Category Archives: DIY

First Attempt at Interior Design

Back in April I decided to take a well-earned break from work. During that week, I got a lot accomplished. Mostly I worked on my software project (details to be revealed fairly soon, probably) but towards the end I started my first decorating project in my flat.

Also posted in Design, Ideas, Personal | 2 Comments

Rack blueprints

I’ve had quite a lot of requests now for the plans for the rack. It has always been my intention to share the designs, but they are hand drawn and I don’t currently have the ability to scan them. I am hoping that I can digitise them manually (draw them in something like Inkscape) and [...]

Also posted in Rackmodding | 1 Comment

Low voltage power supply, ventilation & lighting

One thing that has been lacking since the first build of the rack is ventilation. With both sets of doors closed, the inside can get quite warm, especially when iron is turned on. Not any more though, having just completed the installation of 2 active ventilation zones, lighting and a low voltage power supply system [...]

Also posted in Electronics, Geeky, Hardware, Home Automation, Rackmodding | 1 Comment

Topped off

I’ve finally gotten around to fixing the top to the rack cabinet. It’s made from the door of an old storage-only cabinet, which was actually a fridge/freezer cabinet from Ikea. The top has been cut into the correct proportions for a while, but has just sat cluttering my floor until now. To allow the many [...]

Also posted in Rackmodding | Leave a comment

Completing the data wiring

Today I added the final 4 network points – there are now a total of 24 around the house. The wiring project started about 14 months ago, with the plan to have at least 2 network points in all rooms except the bathroom. The final distribution has ended up as: Living room: 6 Dining room: [...]

Also posted in Hardware, Home Automation, Networking | Leave a comment

Trunking and tray

I’ve finally managed to find somewhere to buy stuff to tidy up some of the cabling around the house. A couple of weeks ago I ordered some trunking and a cable tray (which will replace the improvised MDF/timber one I constructed from offcuts) from Minitran.

Also posted in A/V, Home Automation, Networking | Leave a comment

Re-running cables

There are two main wiring routes that are part of my ongoing project to wire up our house for A/V and data distribution – one goes from the bottom of my wardrobe directly down to the room below, and the other goes across a short stretch of the landing and down into the pantry. Until [...]

Also posted in A/V, Home Automation, Networking | Leave a comment

What’s next?

The Homebrew Challenge gave me a reason to progress my projects, but over Christmas things have slowed down. Winning the competition has given me some money from the sale of my old car, so it seems fitting that the money is put towards finishing the current projects. This is my plan for the projects over [...]

Also posted in A/V, Hardware, Home Automation, Software | Leave a comment

Foaming

I received yet more odd looks and comments at work when a few weeks ago I received a delivery of 24 foam tiles. I ordered them from eBay as an experiment in trying to reduce the amount of noise eminating from the rack cabinet. At about £30 it was a bit of a gamble.

Also posted in Geeky | 4 Comments

A video summary of some of the projects

Here’s a video I’ve put together about some of my projects. Sorry about the wobblyness and wonkyness – I’m not sure where I’ve put my tripod. You need to a flashplayer enabled browser to view this YouTube video

Also posted in A/V, Electronics, Geeky, Hardware, Home Automation, MythTV, Networking | 7 Comments
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