Hello from a sad and sick engineer - Page 1
Forum section: electronics / general

author: Spekkio
author_rank: Regular Contributor
timestamp: July 17, 2015, 07:17:10 pm
content: Hi, I just feel I want to tell my story today.I have been a member here for a while but I have not been very active.I have been a follower of EEVBLOG for a long time, I recomended the channel for my teacher in schooland they did show some of Dave's videos in class a few timesI had some really bad news a year ago. I got cancer in my cheekbone, osteo-sarcoma. I did have cancer in 2010 also, which I was cured from.But apparently the radiation therapy that I got then caused a new tumour in the bone. I have been getting chemotherapy for almost a year.But it hasn't worked very well. I got serious infections (Sepsis) after each dose of chemo. And now the doctors tell me that they don't wantto give me any more chemotherapy (the cancer is chronic) because the quality of the time I have left will be much better without it.I get a really bad feeling sometimes that I don't have much time left, I do get all these medicines to help me feel better. But it doesn't always work.At this moment there's no way of removing the tumour surgically, since it grows in a place where there's a very high risk of bleeding during operation, so much that I can die.There's a little bit of hope that a small dose of radiation therapy can help to decrease the growth of the tumour.I've always been interested in electronics since I was a child. Picking apart my toys and rewiring them to do cool things.I got into programming as a teenager, and I tried doing some electronics. For example I tried reading magnetic card stripes with a header from a walkman, which failedIn my adult life I got some work as a web programmer, which I found being so boring after a few years.So I decided to go to school at ~24yo, to get my bachelor degree in electronics engineering, something I wanted todo for a long time.After going through cancer again in 2010, with a small break from school, I finally got my degree in 2011.And finding a job was the easiest I ever experienced, people pretty much called me up.One of them was at Volvo Powertrain, and another at Geotech, they were both very very interesting places to work at. But I choose to go to a small company, ~5people, started out in a garage.Their main product was a data logger unit for logging impacts, used in transportation. But the best part was that they did alot of customized work for companies. So therewas lots of work designing things from scratch which was really fun some times... but also really difficult at times, being the youngest among colleges at ages from 40-70, one with 30years of experience in the field. But I did everything from doing the electronics, down to programming software for the servers that are running. One of the best things was learning to program in Erlang.But I never really got to do the projects the way I wanted them to be made, someone else decided to put in a solution for something in "my" product, and then I had hell trying to get that to work, happened almost every time.For example I wanted to use a wake-up signal line to wake up units that was connected via CAN. But someone said, why not just put a differential amp on the CAN lines and detect if there's any activity on it and wake up of that. Sure that worked, but it didn't work perfectly, I noticed that the more units I connected to the CAN lines, the worse the CAN signal became (outside of CAN spec). Because of a resistor in each diff-amp on the unit, they would sit in parallell when connecting many, making a smaller and smaller resistor for each unit plugged in, losing lots of current on the CAN lines. The project pretty much died because of that, I could have just used another contact with one more pin and had a wake up signal instead like I wanted to. But yeah :/ not easy being the youngest beginner.We were also involved in a EU project, so for the first time in my life I got to travel in work, do presentation of our product infront of people. I traveled to Spain and Italy. Oh, these funny EU projects, people almost sleeping and yawning during the presentations and all the important stuff, but full of life later when there's free dinner and drinksI'm sad though that my time at work have been short, 2011 - 2014. I don't think I am able to get back to work again.And I don't feel that I've learned much at all, maybe a little (never thought it was possible to etch circuit boards with 0.2mm pitch).I still feel like a beginner/amateur in electronics.I never even built a working radio transmitter in my life for example.What I loved about school also was diving into the mathematics and theory of stuff. Especially Laplace Transforms, Fourier Transforms.Digital filters (IIR, FIR, and that stuff).which I have been experimenting with a little bit herehttps://github.com/Spekkio/dig_filterhttp://spekkio.blogspot.se/2012/05/discrete-low-pass-filter-in-c.htmlhttp://spekkio.blogspot.se/2012/04/i-was-trying-to-calculate-curve-of.htmlAlso