Components arrived from Farnell already

Most of the components I ordered from Farnell have already arrived (some of the resistors are on back-order as they were out of stock). I'm very impressed with the speed of delivery of the in-stock items, as I ordered them on Friday afternoon, and they arrived Monday morning well packaged, well labeled, and with a clear invoice explaining which items were contained and which were on back-order. So far I'm very impressed.

Farnell to the rescue

After seeing my post about the difficulties I had buying components from Jaycar, Marco Ryan from Farnell sent me an email, suggesting I try their website. I did, I found the components I needed them, and ordered them online in a few minutes.

I've been very impressed with Farnell so far. Their website could stand being a little faster, but that's being really picky - it was easy to find the parts I needed, and the ordering process was very user-friendly (even down to correcting minimum order quantity of some components, and notifying me about it).

In addition to the resistors I needed I also ordered some high-intensity blue LEDs for internal case lighting (they'll come on when the user opens the door to look at the amplifier) and some heat-shrink tubing to clean up connections.

Now I just get to sit around and wait impatiently for the parts to arrive so I can continue work :-)

The Jaycar Fiasco

As suggested, I emailed Jaycar to ask whether they sell the resistors I need individually, so I don't have to buy in bulk from a wholesale supplier. The result was an absolutely hysterical exchange of non-information, which I summarised in my final email (with names changed to protect the innocent monkeys):

Hi,

I emailed your store three days ago, to inquire about purchasing some resistors. I wrote:

> Hi,
>
> I'm writing to inquire whether I can buy the following products
> from Jaycar:
>
> 1 x 300ohm 3W metal-oxide resistor
> 1 x 1k5ohm 1W metal-oxide resistor
> 1 x 68k 0.5W carbon-film resistor
>
> If so, can I order them for pick-up at your store on McIntyre
> Road, Sunshine, Melbourne VIC?
>
> Thanks for your time.
>
> Yours,
> Duncan Bayne

Today, I received an email reply from a staff member called John Adams - whose email address bore the signature of Ben Franklin, presumably a different staff member. It read:

> Victora Store - 03-9547-1022
>
> Give them a ring and see if they have them in stock to save you the
> trip if they need to order them from us for you
>
> Ben Franklin - www.jaycar.com.au - 1800-022-888 -
> techstore@jaycar.com.au

I called the number, which was for your Springvale branch, not the McIntyre Road branch as I had requested. The staff there informed me that they cannot obtain any of the components I originally requested! At this point I started to doubt that John (or Ben?) had actually spent any time reading my email before responding.

So I sent him an email, only to get the following response (typo included):

> Ben Franklin is no longer in the employ of jaycar electronics,
> Forward all relvant emails to techstore@jaycar.com.au

Apparently the poor chap has either resigned or been fired in the half hour or so since he sent me that email.

So, could someone from your company - preferably someone who's planning to remain an employee for at least half an hour after replying - *please* answer the questions in my email, which are:

- can I buy the resistors I listed?
- if so, can they be ordered into stock at the *McIntyre Road* branch for me to pick them up?

Thanks for your time, & I look forwards to your reply.

Yours,
Duncan Bayne

I expected there'd be another three-day turnaround, so got stuck into some coding. Lo and behold, a reply arrived in a matter of minutes:

Hi there
You'll need to contact the store directly.

So apparently the answer to my question "could someone ... *please* answer the questions in my email" is - to paraphrase - "no, sod off." So I will sod off, & will most certainly never spend money in a Jaycar store again ... unless I'm in need of some Pythonesque light entertainment :-)

Progress, and R-ing TFM

I've basically finished the case - it's sanded back to bare wood & I've put several coats of furniture wax on. The result is smooth wood and a beautiful lustre, especially under natural light. I'll post some photos as soon as there's a nice sunny day to take them.

On the electronics front, less success. After soldering all the resistors in the amplifier kit to the board, I learned why one should always read instructions in full before starting work on a kit. Two of the resistors - 1 and 3W metal oxide - had to be mounted off the board as they generate a lot of heat in operation. Annoyingly, by the time I discovered this, I'd already trimmed the leads.

So, construction is stalled until I get my hands on some replacements. Dick Smith didn't have any; they have in fact all but given up on hobbyists, preferring to focus on retail appliances. That's a shame, as my introduction to electronics was courtesy their Funway series. Anyway, I found an online retailer called RS Components, who stock a much wider range of components.

However, they only stock 330ohm resistors of the type I need, rather than the 300ohm specified in the kit. I've emailed S5 to ask whether 330ohm would be acceptably close, given the broad tolerances of the 3W resistors being used, and will be ordering what I need as soon as I hear from them.

Amplifier arrived

The valve amplifier kit arrived yesterday; it looks to be in perfect condition. Today I'm off to the hardware store to buy some varnish and sandpaper, then to the electronics store to buy a speaker. Then the cleanup and assembly can begin.

