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    microwave crucible

    I'm looking into casting small parts in brass and aluminum, but I don't feel like having a full blown foundry.  I saw that with the right susceptor materials, crucibles can be heated by microwaves.  Does anybody have any links to forums that are involved in this?  I'll probably run with this no...
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    SIM cards

    I've seen quite a few posts regarding SIM cards.  Usually iterations of copying, reading, altering, whatever but they look like they're still meant to be used with 'phones.  Did I miss something here?  I'm looking at SIM cards as a removable media for embedded projects.  Is this possible?  I had...
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    Vonage advertisement offends me

    I won't bother quoting the exact words they used, but the way I interpreted it was: "If you're smart and/or educated, we don't want your business!" Did they mean to insult me/us?  Maybe I just want an excuse to get irate.
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    stable remote ground

    I'm working on a house that needs nearly everything brought up to code.  While the walls were open, I put in enough media drops to run an arcade (30 ethernet points, assuming I don't start using the 'phone lines too).  I gave it some thought, and decided not to include any heavy wire- so no...
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    ferrofluid in stepper motor

    I've got another wild idea.  I"m thinking about putting a little ferrofluid into a stepper motor to see if there will be any improvement.  I'm wondering if it will do more harm than good.  I know there will be dome inertial damping, but I don't plan on running it anywhere near full speed.  Will...
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    hacking a solid state relay

    There are some projects that may be easier if I had a few SSRs on hand, but between the price of them and the parts I have laying about I'm considering making my own.  I have SCRs good to 50A and 600V with isolated tabs (in rediculous quantity), a few triac optoisolators, and probably all of the...
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    My girlfriend is getting into electronics

    I've bored her to tears some time ago, but her major requires that she take some classes in electronics.
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    looking for 3.84 MHz crystals

    The distributors I've checked with don't keep these in stock.  I'm hoping to find someone who'll sell ten or twenty of them.
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    I2C terminal for PC

    I'm not getting anywhere fast with my postings elsewhere, So I'll paste it here. Some of the things I'd like to make will need I2C communication. I figured I'd have to make a terminal first, but that leaves the same problem- how to talk to it while debugging. I went looking for some...
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    output buffers

    I'm interested in a parts minimal tri-state output buffer. No enable pin, just high-OC-low output from the input signal. I'm inspired by the capability of uCs to multiplex outputs, but find the use of support chips wanting. For applications like clocks and gauges the uC will spend a lot of...
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    pseudorandom sequence decoding

    Wow, what a mouthful! But seriously, I've looked for articles on this by the name above and by binary chain decoding. I haven't found anything written for my level (lower than it may seem). What drives me is that an encoder wheel of 2^n bits could be fashioned such that reading n bits would...
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    motor controller protocols

    Hey folks! I'm thinking about making a dedicated controller for steppers and another for servos. I'm having trouble wading through the articles and advertisements to find the protocols being used. I did see one on servos though. Links are best, thanks.
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    IR receiver modules, why 38kHz

    I'll confess that I haven't seen more than a dozen articles so far, but from what I have seen it seems that 38kHz is the most popular. Why? Did I miss something? Left to my own devices, I'd've picked 40kHz because a uC running at x.000 MHz can get the right frequency dead on. Also this...
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    power vs. signal frequency

    Is there any serious problem with signal lines being close to power lines as long as the frequencies are the same and they are synchronized? FWIW, I was thinking about using 15VAC (square wave, two phase, moderate frequency) to power some remote gadgets with a piece of telephone line.
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