Control engineering was a very very fun, hardly remember anything from that.But analyzing a system, and finding out how it can be controlled in the most efficient way was really interesting and fun.I wish I could remember all the things we did, it was very interesting at the time.That was one of the reasons I wrote down some of the math in the blog, so that I could remember how to do it if I needed to do it again.Anyway, in this dark and depressing time of cancer I got. I decided to use my saved up money and build a home lab that I always wanted. I got a Rigol DS1052E, Keysight 34465A bench multimeter, Keysight E3643A supply, HP 33120A signal generator, an old Tektronix 2225, Fluke 87V and a Keysight U1733C LSR meter. I also got some stuff we used in school, a MAXII devkit that I liked playing with alot when we did a VHDL course. Oh and a big Dremel kit, and various stuff.I think I need some ESD protective mat on my desk (maybe on the floor too?).Now I want to spend all the time I can doing things at home. I got all these dead projects I would like to do.I wanted to build a thing to move data from my PC to my C64, I got an Asix Omega analyser and I've been analysing the signal on the Serial port.I logged the entire process of loading New Zeeland Story game from the diskette station to the C64, looking and analysing the data and comparing it with the spec of the serial port protocol.But then I got bored of that when reading the specification on the serial port, and I didn't really have all the components I needed at that time.I suppose that plenty of people has already done a thing for that, something that you can put into a RPi or whatever. But I would like to figure it out for myself, that is the fun part, not just using something someone else made.I got a Serial to USB chip CP2102 from silabs. I found it while tearing apart a pre-made serial<->usb cable that we used at work.I really liked that chip better than the FTDI chips, and it seems much easier to get your own USB id at silabs if you want/need to.Also the PIC18F25K80 became one of my favorite PIC's. Because I did something with CAN at work, which this chip supports.It comes in so many variation and sizes. PIC18F26K80 is completly pin compatible with PIC18F25K80, only differs in flash memory size.PIC18F66K80 seems to be the biggest, and I got some large fat PIC18F46K80 in PDIP-40 format.But I got lots of differents PIC's at home in various sizes and models.I bought some ZigBee modules (MRF24J40MA) from Microchip that I have no idea how to get working, I can't find anything on how to get the required software for the things.I used Telegesis ZigBee modules at work, and XBee modules on my Thesis work in school.But they were just ready to go, just plug solder on and communicate on UART to an MCU, no problem.I ran into that problem at work also, when bying some modules, I think they were from Linear tech, SmartMesh maybe. Never understood how to get them up and running.The first thing I did at work was building my own programmer board for a texas instrument CC2530 that I thought I could get working.I thought it was a simple thing todo. But you learn from mistakes, I still have that board here at home.Would be fun to play some with GPS modules, and GPRS modules (or similar), I programmed those at work alot. Since the data loggers sends it's data via GPRS to a server.I had an idea to build a wireless bluetooth controller for my NES, doesn't seem to difficult. Just never got the time to buy the components and start working on it.We used a nice BT module from Microchip at work, I think it was RN42. That one was very easy to get it working.It would maybe be fun to try and build a quadcopter/drone. I don't have anything for that right now, propellers and motors and stuff.I don't have much knowledge in how to drive the motors, or what kind of motors I need.I got a BMI160 acceletometer+gyroscope that I found interesting that I have soldered on a prototype board a few days ago but haven't tested it yet.I also got some nixietubes that I bought many years ago. But I'm not sure how to generate enough voltage to drive them (I guess for heating up the element in the back).A tesla coil would be fun to do, looks like a simple device. I was at the hackers festival OHM2013 and found some guys that I talked to who has a tesla coil.He explained it for me and it looks like a pretty simple device, I don't know where to get a transformer though.I simply don't have much knowledge in analog electronics, that's something I would like to work more on.Programming MCU's, connecting SPI/i2c/UART etc is not a big deal.I also started building my own switched power supply, by looking at other power supplies and finding out what all the parts do.Too scared to plug it in and look at the signals with my oscilloscope thoughI usually just check so that nothing is short circuited before I plug it in, but I haven't done it yet.I think that is all I have to say for now./Daniel

