Search results

If the upgrade path is particularly buggy what about having a dual boot setup where I have my current XP install and Windows 8? Is this possible? I'm probably stuck with XP for some applications which might not work well or at all under 8, such as my DOS-based PCB design software. You're right...

Because it would likely cost more than an AMD based system, and the graphics performance might not meet my future needs. Besides that, I like the idea of helping Intel's competitor.

I'm assuming by that you mean they both need to be either 32-bit or 64-bit? I never am when I do stuff like that. Some semi good news here. I reapplied thermal compound to my CPU heatsink and also bent the female pins on the power cable of my power supply so they make better contact. The...

Lunar, if that future comes then I'm moving to Linux. Last thing I need is to store my data remotely and have to depend upon a gazillion things all working right in order to access it. I'll bet I won't be the only one leaving MS for good in that scenario, either. Honestly, I would be happy using...

Apparently I'm not the only one pissed off that M$ didn't offer a direct upgrade from XP to 7. I'm hoping they fix that oversight with 8.

Well that sucks. :( Any chance I'll be able to do a direct upgrade with Windows 8 then? It's stuff like this (and the aforementioned parallel port issue) which has made me keep using a computer which is a museum piece for so long. Doesn't M$ realize that people spend literally years setting...

I'll definitely wait then for the next generation APU then. The A10-5700 looks perfect for me. The rationale for choosing AMD over Ivy Bridge is to get as much graphics horsepower as I can without a dedicated graphics card. I'd rather avoid graphic cards at this stage because it's another...

BTW, is AMD releasing Trinity in October as planned? If I upgrade, I'd much rather go with Trinity than Llano, if for no other reason than it supposedly uses less power and is faster.

Merc, so you're saying I can upgrade from XP to, say, Windows 7, without reinstalling all my apps? Or is there another way to do what I want, which is to keep all my apps? Can I run an XP virtual machine which is identical to my current setup from Windows 7?

I just realized something looking at some of the specs on new PSUs-few of them have power plugs for PATA devices. That's not a major issue. I suppose I can just splice the plugs onto a new PSU. Both my optical drives and the 250 GB HDD are PATA. I can run all of them off my Promise Card if the...

Here's what I would need here: 1) Decent PSU (I'd rather err on the side of getting higher wattage so it'll last longer running at lower power levels). The Seasonic Coug linked to seems pretty good-quiet, active PFC, Gold Plus Certified. 2) CPU with decent integrated graphics (so far only AMD...

I'm bumping this thread because the PC has been having the same problem again. It started about 6 months ago and today it finally got to the point where the system is unusable. I suspect it's the power supply this time because all the caps were replaced last year. The power supply is a Seasonic...

That's pretty decent for someone who only rides weekly, and not for speed like me and Dave. Just for kicks I made a mental note to see where the 18 mile mark came up on last night's ride around midnight (much too hot here to ride during the day). I was there at 65:34. And at the 70 minute mark...

That lights the room up pretty nicely. It also looks like it renders colors reasonably well.

I'll send you a PM when you're ready to order the drivers so we can exchange info. I should also be able to recommend a transformer, although the one Dave ordered looks pretty good. For 8 LEDs you'll probably need to go higher than 24V if they're in series (or you could just do 2 parallel...

I'm going to guess that the dimming input on the 2100 mA driver needs to have a voltage applied. The driver has 0 to 10 V dimming, and the dimming input may default to 0 volts when open.

That looks good to me. I'm estimating the heat sink will be dissipating 25 or 26 watts (this assumes about 1/3 of the the power to the LEDs comes out as light, the rest as heat). The heat sink will get warm, but probably not too hot to touch, and the LED junction temperature should be just fine...

I used to have the same line of thought as SD but that was back in the days when LEDs have wide variances in Vf. Nowadays it's likely Vf from the same bin will match to within 0.1V or better. An alternate arrangement is to connect each triple in parallel, and then use two groups of three triples...

That one wouldn't work at all on 12 VDC. It would work fine on 24 VDC. Each string would get 1050 mA. Yes, 6 strings of one triple each per driver. I assumed when you said "series of 6", you mean a series of six triples. I think that's where the confusion came in. Anyway, connecting them like...

Yes, that would work just fine. Actually, 2 series of 6 if the input voltage is 12 VDC, 4 series of 6 is it's 24 VDC. Each 2100 mA driver can drive 6 LED strings in parallel at 350 mA per string. With 12VDC you're limited to 3 LEDs per string, or one triple wired in series. With 24 VDC you can...

That seems like a good power supply but since it's constant voltage instead of constant current I'm assuming using a dimmer will lower the output voltage. This means the dimming feature will only work if you don't use DC-DC drivers in between the power supply and the LED. Basically, you would...

I'd say my drivers have a proven track record at this point. I have several thousand running in an automotive environment with relatively few failures. An automotive environment is much more severe than a household environment. My drivers don't cost any more than anyone else's either.

I still manufacture drivers. Once you settle on specs, let me know and I'll see if something I have is suitable. It should be as I make automotive LED drivers but the chips I use can operate way above 12VDC if necessary. In fact, most of them can operate to at least 30 VDC, a few even to 60 VDC.

