Alex's Hobbies

CMoy Amp 2

AnA — Fri, 03 Jul 2009 09:10:26 +0000

My son loves the first CMoy amp after listen to it for a while. He requested me to build him one with a different design. Since he seem bore during the school holidays, I decided to build one for him. Below are some of the pictures of the completed amp. I also put my first CMoy amp side by side with my son’s CMoy amp as comparison. Enjoy and Cheers!

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AKG K242HD my first headphone

AnA — Mon, 08 Jun 2009 11:19:11 +0000

After building the amp. I decided to hunt for a decent headphone. In this end, I purchased a AKG K242 HD headphone after a 2 hours long audition session with comparing with other headphones. This AKG is a “oldies” looking headphone and I like the design very much. This piece could produce bass down to only 15Hz but it specially “match” my amp as the roll off frequency is also only around 15Hz.

Before I finialised my decision on getting this AKG headphone, I like Sennheiser. I had tried their HD 600 model at the shop and I find it has a little punchy bass. Pretty clear sound overall. But the price is too high as my first headphone. I think, getting a headphone more than $400 is not so worth as the ratio between price and performance may not justify.

Another headphones I had tried were the famous Beyerdynamic the DT 770 and th DT880 series. The bass is very smooth and not as punchy as Sennheiser HD600. I like how is sound for the bass for the Beyer’s DT series. But, I find the treble is too sharp for my liking. Anyway, this headphone need amplifier to drive as it has high impedence of 250 ohms. Normal earphone only 32 - 55 ohms on average and only require the source to drive it well.

All in all, which ever headphone we choose, it has to match with the whole chain of system we use; such as the source, the amplifier etc. For now, AKG K242HD is good enough and for the first time, the headphone is challenging my hearing rather than the other way around. Cheers!

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Canare L2B2AT cable

AnA — Wed, 27 May 2009 02:22:30 +0000

After the building of my CMoy amp. I need a in-out cable (interconnect cable) to connect the source to the amp. After a quick search, the shop selling cable recommended the Canare L2B2AT cable for this application. I completed it within half an hour. It come with shield and should be good at preventing noise interference. I used it for my newly build amp and it sounded great. For such a low cost and good in-out cable. I am a happy man. Please see the pictures below. Thanks for viewing.

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My CMoy Amp

AnA — Thu, 14 May 2009 16:10:56 +0000

It started from when I got my Nokia 5800 mx not long ago. As it is a music phone, I decided to get a decent earphone to pair with it and to my surprise it sounded good. With this excited mood, I continued with the momentum and had decided to build an amplifier for the earphone to enhance the sound further. The soldering iron in my cabinet was whispering - “Use Me”. And here it goes…

After browsing the web and noticed this simple and yet fantastic amplifier designed by Chu Moy. I read so many good reviews of this amp and thus decided to DIY one for myself. Using Op-Amp OPA2134PA chip and driven by a 9v PP3 battery. It really sounded great. I am enjoying every moment of it. Anyway, below are some pictures of my CMoy amp. Cheers!

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Kite Drogue for flowform

AnA — Tue, 14 Apr 2009 02:05:35 +0000

Although I still do not have a chance to fly my small flowform. However, for small flowform like mine, I read that it required a kite drogue in order to remain stable during flight. Thus I decided to make one as below. Using the formula from this site; I managed to calculate the exact dimensions to make the Drogue. Will try out soon and hope it helps to stabilise the flowform kite. Cheers!

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FlowForm Kite using Tyvek

AnA — Thu, 02 Apr 2009 02:11:45 +0000

All this while, I had something in my mind that somehow feel incomplete if I never make a kite out of Tyvek. Tyvek is a very common and popular material for many kitebuilders. Despite the popularity of this Tyvek; I could not find it locally in Singapore. However, it is easily available overseas. Although I could get it oversea, but the overall cost plus shipping will be a little on the high side for me. It costs about $50 to make a kite size similar to a flowform 8.

Anyway, after hunting for weeks for this tyvek, I finally found an envelope of dimensions: Height 30.4cm (12-1/4″), Width 39.3cm (15-1/2″) made of this wonderful material. So, time to go to the table and plan for a new kite.