author: Lightages
author_rank: Unknown
timestamp: July 17, 2015, 07:31:48 pm
content: I wish you all the best and I hope you can have some fun!

author: zapta
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: July 17, 2015, 07:37:45 pm
content: I wish you well. This is a fascinating post. Will look forward for more insight.

author: Berni
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: July 17, 2015, 07:49:55 pm
content: Such a shame you had to be so unlucky. You can become a great electronics engineer with that sort of enthusiasm and it looks like you sure are not scared of math at all.Its never too late to dive in to old school analog. Today cheep opamps make nice analog building blocks. Also if you like VHDL you might like getting a FPGA dev board, perhaps design your own CPU in one.I hope you can somehow pull out of this.

author: Spekkio
author_rank: Regular Contributor
timestamp: July 17, 2015, 08:50:05 pm
content: Quote from: Berni on July 17, 2015, 07:49:55 pmI did get a DE0-Nano with a Cyclone IV.Haven't done anything interesting with that so far. I've programmed it just to get it running.Getting the Altera software up and running etc.I also tried some bitcoin mining on it for a short while. But I didn't wanna destroy it from overheating, and bitcoin mining is quite useless these days anyway.I have been thinking about making a CPU ofcourseI have made my own assemblers before.

author: daqq
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: July 17, 2015, 09:02:28 pm
content: I add my wishes of good luck to you in all things to you.QuoteNixie tubes (gas discharge tubes in general) do not work that way - basically, when you introduce a high enough voltage to a low pressure gas environment you get a plasma glow - a "glow discharge" effect (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Glow_discharge). It is a "cold" discharge. You can have a lot of fun experimenting with it.Most nixies need around 140V or more for ignition (depends on the type, size, configuration, etc.). You can either use a mains transformer (230V to 12V), power it with an AC voltage, say, 12V on the normally secondary side and you get 230V (more or less), which you can then rectify and filter. It's a quick and dirty solution. Or, you can use a DC DC converter, for more control and grace:http://www.dos4ever.com/flyback/flyback.htmlQuoteIf you mean the main coil transformer, then most people wind it themselves, if you mean the mains->high voltage transformer, that depends on the desired power, desired voltage of your Tesla coil - I've seem microwave oven transformers used for mid range coils, pole pig transformers for the more nasty ones.Note: You will be dealing with pretty high voltages. Be careful.If I may suggest - if possible, try and find a hacker space in your area - the people in such places are generally amazing people with tons of experience and wisdom to share. Sound like you would fit in.

author: Spekkio
author_rank: Regular Contributor
timestamp: July 17, 2015, 09:11:41 pm
content: QuoteAh, yes ofcourse *facepalm*.I was thinking of the other kind of tubes, like a KT88, or something like that which would have an element that heats up and releases electrons. If I remember correctly.A nixie tube would just glow...?QuoteI mean the main voltage transformer, I've heard about people using transformers from microwaves. Or Neon sign transformers.

author: Berni
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: July 17, 2015, 09:15:25 pm
content: Ah nice, i got a terasic DE-0 dev board here too. Haven't done anything super complex on it yet.For tesla coils yeah a good HV transformer is a microwave oven one. You also get the rectifier to turn it to DC there. But yeah do be careful. The 100V or so to drive nixie tubes hurts. But the few kV at huge currents from a microwave transformer can easily kill. Your days are precious to you, don't cut them short.EDIT:You might be thinking of a VFD display, Those use a few volts for a heater and about 20 to 100 V to accelerate electrons in to phosphor for a glow

author: zapta
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: July 17, 2015, 11:04:38 pm
content: We should have the EEVBlog Wish Foundation, similar to this onehttp://childrenswish.org/top-5-wishes/(Count me in for support).

author: GreyWoolfe
author_rank: Unknown
timestamp: July 18, 2015, 03:34:06 am
content: Cancer took both my parents and my oldest sister. I wish you well and may your days be blessed and full of life. Keep fighting the good fight, miracles do happen everyday.

author: mtdoc
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: July 18, 2015, 03:51:00 am
content: Spekkio,Thanks for sharing your story. Life is precious and it is good to be reminded of that. None of us knows exactly how much time we have left. All any of us can do is live well and hope to die well.I wish you the best.

author: daqq
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: July 18, 2015, 05:27:55 am
content: QuoteYeah, the KT88 is a vacuum tube that operates on thermionic emission of electrons - basically, whenyou get a metal very hot (~1000 deg.C) it starts to release electrons into the surrounding vacuum (the vacuum is pretty important there). Through electric fields on various cleverly placed electrodes you can then manipulate these electrons, resulting in some fun effects - you can make an equivalent of a diode, transistor and all sorts of parts (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vacuum_tube)*. The voltage needed to heat them up is pretty low - usually they have a filament heater with voltages such as 6.3V (or less, or more, but not by too much). The actual voltage (the "working" voltage) however is generally pretty high. Note that there are all sorts of obscure tubes, some of whom do not have heaters, various working principles and some pretty amazing parameters/effects.A nixie tube will just glow, yes, assuming you provide it with a high DC voltage to ignite the discharge and then maintain it with a little less voltage - this is generally done by just connecting the common anode through a current limiting resistor of a pretty high value to a relatively high voltage (say, +180V) and connecting the selected cathode down to ground. A nixie tube will have a common anode, that is shaped like a cage (that can be seen through) around a number of shaped cathodes. Their shape will be of the numbers/letters/symbols that they should represent. A glow discharge happens very closely around the cathode - you pretty much get the exact shape of the wire (or in most case thin sheet metal) glowing. The glow produces very little heat. Glow discharge tubes can be beautiful.* - it would be more proper to say that semiconductor diodes and transistors provide a similar function to tubes - tubes came much sooner.

author: wagon
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: July 18, 2015, 01:47:12 pm
content: Makes me want to finish all my projects, sooner rather than later. And hug my kids.I wish you all the best.

