Hardware, Electronics, Technical Stuff

This is a showcase of various technical things I've done. The most ‘famous’ are probably my electric guitars, but there is other stuff like electronics, speaker cabinets and casemods. Many of these pages don't just describe what I did, but also how I did it, and tips for trying it yourself are included.

Additionally, there are some reviews of (mostly Chinese) gadget-like things I bought. As you'll see, I usually don't just use these things but also see if I can hack them to fix some of their flaws. I might add more reviews of specific hardware if it either impresses me, or makes me want to spit my bile.

Music and Audio

  • Hand-Made Electric Guitars
    Between 1995 and 1998, I built two electric guitars. This page doesn't only describe the process but contains a lot of advice if you want to build, repair or ‘mod’ your own guitar.
  • Speaker Cabinets
    This explains how I evolved from a cardboard speaker in a cardboard shoebox to hi-fi speakers and experimental things like a well-performing small boombox with built-in miniature subwoofer, and the following miniature surround system:
  • A Subwoofer That Fits in a Backpack
    This describes how I managed to cram a miniature subwoofer, a 5.1 decoder and a stereo amplifier into an enclosure the size of a small shoebox, for a truly portable surround system.

Electronics

  • Creating PCBs with the toner transfer method
    Instructions for making your own Printed Circuit Boards with a laser printer instead of a photoresist layer.
  • Variable Input Voltage LED driver
    I have been interested in LED-based illumination as soon as LEDs started becoming powerful enough to serve as a practical light source. After a few iterations, I constructed an efficient 1W switching power supply LED driver that fits inside the enclosure of my bicycle's headlight, powered by the bicycle's dynamo.

PC Hardware

  • “Black Box” Case Mod
    This is a report on how I created a custom PC case from scratch.
  • Installing an Arctic Cooling NV Silencer 5 on a GeForce 6600GT AGP
    Kind of a ‘sequel’ on the above. A report with pictures on how I made the impossible possible, so maybe an interesting read if you want to try a similar hack.
  • Silly Hacks
    A collection of small ‘hacks’, often more for fun than practical use. E.g. creating a mutant ‘optical USB Apple ADB II mouse’ and a miniature PS/2 keyboard, and overclocking a G3 iBook.

Product Reviews