At this point I'm looking to modularise it somewhat, & actually have a standalone mini-PC or laptop within the case, hooked up to the amp through a plug & socket panel internally. That'll make it easier to develop, dramatically reduce the amount of woodworking needed, and make ongoing upgrades or repairs painless as well.

One complication is that as it's mains powered, I'll need to get it certified by an electrical engineer before I can leave it running - else if it catches fire & burns the house down, our insurance won't pay out. Still, it's a wise precaution as it's my first ever mains-powered circuit.

Amplifier on the way...

Today, I ordered an 8LM valve amplifier kit from S5 Electronics. It should be arriving soon, so I'll be cleaning up the case and readying it for the amplifier over the course of the next few weeks.

Arrival in Melbourne

The WestiAmp has arrived inMelbourne intact (well, in pieces - but importantly, in no more pieces than it left). It's currently hiding behind a pile of boxes in our spare room (soon to be study / library).

I have emailed the good people at S-5 Electronics, and they've responded to say they do ship to Australia, and that shipping of the valve amplifier kit I need for the WestiAmp will cost an extra $55. So, next pay, it's mine :-)

On the move ...

Finally, I've had some time to work on Westiamp. I've taken an old Celeron 500 PC with a few hard drives, installed Puppy Linux on it, and set it up to work as a simple media center.

Then, I've disassembled said PC, and packaged it up with the Westiamp to send to Melbourne. Once it arrives I'll be cleaning up the case, buying the valve amplifier kit, and commencing construction.

It's taken a while, but the Westiamp project is back on track again ...

Major, positive development

Well well well. Mike Green Challenge (a Kuro5hin user) has brought the following to my attention: a brand new valve amplifier kit that costs only US$139.

This looks like a much easier route than fixing the existing amplifier, and I'm all in favour of easy :-) Conveniently, my employer is paying all staff a bonus this year ... :-)

The WestiAmp blog has moved

Due to the fact that I'm running out of space on my Ihug FTP server (I only get 10MB free space with my account), I have moved my personal blog to a new location:

http://westiamp.blogspot.com/

The new Atom feed for the blog is:

http://westiamp.blogspot.com/atom.xml

Please let me know if you have any trouble accessing the new location.

Speech synthesis & voice control

After spending some time thinking about the UI for WestiAmp, I've decided on a rough architecture:

1. A daemon (almost typed 'service' - my day-job as .NET developer is having an adverse effect on me) called westiplayerd, that checks for the presence of control files (empty regular files with particular filenames like 'nextplaylist' or 'stop') and plays MP3s / OGGs and playlists accordingly.

2. Another daemon, called westicontrold, that accepts input, either through voice (using a speech recognition program) or from the knobs on the panel (probably through a parallel port?) and touches control files which will be acted upon by westiplayerd.

3. A web application (probably written in PHP) which will allow a user to upload music files to the WestiAmp, and delete those files if needed. It will also provide a UI that displays what westiplayerd is up to (i.e. which track & playlist it's playing), and that will allow the user to issue commands to westiplayerd (again by touching control files).

I'm investigating KTTSD to add speech output to westiplayerd for the purpose of letting the user know about errors, full discs etc. As of yet I have no idea what speech recognition software I'll be using, but I do know there's quite a range available for Linux.

Another constructive evening

I've had another constructive evening working on the WestiAmp project. I've dismantled the base of the gramophone cabinet, and removed the speaker grille and speaker.

The speaker looked old and naff; the base of the cone was missing and it was covered in dust. Out of curiosity I hooked it up to one of my stereos (a cheap but cheerful NZ$150 Warehouse special) to test it, & it sounds every bit as bad as it looks. Quiet, crackly and horrid. Looks like I'd better start reading up about speakers ...

I've also started thinking about software; at this stage I'm considering using speech synthesis to provide feedback to the user, and the two right-most knobs on the front to skip between playlists and tracks.

The further I get into this project, the more fun it becomes (despite having bleeding cuts on both my hands from removing tacks from the grille with a pair of pliers).

First photo of the WestiAmp

This is a photo of the WestiAmp as it is now; in original condition, sans the gramophone cabinet door:

Gramophone cabinet door removed

I spent about 10 minutes on WestiAmp today, removing the cabinet door that covered the gramophone (which is there no longer; there is only a hole where it used to be) and bagging the screws, hinges, arm and locking mechanism.

It's looking like most of the hinges & other bracketry is going to have to be replaced, but the arm might be repairable.

The Arrival

I collected the radio today, & have formulated a rough plan for the restoration.

1. take it to pieces
2. get the valve driven AF amplifier stage (I'm presuming there's one) going
3. replace all the hinges etc. in the case
4. sand & oil the wood
5. shoe-horn my old Celeron 500 into the case, running Mandrake Linux, Apache and a PHP-based control system for uploading & managing MP3s and playlists
6. replace the aftermarket plastic knobs with something nice (brushed aluminium?)
7. put it all back together again

I'm expecting this to take up to a year, as I have never worked with valves before, and my woodworking skills are rudimentary.

This is going to be a fun project!