author: photon
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: July 18, 2015, 07:36:56 pm
content: I was in a similar situation a long time ago. This made me laugh:‘I’m not afraid to die. I just don’t want to be there when it happens.’ Woody Allen

author: Spekkio
author_rank: Regular Contributor
timestamp: July 18, 2015, 08:19:56 pm
content: Quote from: photon on July 18, 2015, 07:36:56 pm

author: TerraHertz
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: July 19, 2015, 05:33:14 am
content: Very sad. So sorry to hear you've had such bad luck.My best friend died young of cancer. My father and grandmother also, though not so early. After my friend died, and considering I'm getting on in years, I thought I'd look around to see what the net has to say about cancer; causes and treatments, beyond what I already knew about genetic mechanisms. Why is the incidence skyrocketing? What was different in earlier times and demographics?I wonder if you did the same? Learning is always interesting, you don't have to limit yourself to electronics.As usual I collected stuff. If you're interested, I've put that collection here:http://everist.org/archives/__Cancer_cures.zip269 MB, a video included.http://everist.org/archives/__Cancer_cures-no_vid.zip5.5 MB, same but no videoDon't get excited about the title "cancer_cures" - it's a loose term. Though, there are interesting leads, in particular the B17/Laetrile/apricot seeds stuff. After a small cancer scare of my own I now take 8 apricot seeds daily (in breakfast cereal), but have nothing I can add in the way of anecdotal tales. I'd say ask me again in five years, but that may not be practical, eh?Apart from finding it interesting that I remember as a child being told "Don't eat apricot seeds, they contain cyanide and you'll dieeeee!" Which turns out to be total bullshit, and fits with the claim that apricot seeds are suppressed (actually illegal to sell them for eating in many places!) because they are a working cancer preventative and cure, but being natural can't be patented or sold for high profits to desperate people.Whether they do work, I don't know. I just found the amount of information about them very interesting, and one of those 'nothing to lose, why not try it' things. They taste nice. The theory of how they work, and how populations that traditionally eat them regularly get virtually no cancer cases, is also fascinating. You'll find explanations in the linked texts. But very briefly... Apricot seeds do contain cyanide (CN) but the CN is bound up in the center of a large folded protein (vitamin B17). In normal body metabolism there's nothing that unfolds that protein. Cancer cells, in replicating like mad, express an enzyme that does unfold the B17 protein. So, the cancer cells get a targeted delivery of cyanide. Kind of nature's chemo, except it does nothing to the rest of you. The tales of the 'cancer-chemo industry' efforts to suppress full trials of B17 on cancer patients, and the results of trials that did manage to be done, are quite amazing. Multiple full recovery of patients that had been given up for dead by mainstream medicine, stuff like that.Now I'm going to be jumped on by all the 'there are no conspiracies' types. Raising false hopes, peddling quack science, tin-foil conspiracy looney, and all the rest.Never mind. I thought I should mention it. If you're interested in fighting, you might give it a try. It's not like apricot seeds are rare or expensive, though you may be unlucky enough to be in a place they are banned. Try health food shops for a start, then google. And speak to someone knowledgeable in B17 use for advanced cancer patients.I'm really sad I didn't find out about that till after my friend died. He only had six months from diagnosis to death. But it wouldn't have done him any harm to try it either.

author: HighVoltage
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: July 19, 2015, 09:39:51 am
content: Your story made me sad as well and the engineer in me always looks for solutions. I am aware that in your case there might be no solutions but sometime you should not give up hope on alternative treatments. I have seen it first hand, that people have not only survived cancer but have thrived afterwards. Never give up, start reading about alternatives and get opinions from people who know you might uncover something that will help you.I just read about a guy who discovered healing methods with "special" water. Sounds far fetched? But as soon as we start reading about water, we find out two big things:1. our bodies are made out of a lot of water2. we know almost nothing about waterHere is just a list of water anomalies:http://www1.lsbu.ac.uk/water/water_anomalies.htmlI suggest you watch a documentary called: "what the bleep do we know" as a possible start in to a possible new future for you. Watch it with an open mind but also with your analytical skills. May be watch it a few times. This documentary was made by an engineer, William Arntz.If you are up to it, start reading until the cows come home. Be open in all direction. But also be careful, since there are lots of woodoo science wanna bees out there.I wish you all the best.

author: Spekkio
author_rank: Regular Contributor
timestamp: July 19, 2015, 11:28:58 am
content: Thank you all for your kindness. It feels good to chat with people.As for alternative medecine. I feel like I am in a situation where the doctors have given up on me. It is like they failed, and now they just want to forget me and concentrate on other patients that they know they can do something for. Well, not entierly true, but that is the feeling I get sometimes when I speak to them. So I am open to try anything I can. Well almost anyway. I have heard about B17 and apricose seeds before. I'll look into it. Also bicarbonate is supposed to be good for you.

author: mcinque
author_rank: Unknown
timestamp: July 19, 2015, 12:08:27 pm
content: I wish you the best my friend

author: magetoo
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: July 19, 2015, 12:50:53 pm
content: My mother is currently going through the whole radiotherapy and chemo package, and it's pretty awful. At least they caught it pretty early.We should be able to do better, you certainly read about lots of new sci-fi sounding treatments, like antibodies that deliver radiation in a more targeted way or DNA "nanobots" that destroy cancer cells, but they always seem to be 5-10 years away..Quote from: Spekkio on July 17, 2015, 07:17:10 pmHey, I was there too! Ah, memories. The way the camp looked at night, drinking with OpenBSD devs, cooking at the village, and of course those assholes that started blasting rap music outside the tent at 8 in the morning when I was trying to sleep.. :-)Any plans forCCCampthis summer? I'm hoping to go if I can.