Yep, that's pretty much how it would work. The point of using one constant voltage supply for an entire room, versus individual 120VAC drivers for each LED fixture, is it makes the wiring if you have a bunch of fixtures in a room much simpler (i.e. most of the wiring is low voltage). By using an...

I'm tempted to say the same ones I used in your and my chandelier projects but those might not be useful here if the number of LEDs in the string needs to be less than three or more than six. Truth is I haven't really looked at what else is available in a while. For the purposes of this project...

I think it makes more sense to just switch the transformers on the 120VAC side. If you switch on the 12V side, the transformer still draws power even when the lights are off.

No 15% grades here in NYC, or at least none on the roads I'm familiar with, but I've dealt with 8% or 9%. Not fun at all. I could easily see how if the grade was much steeper I'd encounter the problems you mentioned. I'd guess that the best time to TT would be after maybe 5 to 10 minutes of...

I didn't catch this thread because I haven't been around much. Mom was hospitalized in late February. Thankfully she's doing OK now but I needed to take on pretty much all the responsibilities of the household for a while. That doesn't leave as much time for sites like this. Anyway, I'll start...

China is starting to have labor problems of their own. My brother collects die-cast cars as a hobby. They are mostly made in China. Right now all the major companies who make them are having trouble getting parts from the factories. The factories can't get enough workers at wages which would...

Don't know if it'll help much, but I try not to look up when I'm climbing a hill. It's less demoralizing seeing the next 50 feet, as opposed to looking up and seeing the hill going on for hundreds or thousands of feet. I figure I'll know when I hit the top once it gets easier to pedal. The other...

31 miles in 2 hours today, 27 miles in 1:43 yesterday. Typical Eastern Queens daytime traffic slowing me a bit both days. I was pretty spent towards the end today, and my butt was hurting big time (might need a gel seat cover unless someone has other suggestions).

First class is perfectly fine with me. I'm definitely in no hurry here.

I'll gladly take everything. I don't really have any spare DDR. Thanks! :)

Yeah, that's exactly what I was looking for. I'll PM you with my address. Let me know what the shipping will be (I assume these would fit in a small Priority Mail flat rate box unless you prefer to ship them some other way).

Are these AGP 8x? If so, I would be interested.

I second time's recommendation to run Memtest. I ran it for a few days after I replaced the caps in my motherboard just to make sure everything was OK. Bad RAM could most definitely be causing these random freezes.

While we're on that subject, I only spent the amount of time I did because I was reasonably sure the caps were the problem. If the problem could have had many potential causes, I highly doubt I would have bothered. BTW, about 2 months ago I replaced the remainder of the caps when the...

Another suggestion here-try removing the TV card as time suggested earlier and see if you still get freezes. If not, that's your problem right there. Even if the software isn't installed for it in Win7, the card might still be interacting with your system in ways which make it unstable.

In case it is only the MB, a cheaper route might be to look for used motherboards which support your processor on eBay, or perhaps some of the members here have a spare MB of similar vintage which they would be willing to sell. If you're going to buy a brand new motherboard, might as well spend...

One more thing-BP rises if you're ill. I've had a mild case of the flu for the last few weeks which accounts for my higher than normal readings.

Try to get an average of many readings before anything. My BP can be all over the place, so I don't put much stock in any one reading. Just now it was 152/92. A few days ago it was 133/80. I've seen it as low as 90/60. A lot depends upon what I eat, how much I drink, how much I exercise...

Reminds my of my days cycling on the country roads around Princeton when I was in college. Not much advice to give you on cleaning the bike other than to be thorough, especially regarding the drivetrain. Mud seems to work itself into literally everything. :(

$94.99 for 16 GB of RAM my next upgrade, about $15 in parts to repair my A7N8X-E, and $70 for a second hand laptop. That was it for me in 2011. Normally I'll spend a few hundred at least.

I love tailwinds. I once hit 65 mph in a descent with a tailwind to assist me. As you say, pretty intense, but in this case I only momentarily touched 65 mph, then quickly slowed as the hill leveled off. So far, the highest I've pushed my Airborne to has been 36 mph, but winter clothing and...

That would be full cycle every day which would be great. I don't ride quite that much, although when the weather cooperates I might get in 30-35 hours of riding in a good month. One thing I'll be doing on my end is testing the durability of the entire mounting system. The roads here resemble a...

Maybe. I think Deal Extreme has 120VAC drivers small enough to fit in that. Like everything else from them though the quality is a crapshoot.

Thanks Dave. That actually sounds pretty good, especially the part about selling the team on the lights. I sent his engineer an email a few days ago on what I had in mind but he hasn't gotten back to me yet. I'll start working on the preproduction prototypes for you and me. Before we even...

I don't think anybody makes a 120 VAC LED ballast that small which is dimmable with a regular triac dimmer. I'm not even sure if it's possible. If I find out differently, I'll let you know. The best way to have a small, dimmable light source off 120 VAC would be to use a wall wart (12V, 1 amp...

To make a long story short, a friend of mine whom I do quite a bit of work for is interested in my concept for possible production (we'll need to see if the numbers work). In the end this will mean a better product than I can make alone but of course a longer wait (for the final version...

Here's the elevation profile from Saturday's ride. This is typical for the routes I usually take.