Old Cell Phones == treasure;

I guess many people don't realize before dumping their old phones that they are also throwing away a treasure trove of micro hardware that can be extracted and used in multiple DIY projects. I don't blame them as most people don't even know how does the vibration in their phones work.

So recently while going through some old 2006< cellphones, I decided to salvage such components. I recovered some really neat gems:

• Micromotors [Both types: External and Sealed]
• Mics
• Speakers
• 2MP camera modules
• LCDs [Color 64K & 256K 160ppi & B/W 100ppi]
• Micro DC-in female jacks

Now to think of some things I could do with them!?? Bristlebots anyone ;-)

EXT4 filesystems on M$ Windows

A real pain that I had to go through was the inablility to preoperly read EXT4 filesystems on Windows. My old solution was a standalone app called Ext2Read but it was slow and a very dirty solution [files had to be copied onto a NTFS filesystem first].

What I desired was a more simpler approach and along came Ext2Fsd. This application allows the EXT4 partition to be mounted and read like a native NTFS. One caveat is that the 'extent' support is still pending so the interaction is limited to read-only which I don't mind since my need in Windows is to only listen to music which lies on the big and chunky EXT4 side.

DIY cooling solution...

I recently bought a new notebook [my old machine was... well old... needed a well deserved retirement. Goodbye ProcyonMk2 you ol' girl! :-P], about 2 months ago. ASUS K53 series, specs are:

ProcyonMk3:
15.6 inch screen @ 1366x768 WLED screen
Intel 2670QM CPU [4 Core + HT = 8 Threads]
NVIDIA GT 540M GPU [2GB DDR3 VRAM] [Optimus Solution]
ASint 8GB DDR3 RAM
WDC 5400RPM 750GB HDD
USB2.0 x 2, USB3.0 x 1
Atheros b/g/n Wifi, Realtek Audio, BT3, Altec-Lansing Speakers, 6 Cell Battery.

Basically a pretty powerful system. I wouldn't attach an ULTRA tag [my way of rating notebooks: low, midrange, high, ultra] to it but would consider it to be a HIGH end machine [a first for me since i am used to owning low to mid-range systems]...

Anyway, considering a heatwave thats been plaguing the area where I live, a decent cooling solution had to be designed as my old cooling pad was busted with 2 of its fans burnt out.

So basically I had this old but totally unused 12 volt .3 amps [3.6 watts] DC chassis fan lying around which I had extracted from my desktop since the mobo didn't have a chassis fan socket. Using an old router adapter rated at 12volts .7 amps DC [No.1 rule in Electrical Engg: Voltage should be the same, Current should be equal or more], laptop packaging and some nice nifty tools, made my own DIY cooling pad.

It turned out pretty good considering its simplicity.

Pics attached [I'm too lazy to take detailed photos, if you don't understand the design, then leave a comment and I could help you out]:

Pic 1: Underside.

Pic 2: Upside.

End Result: Cool'n'Quiet system, 1 week's lunch money saved :-)

Update: Since this is a internal desktop chassis fan, it has a high dB level, bloody thing makes noise like a jet engine. Good thing my speakers damp it all out with music... ;-D

Reanimated

It's been like what... ages... since my last post... so many things have changed. I guess its time I caught up and updated this blog... therefore i am officially reanimating this corner of the web.