author: Spekkio
author_rank: Regular Contributor
timestamp: July 19, 2015, 01:16:29 pm
content: Quote from: magetoo on July 19, 2015, 12:50:53 pmI wish I could, I really loved OHM2013, i miss it. I had lots of fun there.I chatted a little with Eric Gordon Corley from 2600 magazine.Here are some picture and videos I took.http://spekkio.blogspot.se/2013/08/ohm2013.htmlAlso had some time to chat with this cool guyhttp://oi42.tinypic.com/2drys8o.jpgI wanted to go in 2005 and 2009. I first heard about the festival in 2001. But I couldn't go to any of those, not enough money etc.I'm really happy I took the time to go in 2013.

author: HighVoltage
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: July 19, 2015, 01:34:59 pm
content: Quote from: Spekkio on July 19, 2015, 11:28:58 amI have a friend, who was a teacher and had a good life, until a rare blood cancer was discovered and she was told that she had may be one year to take care of her affairs.That was like 20 some years ago!Doctors could not help her, because there was not much known about her illness.Then she decided to study medicine and for her pHD she studied her own blood, traveled around the world and studied in lots of places. She became a leading physician in a very well known hospital in Germany until she could not work anymore because of weakness. She is still studying her own illness and is looking for solutions and does not leave anything uncovered.I also had a friend in the US, who was beating cancer with fresh pressed carrots and nothing else for weeks. But her cancer was in such an advanced state that she could not survive and passed away. However, she did set herself a goal to write a Children's book before her time would come and she ended up writing five of them in a series and they became very successful.You can not rely on doctors for your health.You need to take this in to your own hands and you might be able to change the direction of your life.I wish you all the best.

author: Spekkio
author_rank: Regular Contributor
timestamp: July 19, 2015, 01:49:51 pm
content: Now I'm struggling to get this thing workingJust a PIC, a Serial to USB chip and the BMI160 acceletometer+gyro.The Serial USB chip (CP2102) worked perfectly first. Then I connected the PIC to the builtin 3.3V regulator on the CP2102. That worked too, I programmed the PIC and then all of a sudden the CP2102 stopped working. The 3.3V regulator seems to work fine though. It's frustrating and boring now.Actually the CP2102 started working a few times, then I programmed the PIC with another setting for the builtin oscillator and then it died again.I need to get some tools for etching boards instead I think....noticed that the USB chip is detected by my computer when the builtin voltage regulator outputs ~4V, I suppose it has no load attached to it.But when it has a load it outputs 3.4V, but then my computer doesn't detect the chip... urgh..Or I have zapped the chip. I need to do something else now.

author: Berni
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: July 19, 2015, 04:40:16 pm
content: Looks like i got me some competition in messy looking perfboard hacks.A lot of the time i might do "DIP conversions" on SMD chips. What i do is take a tiny piece of perfboard and put two headers at the edges to make sort of a DIP chip shape, then i use this dead bug style SMD soldering to bring the chips pins out. Then i stick these in to breadboards and wire them up there. Its less messy and more flexible for messing about and changing connections.

author: CatalinaWOW
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: July 19, 2015, 04:43:02 pm
content: Sorry to hear your story. I too have lost friends and colleagues to cancer. There is no way to make the situation good, but you are doing the right thing, finding things to enjoy and immersing yourself in them. In some cases that seems to trigger something in the bodies immune system and results in a permanent remission. Even if it doesn't you get the joy that is possible in your remaining time.There is a country western song that was popular in the US for a while. Don't know if it made it to your part of the world, but it might be worth looking up and having a listen. The title is "Live Like You Were Dying" by Tim McGraw. The sentiment works for all of us, not just those with cancer or other terminal illnesses.

author: NiHaoMike
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: July 19, 2015, 04:57:38 pm
content: I Fold for the cure.http://folding.stanford.edu/On a related note, do a little research about GMOs and the chemicals used with them. There's a lot of evidence pointing it as a major contributing factor to a lot of health issues nowadays.

author: kamaangir
author_rank: Contributor
timestamp: July 19, 2015, 05:55:56 pm
content: Sorry to hear about your condition. I have no experience of it so can't offer you any advice, but a guy at work keeps going on about "Rick Simpson running from the cure" its on youtube. Watch it and do your own research. There is nothing more delapitating than not having knowledge.I read a book about emergency medicine written by an army doctor in a Japanese pow camp. He said the most important medicine he had was hot water. He would prescribe it to be taken 3 times a day and injured body parts to be washed in it. This gave the soldiers something to do and while they were doing something proactive they didn't spend all thier time dwelling on thier predicament.The message was that positive mental attitude counted for a huge amount.I sometimes come back to pondering on the questionof own mortality and the meaning of life, I spend lots of time arguing for and against different theories and end up more confused than I started. But then I remenber part of this poem:In this world which ebb's and flow's, no begining nor end does it know, there stands a riddle posed long ago. Where do we come from, where do we go?And if a mathematician, philosopher, astronmomer and one of the greatest poets was asking the same question and was not able to satisfy himself with his answer, then I am not doing so bad hahahaThe reason I have written these anecdotes is to not just say you have to be blah blah as I am sure others do in thier best patronising manner but to show where it has worked (anecdotally at least).I am also planning on building a couple of tesla coils, depends how big you want to build them, I want mine about 1.5 m high. Broadly speaking there are 2 types, ones that can play music are solid state ones and according to guys I have spoken to, its best to dabble in them after you are confident enough with the normal resonant transformer ones. I plan on building a small table top one to practice. My lathe is in storage so I need to build a workshop to put it in 1st and use the lathe to wind on the magnet wire for the secondary.So many projects completion depend on the completion of other projects!Best of luckArash