This time, I am making the flowform again but of smaller size. In fact, half the size of what I had done previously. It is 40cm x 50cm flowform. I know smaller size kite normally requires stronger wind than bigger kite does; but I still go for it as I want to see how smaller flowform behaves. Another reason to made a flowform kite of this size is due to the size of envelope. When open up, it covers about slightly more than 40cm x 50cm. And since 40cm x 50cm (which is about 1.6ft x 1.3ft = 2.08 sq ft); can consider the size of a Flowform 2. Very small size flowform I think.

I had completed the whole kite in 2 weekends; about 3 days effort in total but think is worth it. To date, the wind condition is not very suitable for kite flying, but I hope I could find a windy day to do the test flight soon. At the mean time…. enjoying the look of it. Cheers!

Initial inspiration of making flowform kites was actually came from a friend of mine whom kindly share posted procedures of flowform kite making in his web site. Without, his kind sharing, it will be impossible for me to complete all these kites so smoothly. Please visit his site (Zsolt’s site) and to be inspired too.

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Swivel for Kite lines

AnA — Mon, 30 Mar 2009 16:38:19 +0000

The line always seem to be twisted after every flight of the kite. Since many people recommended swivel, I decided to give it a try. Below are the 2 types of swivel I had tried. The ball bearing type is better. It prevents twisting of the line better.

However, since all my kite flying line are “twist” line. It will somehow twist a little even with the addition of swivel. To further prevent twisting, it is better to get the braided kite line. Will talk about kite lines some other time. At the mean time, happy adding swivel if you have a twisted line. Enjoys Kite flying. Cheers!

Chinese Dragon Kite

AnA — Sat, 21 Mar 2009 16:09:14 +0000

After few flight of the delta kite, I got hooked on kite and fell in love with it. Kite flying really is fun and gives you a feeling of freedom. With that, I am thinking of getting more kite to fly.

Somehow, I came to know about this Chinese Dragon Kite and found it very interesting. After some searching for such kite, I decided to get one small one for myself. Understand that the smaller one may not be able to fly in gentle wind condition and it required stronger wind condition; I still got it as I may just leave if as an art piece even if it really cannot fly.

After some research, manage to get one from eBay. This one was cheap, it only cost S$32.66. It comes with 36 segments and a simple winder and line. I have yet flown this Dragon Kite as the wind are getting not strong enough for flying recently. Will find opportunity towards the end of the year. Hope it will fly well.

At the mean time… appreciating as a piece of art. Cheers!

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FlowForm Kite using Polyethylene

AnA — Wed, 18 Mar 2009 10:18:37 +0000

After the inspiration of making the newspaper flowform kite. I proceed and continue with the making of another similar FlowForm kite using polyethylene (garbage bag). The dimensions are the same as the newspaper version which are 80cm x 100cm. Base on this size, the kite could consider a FlowForm 10. I had used mainly 3M transparent packing tape and 3M scotch cloth or duct tape for bonding of the kite. All the joints are mainly using the transparent packing tape with double sided tissue tape when needed. The keels were re-enforced with the white duct tape as shown in some of the photos below.

To date, I still do not have a chance to do a test flight. However, base on the newspaper version I hope it will be as stable. Anyway, since I will be having more time this weekends; hope there is enough wind to do a test flight. Will keep everyone updated. Cheers!

Special thanks to Yvon from Canada for sharing the knowledge of making his transparent packing bag’s flowform kite. I was amazed and impressed by the types and numbers of flowform kites he had built over the years. Please visit his site (Yvon’s site) to be inspired.

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FlowForm Kite using newspaper

AnA — Mon, 09 Mar 2009 01:09:30 +0000

I love flowform kite. I had purchased one small one previously. But, it is not so stable in strong wind. So, I ever thought of getting a bigger one for more stability.

Anyway, since I have some time, decided to DIY one instead of purchasing one. Inspired by many flyers using ripstop nylon to DIY their flowform; I decided to give it a first try using newspaper instead. The size of this newspaper flowform is 0.8m x 1.0m. I used scotch tape and white glue (UHU) for all the joining portions. It took about 6 hours to complete the whole flowform. Pretty long time I would say, but this is my first time making kite. So it took longer than expected. Anyway, below are some video, and it is time to enjoy! cheers!

FlowForm front view

FlowForm rear view

The test flight…

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