended up deciding that the completed ones I have are functional. My meter shows the same amount of reflected power regardless of if an antenna is connected directly or if I have the diplexers connected into the circuit.

I did learn something. Crossing coax causes the signal to “jump” from one line to the other. How I learned was this that the line going into my SWR meter and then out to the antenna was crossed. Also, it looks like the BF-F8HP has built in SWR protection.

I do have another board with coax connected. Anyone want to buy one? I’m selling for about 1/2 the price of the Arrow diplexers – basically cover the parts and a pittance of time.

National Parks On The Air

My amatuer radio club recently did an activation for the ARRL’s National Parks On The Air. I did the 2M station, managing about 7 quick QSO’s. I did learn about band plans, in a capability I didn’t have before. I purchased a Yaesu FT-857. The event went well, and we qualified (10 LotW certified contacts).

Speaking of ham radio, I also tested and passed for the General Class license. This means I have useful HF privileges. Only an autotuner and HF antenna away from getting on the HF bands.

Oh the HandiFinder

Well, I won’t be uploading of a soldering the Handi-Finder. It works fairly well. I will try to get a video of it in use …. sometime. It’s not the best kit or instructions but it is doable.

Anything Else New?

Well, no, not really. Over the course of the summer I decided to forgo my vacations this year instead to purchase firearm parts and gear. So I did.