Raspberry Pi Mini Desktop

Intro

So with this project, I decided to use up my pretty much useless raspberry pi that I haven’t used at all and make something actually kinda useful. I ended up spending about 80 dollars on it, not including the tools nor the raspberry pi which is the heart of this machine. I use it mainly for python programming and I plan on using it as a mini emulator station to take to school and play with my friends when it is a slow day.

Materials

Waveshare 5 Inch Screen ~40$

Screen Back

Edimax Wifi Dongle ~10$

Wireless Keyboard ~15$

RIght Angle USB, Male Header x 2 Micro USB, USB Power Switch

Monoprice 7 Port USB Hub ~10$

Rasperry Pi ~25$

The Pi Desktop 

Without Keyboard

With Keyboard

Boot

Desktop

MCPI

MCPI Front

Notes:

I wanted to show how to install the Drivers for the touchscreen without having to use the included CD, just in case the disc is not included or if you want to use a different version of Raspbian other than the version included

After you install NOOBS on your Raspberry Pi, you can go into the config.txt in /boot/config.txt from your browser, or uses ssh and type in sudo nano /boot/config.txt

Then you need to modify the text in the file to include this set

# uncomment if hdmi display is not detected and composite is being output
hdmi_force_hotplug=1

# uncomment to force a specific HDMI mode (here we are forcing 800×480!)
hdmi_group=2
hdmi_mode=1
hdmi_mode=87
hdmi_cvt 800 480 60 6 0 0 0

start_file=start_x.elf
fixup_file=fixup_x.elf
gpu_mem=128

You need this to make sure you force HDMI and have the right resolution or else your raspberry pi will not display anything.

The screen would look broken if this was not inputted into the config file.

Now install the drivers for the LCD screen by installing the touch screen drivers with this like http://www.waveshare.net/w/upload/7/73/LCD-show.tar.gz

Or optionally, google LCD-show.tar.gz

After the file is in your RPi, type in this code

cd /home/pi/LCD-show
sudo ./LCD5-show

After the install, the RPi should reboot and then you would need to run the calibration, by typing into the console

cd /home/pi/LCD-show
sudo dpkg -i -B xinput-calibrator_0.7.5-1_armhf.deb
su pi
DISPLAY=:0.0 xinput_calibrator

Koss Sportapro Full Review : Cheaper PortaPro, or a Failure?

TL;DR: A great pair of headphones that are really easy to listen to, with a great sound stage, and very comfortable on the ears, except for when the headband is folded back.

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When I was shopping for a a cheap pair of beater headphones when my Tascam TH-02 pair broke, I did my normal run to the Head-Fi forums and looked at the recommended list of headphones. The most appealing headphone to me at the time was the Koss PortaPros, which had great reviews telling of a abundance of warmth and fun sound signature. I added the PortaPros to my cart, but then I saw the SportaPros, which kind of caught my eye. They were built specifically with exercise in mind, which is very relevant to me, as I tend to like working out. In addition to that, they were about 20 dollars cheaper than the PortaPros at the time (20 dollars to 40 dollars), and came with a fairly nice headphone bag. I looked up the reviews and lo and behold, there were almost no complete reviews, only small paragraphs explaining not much about the overall headphone. Nevertheless, I took the risk and bought it anyways because I wanted to experiment on and review a pair that nobody really knows about.

I’ve had these for about two months of heavy use, using them almost every day for both exercising and general music/gaming. They’ve held up great in that regard, with them honestly looks just as how I took them out of the packaging. As for the audio quality, I haven’t even heard a difference between then and now, as it sounds just as good, so a burn in might do little to nothing to the audio quality. As for the total quality, these headphones are a joy to listen to. They are pretty well rounded, sounding generally very warm overall. Songs like u by Kendrick Lamar sound great, with the bass not being to boomy, but a bit muddy. The highs are great as well, with songs like i by Kendrick Lamar able to deliver the full depth of the high electric guitar riffs. Overall. they are a very good sounding pair of headphones, and in my opinion, better sounding when compared to the TH-02’s, albeit without as much bass, but much better overall. As for the comfort, these headphones start to be very comfortable after a couple hours of wear and do not feel over-clamping on my head at all. I could easily wear these headphones for 12+ hours without any fatigue. One gripe I have is when the headphones are folded back. For me, the driver sits only partially on my ears, with the only the edge of the driver not hovering. This results in the headphones not as secure on my head as I would like, so I use the headphones folded up, which is what I prefer anyways. Another con of these headphones is the isolation. You could hear much of everything that is going around you, as they don’t provide much protection from outside noise. Other people could also hear my headphones to an extent, as in sitting next to me on the bus while I am absolutely blasting music, but it’s not that bad as some other earphones, for example the Superlux 688. The last thing I dislike of these headphones is that they are so UGLY. They look incredibly cheap despite not sounding so, and resemble the headphones that you would find for 5 dollars at Big-Lots. I never wear them outside of exercising and my house, and that is a shame, because I prefer the sound of these compared to my Xiaomi Piston 3’s much better.