author: daybyter
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: July 19, 2015, 09:46:34 pm
content: http://www.webmd.com/cancer/lymphoma/news/20141104/immunotherapy-brings-new-hope-cancer-fight

author: Vgkid
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: July 20, 2015, 02:59:04 am
content: As others have said keep yourself occupied, it does wonders to help. Always look on the bright side of things, even when you are at your worst.

author: Spekkio
author_rank: Regular Contributor
timestamp: July 20, 2015, 08:33:27 am
content: Quote from: daybyter on July 19, 2015, 09:46:34 pmIt is very interesting. I'm not an expert in cancer. But I wonder if it works on osteosarcoma. I suppose there are many different kinds of cancer cells, as there are many many different types of chemo treatments.

author: Spekkio
author_rank: Regular Contributor
timestamp: July 20, 2015, 08:36:49 am
content: Quote from: Berni on July 19, 2015, 04:40:16 pmYes I do that also sometimes.I would like to be able to etch boards anyway. Did that the first time at work a couple of years ago.

author: Spekkio
author_rank: Regular Contributor
timestamp: July 20, 2015, 09:13:37 am
content: Quote from: kamaangir on July 19, 2015, 05:55:56 pmI have also been thinking about building a small desktop teslacoil. I don't have a workshop where I can mess around with larger stuff. Maybe at my fathers house.

author: Spekkio
author_rank: Regular Contributor
timestamp: July 20, 2015, 09:30:02 am
content: I remember another dead project I always wanted to do. A GUI for ngspice.I know there is one called Oregano, but I didn't like it at all.It would be fun to make something that others feel is useful. I've never been able to make something useful really.Projects usually dies because they get too big for me.Oh, and just now while googling I found there is something called CUSPICE, circuit simulator for CUDA cores. Very interesting

author: Berni
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: July 20, 2015, 10:16:49 am
content: You can still build tiny tesla coils the size of a coke bottle that will still shoot out small arcs in to the air, those also tend to use less lethal voltages on the primary.Projects don't always have to be something useful, but yeah it does justify the work a bit better. Thing is even useful projects are only interesting while you are still working on it. Once the end product works the interest quickly vanishes and if it breaks later and you have to fix it its more annoying than enjoyable. Finding a few friends who are interested in the same kind of projects and just talking to them every so often will do wonders in keeping your motivation on it. Does not have to be someone who lives near you, there is a ton of people on the internet, just might be difficult to find the right ones.Another thing that sometimes kills projects is feature creep. As the project develops often new feature ideas spring up all over the place, if too many of them make it in to the design it can quickly become too big to finish in a reasonable amount of time and eventually gets abandoned.

author: TerraHertz
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: July 20, 2015, 01:48:54 pm
content: Quote from: Spekkio on July 20, 2015, 09:30:02 amIt's not just you. The only things I ever got to design that I felt were actually useful for anyone, were all in my early days when I was doing small contracts privately for people. Then there were the poker gambling games I wrote, run by flat-out illegal casinos - which definitely count as a social negative, but not toooo bad as I consider everyone is their own master. Later, in all the years I was working for legitimate companies, I consider EVERY SINGLE PROJECT they had me do was a complete and utter waste of time, due to fundamentally stupid objectives. It's why I retired early.Ah... about those 'cancer cures' zip files I put up. Being quite large I can't leave them on my site too long. I'll take them down in a few days. If you want them, grab soon.

author: Spekkio
author_rank: Regular Contributor
timestamp: July 21, 2015, 09:08:12 am
content: Quote from: TerraHertz on July 20, 2015, 01:48:54 pmI downloaded them now. Thank you

author: Spekkio
author_rank: Regular Contributor
timestamp: July 22, 2015, 03:42:11 pm
content: Now I think I got enough apricot seedsRaw and Organic.This is the sweet kind of apricot seeds, so I think I can eat a little bit more of it than the bitter kind.

author: lapm
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: July 22, 2015, 04:30:35 pm
content: Quote from: Berni on July 20, 2015, 10:16:49 amFunny, i work at brewery where soft drinks are also made. Always thinking if i would one day ask for empty can and build tesla coil or something in it...Yeah, projects dont always need to be super useful.. Sometimes its enough that's it just fun to do and you might learn something.. Like high voltage does jump small airgap and it hurts if it jumps to your finger.

