是日金句

"If you don't want to tell me everything, that’s fine. Just don't lie to me."

Be Strong

Be Strong - Delta Goodrem

Are you swimming upstream in oceans of blue?
Do you feel like you're sinking?
Are you sick of the rain after all you've been through?
Well I know what you're thinking
When you can't take it
You can make it
Sometime soon I know you'll see

'cause when your in you're darkest hour
And all of the light just fades away
When you're like a single flower whose colours have
  turned to shades of gray
Well hang on and be strong

We're taking each step one day at a time
You can't loose your spirit
Let live and let live forget and forgive
It's all how you see it
And just remember keep it together
Don't you know you're never alone

'cause when you're in your darkest hour
And all of the light just fades away
When you're like a single flower whose colours have
  turned to shades of gray
Well hang on, and be strong

No you're not defeated
And soon you'll be smiling once again
Then you won't have to feel it
Let it go with the wind
Time passes us by
And know that you're allowed to cry

'cause when you're in your darkest hour
And all of the light just fades away
When you're like a single flower whose colours have
  turned to shades of gray
Well hang on and be strong

何處惹塵埃

煩~

上星期尾發現咸水喉入屋附近有水滲出黎。Weekend 叫左屋主上黎睇，拍板要整。隨即 call 師傅上黎。睇完一輪，又鑽左一輪。

最後發現水喉裂o既位置太深，係牆中間，所以要搭棚出去鋸左條喉，成條換。

星期一朝早九點幾兩個搭棚師傅就到左。唔洗一個鐘頭就搭好個棚。勁！

跟手兩個水喉師傅接力。一個係出面，一個係入面。又鋸又鑽，幾個鐘頭之後攪掂。之後等多幾個鐘等o的膠水乾。之後再開番大廈水制試過ok，師傅係六點幾o既時候終於可以收工。

最後成屋都係灰塵，又要抹抹抹抹抹… orz…

iPod mini mod

The microdrive in my first generation iPod mini finally died a few days ago.

The 1st gen iPod mini utilizes the same Wolfson Microelectronics WM8731L audio chipset as the 3rd gen iPod (which is believed to be the iPod with the best sound quality). The technical details can be found here.

Anyway, many people has tried to mod the 1st gen iPod mini to use flash based card. Now I have a good excuse to try it :P

First thing to do is to find the right compactflash card. The key word to look for here is "ATA compatibility". The speed of the card doesn't matter. The one that I used is from the A-Data Speedy series. Picked up the 16GB model for HKD520.

The rest is easy. Just follow the online tutorial to disassemble the iPod mini and replace the microdrive.

Finally, connect the iPod mini to a computer and use iTunes to restore the firmware. Restart. And iPod mini recognizes the card without any problem.

To do: replace the battery with a higher capacity one and reinstall the Rockbox firmware later to play FLAC.

PIMETA headamp

After reading my DAC post, some friends asked me what exactly is my "PIMETA headamp".

The PIMETA headamp is the box on the left.

Well, first of all, headamp is an amplifier for headphones. It takes the audio signal from the source, amplify it (can be both in terms of voltage and current), and drive the headphone.

This particular headamp that appeared with the DAC is a PIMETA that I built a few years ago. It is simple to built and tune.

Here is a peek inside.

The big blue box is an Alps volume control. The four red cylinders are Elna Cerafine capacitors. The little board on the side with yellow sockets is my DIY voltage regulator to provide clean power to the headamp.

A closer look.

I fitted this headamp with 6 x BUF634. BUF634s are buffers that provide enough current to drive the headphone. They also help to drive the headamp "deeper" into Class-A.

3 x AD843 op-amps provide the voltage amplification. Different op-amps have different sound signature. Op-amp swapping is the easiest way to tune and modify this headamp.

Close up on the op-amps. These 2 are for the left and right channels. The other OPA843 is on another socket for the ground channel.