Pros 

Very Portable

Great Sound

Fairly Comfortable

Cheap ~23 dollars on amazon

Cons

Very Ugly

Bass can be muddy at times

Isolation can be bad at times

My Naive Review:

8/10

Jinhao 599A, 599, x750 Full Reviews

One thing that I did not expect to put on my blog, but I just had to share is my recent love of fountain pens. I decided to jump right in and after browsing some reddit posts, I decided to buy cheap, Jinhao pens. I used the same Jinhao black international ink cartridges for all of these pens. All of these arrived in a plastic sleeve, only with an empty international converter.

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Jinhao 599a

This is the first pen that I received from my pen ordering, and It was a very good start for a fountain pen beginner like me. Ink flowed at a steady rate the entire time, and produced enough ink, but a slightly too much ink, leading to some, but little, bleed and ghosting. It is about a medium on the boldness scale, and the nib is in between both the Jinhao 599 (smallest) and the Jinhao x 750 (biggest). The tip was not scratchy at all and a very enjoyable experience to write with.

The ergonomics for this pen is fantastic, and is the same as the 599, with a triangular grip. The For someone with a funky grip however

The build quality for this plastic pen however is worse than the two metal choices of the 599 and x750. In fact, within 1 day of holding the pen in my pen bag, there were visible scratches on the pan cap. Out of the two of these pens, I would probably rate this pen the worst out of all the pens, but still a very, and I mean VERY good bang for your bank.

Buy at amazon here for $4.09

My naive rating : 7.5/10

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Jinhao x750

I received this pen in the same order that I received the 599 in, and this pen is great. It has a wide nib and flows a large amount of ink. It may not seem like the ink is very thick on the picture, but it is much thicker than the other two pens. There could be an issue with bleed/ghosting, but a dab with some blotting paper would quickly fix that.

The ergonomics on this pen is not as spectacular on this pen, as it is just silicone on the pen barrel, and it is purely average.

This pen writes great and wet, and since it has a metal body, it is very durable, much more than compared to the 599a, and very similar in build quality compared to the 599.

This pen is very simple and is great for people who write big, but unfortunately it does not work very well with my small writing.

Buy at amazon here for $2.85

My naive rating : 8.5 

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Jinhao 599 

I am just going to be frank with you on this pen. It is easily the best pen of this bunch, especially for me. It has a much finer tip compared to the other two pens. It writes just as smooth as the other pen and since there is not as much ink as the other pens, it dries instantly. The ink never stops flowing and is very consistent.

The ergonomics is exactly the same as the 599a, which can be a hit or miss, but as mentioned earlier, it was definitely a hit and is very comfortable in my hand.

This pen is pretty much a fine point, metal 599a, which fixes all of the issues of the aforementioned, including the bleed and build quality. This is one of the few pens that I could honestly say I would write on for the rest of my life, and will be my go-to pen.

Buy at amazon here for $4.79

My naive rating : 9/10

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These pens are the best value you could buy for fountain pens, and felt much better on the hand when compared to 20$+ roller ball pens that I have used in the past. This is the budget pen, and if you need a beater pen or are just introducing yourself to the world of fountain pens like me, it is perfect.

Surface Transducer – Beginner Electronic Project

This is a project I did last year for my physics teacher, when I first realized that I should probably start experiencing what I plan on doing with my life in the future, and I sure did enjoy it! This project involved using a surface transducer, which works much in the same way that a speaker driver does, but without the cone. Essentially, it can almost any object or material into a speaker! This project was still when I was very new to soldering, so my soldering is very bad, but it is a great way to get a beginner like me some experience with electronics and circuits.

Adafruit Medium Surface Transducer

MAX98306 3.7 W Amp, which drives enough power to make the transducer produce enough sound

And this 3.5 mm breadboard jack to plug in an auxiliary audio cable.

I also used an assortment of jumper cables, battery holders, a breadboard, and plexiglass for the case

It was pretty easy to assemble this, just solder the amplifier together according to the circuit diagram on the adafruit website, and then solder your power source and transducer to the amplifier.

The objects that work best with the transducer are large, solid objects. Glass works very well, in fact, the best out of all the surfaces. Wood is still able to drive an accurate sound, however it sounds muffled and a lot more quiet than glass. Metal surfaces display the full sound,but the sound is very distorted and echoey.

So if you want to find out how to do this, just follow this adafruit instruction video, with not exactly the same components, but should work perfectly with any of the transducers on the adafruit website.