author: TerraHertz
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: July 22, 2015, 04:43:35 pm
content: Quote from: Spekkio on July 22, 2015, 03:42:11 pmSo, no problem buying them there, obviously.QuoteUm... I didn't know there were more than one kind. I'd understood the slight bitterness of that kind I have is related to the presence of the B17 cyanide carrier. Also that they are not something you casually eat in any quantity.So, maybe you should research whether the sweet ones you have do contain B17? Also, there are docs around (in that fileset too I think) about dosage per body mass. For both precautionary use (my case) or max safe dose (your case).

author: Spekkio
author_rank: Regular Contributor
timestamp: July 22, 2015, 06:28:55 pm
content: Quote from: TerraHertz on July 22, 2015, 04:43:35 pmAccording to WikipediaQuoteAnd Amygdalin is Vitamin B17

author: Rick Law
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: July 22, 2015, 08:37:29 pm
content: Quote from: Spekkio on July 17, 2015, 07:17:10 pmHello Spekkio,I've been away for a few days and in the process of catching up my reading when I read your post. My thoughts are with you today, and for the days to come.I know nothing I can say can make the situation any better. I hope that by your knowing many of us here care would make your bearing the unbearable a little little bit easier.I do sincerely wish that with whatever time you may have, you live many life times' worth of enjoyment.Best regardsRick

author: TerraHertz
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: July 23, 2015, 07:41:43 am
content: Quote from: Spekkio on July 22, 2015, 06:28:55 pmYes:http://www.cancerresearchuk.org/about-cancer/cancers-in-general/treatment/complementary-alternative/therapies/laetrileNote that's a mainstream medicine site, so the article is full of "no evidence to support" type statements.It would seem that bitter almonds are the ones you want. Still, those sweet ones will be nice on cereal, so no loss.

author: Zero999
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: July 23, 2015, 09:01:49 am
content: Quote from: TerraHertz on July 23, 2015, 07:41:43 amHow about growing your own bitter almonds?Bitter almond trees are often planted in parks, gardens and streets for their nice flowers. If the blossom on the tree is pink then it's a bitter almond tree. The trouble is the almond tree flowers early in the spring, before the leaves and the nuts are produced in autumn, just before the leaves fall, so you have to see the tree six or more months before you collect the nuts.EDIT:I notice you live in Sweden which is a bit far north to grow almonds and get a reliable crop (where I live in England is already pushing it). You could try in a greenhouse, conservatory, orangery etc. but it mustn't be too warm in winter to allow proper dormancy and flowering.

author: Spekkio
author_rank: Regular Contributor
timestamp: July 23, 2015, 10:09:40 am
content: Quote from: Hero999 on July 23, 2015, 09:01:49 amDon't know how well that will work in cold and dark Sweden?I can buy bitter apricot seeds too if I want. There doesn't seem to be any restrictions against that in Sweden, I just didn't know about the differences before I made the order. I picked these ones because they said they were organic.

author: Spekkio
author_rank: Regular Contributor
timestamp: July 23, 2015, 10:15:38 am
content: Quote from: Rick Law on July 22, 2015, 08:37:29 pmThank youI felt I needed to get invloved a little bit more socially in a forum or chat, and maybe share and show the progress of my projects would be fun,I really want to spend all the time I can having as much fun as I can now. And thinkering with electronics is one of the things I like to do the most.

author: Zero999
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: July 23, 2015, 10:18:00 am
content: Quote from: Spekkio on July 23, 2015, 10:09:40 amI just realised that, see my edit.You could try growing indoors, as long as it's given plenty of light and a period of below 10oC in winter.

author: Mechanical Menace
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: July 23, 2015, 12:01:33 pm
content: Quote from: TerraHertz on July 23, 2015, 07:41:43 amFixed that for you.Quote from: Spekkio on July 22, 2015, 06:28:55 pmNope it isn't. The patented laetrile is what's called "vitamin B12." And that also isn't a vitamin. And that also has zero evidence of helping.I hated you sort of people when dealing with my cancers, I hate you so much more when you're trying to pull others into your woo. You're no better than free energy and "solar roadway" salesmen. I wish I could believe you don't know what you're doing.

