Posts by pca

Acer H5360 3D projector

HDMI

I'm curious why you didn't connect to the HDMI port, as this is a DVI port with audio and a different connector. As you had to get an adaptor anyway, why not DVI to HDMI?

Although for nearly 600 quid you would think they could stick an HDMI to DVI cable in the box...

pca

UK spectrum map uncovers mysterious emissions in Cumbria

1.075GHz

This is almost certainly a '1.2GHz' video sender, probably bought off ebay. They're quite common, and are nowhere near 1.2GHz in most cases. They can also be remarkably high power. Not legal for unlicensed use, even if they WERE on 1.2GHz. They're normally simple but robust transistor oscillators, not PLL based, and are usually just above 1GHz. The manufacturers often go to significant trouble to disguise how simple the things are, to the extent of soldering down a number of random dummy chips that aren't even connected to anything to make it look more complicated than it really is.

I had a very small (about the size of a sugarcube) transmitter of this type some years ago. It was a very simple, two-transistor, video only unit, but produced nearly 200mW of RF. It was tuned to 1.064GHz, very close to this 1.075GHz one. Surprisingly, for such a simple and cheap thing it produced very good video quality. However, when I measured it's output, I decided that transmitting on a military navigation beacon frequency wasn't a very good idea...

Sony e-book reader to debut in UK tomorrow

It's actually pretty nice

I bought my father one for his birthday last year in the US. The thing feels very solid, and the screen quality is simply fantastic. Easily the best I've ever seen on an electronic device. The screen really does look very similar to paper, and is extremely easy on the eyes. No backlight, but none of my books have one either :)

It reads PDFs and text files as well as it's own proprietary format, for which DRM is an option. The sony software on the PC end is horrible, though, and not all that reliable as far as I could see. There are other ways of accessing it, and at the simple end you can just copy files onto an SD card and stick it in the machine.

I have no idea why Sony didn't implement the thing as a mass storage class device, which would have made getting content onto it much easier. Can't fault the hardware or build quality though. The battery life isn't as good as they say it is (it never is) but it's still excellent, only requiring a charge every other week.

Phoenix eats dirt

Obviously it's found water

That's what was sticking the the dirt together! Once it had been sitting on the screen for a week, it dried out, and fell inside the oven. Or, more likely, the ice particles sublimated away in the wind.

If this is the case, they might have problems detecting water or ice, as it would always be gone by the time the sample was in the oven :)

pca