{"id":49,"date":"2016-02-01T23:46:53","date_gmt":"2016-02-01T22:46:53","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/elephantandchicken.co.uk\/stuffandnonsense\/?page_id=49"},"modified":"2025-07-25T14:18:43","modified_gmt":"2025-07-25T13:18:43","slug":"welcome","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/elephantandchicken.co.uk\/stuffandnonsense\/","title":{"rendered":"Welcome"},"content":{"rendered":"

Welcome to Stuff and Nonsense.
\nFind here posts relating to my hobbies, interests and chickens. When undertaking shorter projects, I try to make a record of how specific things were done, mainly to show other people in my family and to remind myself later. Hopefully it might also be useful to other people on the internet.<\/p>\n

\"Chickens\"<\/a>
Chickens<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

After a number of years of not having one, I now have a contact form again. This time using captcha, hopefully meaning I won’t have to delete it like I did previously. If you spot an error I’ve made, feel free to point it out as I don’t want to be putting confusing and misleading information on the internet which might lead people astray or make things difficult!<\/p>\n

Recent Posts<\/h4>\n\n\n\n\n
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PowerComputing PowerTower Pro Project<\/a><\/h2>\n\n\t\n\t
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PowerComputing PowerTower Pro Project Note – This Project is ongoing, and so this page will be updated in a very untimely manner as I undertake and document additional work on my PowerTower Pro. Background For a long time I have wanted a Macintosh Clone, basically because they came in more rugged cases and the power … Continue reading PowerComputing PowerTower Pro Project<\/span> →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n\t<\/div>\n\n\t\n\t

\n\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\tPosted in<\/span> Electronics and Computers<\/a>, Macintosh<\/a>, Posts<\/a>\t\t\t<\/span>\n\t\t\t|<\/span>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\tTagged<\/span> 225<\/a>, Clone<\/a>, Fans<\/a>, Power Computing<\/a>, Power Supply<\/a>, PowerComputing<\/a>, PowerTower Pro<\/a>, PSU<\/a>, repair<\/a>, Restore<\/a>, Speaker<\/a>\t\t\t<\/span>\n\t\t\t|<\/span>\n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\tLeave a comment<\/a>\t\t<\/span>\n\t\t\t<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n\n\n
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Large Disks in Vintage PowerPC Macs<\/a><\/h2>\n\n\t\n\t
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Large Disks in Vintage PowerPC Macs The main scenarios that have caused me issues with large hard disks in PCI era PowerPC Macs (Beige G3 through to G4 era) are… Lets look at each of these issue and solutions individually. Dealing with the 128GB Limit I believe this limitation impacts computers from the Beige G3 … Continue reading Large Disks in Vintage PowerPC Macs<\/span> →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n\t<\/div>\n\n\t\n\t

\n\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\tPosted in<\/span> Electronics and Computers<\/a>, Mac OS 8<\/a>, Mac OS 9<\/a>, Mac OS X<\/a>, Macintosh<\/a>, Posts<\/a>, System 7<\/a>\t\t\t<\/span>\n\t\t\t|<\/span>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\tTagged<\/span> 120GB<\/a>, 128GB<\/a>, 28bit LBA<\/a>, 8GB<\/a>, big<\/a>, Classic Mac OS<\/a>, disks<\/a>, drives<\/a>, Formatting<\/a>, large<\/a>, Partition<\/a>, PowerPC<\/a>, retro mac<\/a>, size<\/a>, SpeedTools<\/a>, vintage mac<\/a>\t\t\t<\/span>\n\t\t\t|<\/span>\n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\tLeave a comment<\/a>\t\t<\/span>\n\t\t\t<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

Electronics as a Hobby<\/h4>\n
\"ReadyAVR-28<\/a>
ReadyAVR-28 Closeup<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

My primary areas of interest are Chickens, Electronics and Linux SBCs. I recommend electronics as an excellent hobby, given how cheap it can be and how much information there is available. If you’re starting out, I strongly suggest you get yourself either a kit such as this<\/a>, or an Arduino Uno<\/a>, a few LEDs<\/a>, some tactile push buttons<\/a>, some 330\u03a9 and 10k\u03a9 resistors<\/a> (current limiting and pull ups respectively), a pack of Dupont style wires<\/a> and a piece of breadboard<\/a>, and start learning. Books such as those in the “Make” series<\/a> are probably a good starting point if you’d like something tangible to work from, although a huge amount of information can be found on the internet, including the Adafruit<\/a> website, Sparkfun<\/a> and many more<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Additional fun starter components might include, a rotary<\/a> or linear<\/a> potentiometer (variable resistors), a temperature sensor<\/a>, Light Dependent Resistors (LDRs)<\/a>, a screen<\/a> and a servo motor<\/a>. This kit<\/a> includes a large number of sensors on breakout boards ready to wire to your Arduino.<\/p>\n

\"EasyAVR5A<\/a>
EasyAVR5A ATMega32<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

At this stage, you don’t need to do any soldering as long as you make sure you buy parts that have pin headers to match your dupont wires, or they plug straight into the breadboard. If you would like to buy some of these components for lower prices, then soldering them yourself is always an option. My favourite soldering iron is actually this cheap Chinese model<\/a>, although I did need to replace the plug on it! When soldering your first projects your probably best using strip board or “Veroboard”, although strangely it doesn’t seem to be sold much in China. Take care as they often sell an alternative type of board which has pads, but they are not connected in strips.<\/p>\n

\"Sensor<\/a>
Sensor Box<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Most of the links I’ve provided are to Banggood – a silly name, but they allow you to pay with Paypal – this is important when buying from China because things sometimes (not as often as some people make out) go astray or get damaged in the post. Paypal provide you with a level of customer protection that is useful in these situations as you can start a claim without first having to persuade the seller. Note that it is courteous to raise a query with the seller first, but be aware of the claim time limits on Paypal and if the end of this time duration is approaching, be sure to start your claim before time runs out. It is common for sellers to respond in the style of “please wait another week, it is nearly there” – this sometimes results in you not being able to claim for a part that never arrives. This said, note that shipping from China usually takes between 4 and 5 weeks – don’t be impatient!<\/p>\n

\"Breadboard<\/a>
Breadboard Layout of Fan Controller<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Welcome to Stuff and Nonsense. Find here posts relating to my hobbies, interests and chickens. When undertaking shorter projects, I try to make a record of how specific things were done, mainly to show other people in my family and to remind myself later. Hopefully it might also be useful to other people on the … Continue reading Large Disks in Vintage PowerPC Macs<\/span> →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":283,"parent":0,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-49","page","type-page","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/elephantandchicken.co.uk\/stuffandnonsense\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/49","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/elephantandchicken.co.uk\/stuffandnonsense\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/elephantandchicken.co.uk\/stuffandnonsense\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/elephantandchicken.co.uk\/stuffandnonsense\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/elephantandchicken.co.uk\/stuffandnonsense\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=49"}],"version-history":[{"count":13,"href":"https:\/\/elephantandchicken.co.uk\/stuffandnonsense\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/49\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3142,"href":"https:\/\/elephantandchicken.co.uk\/stuffandnonsense\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/49\/revisions\/3142"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/elephantandchicken.co.uk\/stuffandnonsense\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/283"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/elephantandchicken.co.uk\/stuffandnonsense\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=49"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}