author: Spekkio
author_rank: Regular Contributor
timestamp: July 23, 2015, 10:16:09 pm
content: Quote from: Mechanical Menace on July 23, 2015, 12:01:33 pmI'm sorry you feel that way. But you are completely misunderstanding me I think.If you had read my post, I've explained that I am currently in a situation with my cancer where the doctors do not want to give me any available treatment. Or maybe I should explain a little bit more.I have chronic cancer, that can only be treated with chemo that has a halting effect. I can not be cured.There is one chemo-treatment that has worked very well. But they don't want to give it too me, because it has resulted in very dangerous blood infections (sepsis).In a "normal" situation I would be given this chemo treatment regularly to stop the tumour from growing. People in the same situation like me have lived up to 10 years getting this halting chemo.But since it gives me sepsis after each dose, it's too dangerous.I have asked the doctors to give this treatment to me anyway, I have been positive of that.But they don't recommend it at all. Several doctors, everyone that I have spoken to have agreed and said the same thing, that it eventually will kill me from sepsis.So I get no chemo therapy, and no radiation therapy at this moment, and no surgery can be done. I have cancer, and I have no treatment, that is the situation.I am currently waiting to meet a doctor to discuss if I maybe can get a small dose of radiation therapy. That was the only thing that they could come up with that might help.If I can get it, I am going to try that, definitely. And the only thing I can do is hope it works.I'm not a conspiracy theorist and I don't believe in anyone's "woo" and I am definitely not being pulled into it either.I am a person who believes in science and facts.I pretty much feel the same way you do about all these moon landing conspiracy freaks or water driven cars or solar roadway people like you do, I guess.I sometimes read online from people who say, "chemo therapy is designed not to work", and other crazy things like that, it makes me angry.I am an extremely sceptical person, I don't just believe in anything I read and hear.I might have misunderstood what it said on the Wikipedia page about Vitamin B17, I just glanced on it quickly.But the thing is, I have NOTHING else to try.So there's no damage done.What damage could a few apricot seeds do? When I have a dangerous tumour growing on me that the doctors don't want to touch. I might as well die of anything. Highest risk at this moment (from what I understand) is bleeding to death, since the tumour might grow closer to the carotid artery.So I feel that it's no harm in reading a little bit about these alternative stuff that people are talking about.If there is some seed that people say is good for me, meh, whatever, I can try it. I still eat McDonalds, I did that todayI'm not going to do anything that takes too much work anyway, I'd rather spend that time tinkering with my electronics and do stuff that I love doing.It really made me feel sad to read your post. I don't want there to be any discussions about conspiracies and big evil medecine organizations etc etc.. I'm not a big fan of that, I want to keep this on a friendly level.

author: CatalinaWOW
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: July 24, 2015, 12:02:08 am
content: Again best wishes and hopes for your comfort and happiness. Occasionally there are unexplained remissions. Hopefully you will be one, but in any case focus on what floats your boat. Good luck on a Tesla coil. Make some peoples hair fan out and enjoy the beauty of the sparks.

author: Spekkio
author_rank: Regular Contributor
timestamp: July 24, 2015, 12:10:44 am
content: Quote from: CatalinaWOW on July 24, 2015, 12:02:08 amThank youI had some friends over today and we played a board game called China Town. It was a long time ago I had so much fun at home.I rarely have friends over in my apartment, it's more often at theirs. Second time I played this game also. Played it once before with some friends from school a couple of years back, I thought it was so good I had to buy it.I've heard about remissions. Well, I can only hope I guess.Having a positive and happy mind does help you stay healthy, I do believe that! Honestly I have not been so happy alot of the time in the past.I do feel much better now than I have, because I get antidepressants now. Maybe I should have had antidepressant medication long time ago.Btw, about staying happy en healthy. I know there is a word for it. Something with "auto...". I saw a TED talk about it. people who have a healthy, positive and happy mind do stay physically healthy aswell. I guess it's basically some kind of placebo that works. But another word, that is auto...something.

author: Mechanical Menace
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: July 24, 2015, 01:20:19 am
content: Quote from: Spekkio on July 23, 2015, 10:16:09 pmSorry, I'm a miserable bugger and just saw something that irked me, I didn't even notice who the "B17" quote came from.But just from a toxicology point of view please consider intravenous administration if possible. As bad as that may sound to many who push these remedies. No one seems to argue that that works but everyone agrees it avoids the risk of cyanide poisoning.Again sorry and I do wish you well. At one point I thought I'd never reach adulthood so I do think I can get where you're coming from but please don't give up on the actual medical science no matter how well things may seem to go. If I had I'd have died thinking everything was fine at least twice by now.

author: Spekkio
author_rank: Regular Contributor
timestamp: August 02, 2015, 07:04:29 pm
content: Something I always wanted to do, learn to play guitarI bought this game Rocksmith bundled with a guitar. Sooo much fun. I only had it for three days, my finger tips are numb from playing. I have never played guitar in my life, or any other instrument. I have always wanted to learn, I love music.Rocksmith might not be the best way to learn to play guitar, I don't know. But I don't really feel like I want to go doing lessons... Well maybe, depends on my health ofcoure. So far, Rocksmith has delivered tons of enjoyment, it is so funThe first thing I thought of doing when I saw the sound output contact was to analyze the output signal with an oscilloscope. Maybe I can build some cool filter with some electronics to do cool sounds with it. But I haven't done that yet. I've only played RocksmithIt's fun when I feel that I get a little bit better from day to day. I have never played guitar before.For the negative stuff...I have had problems with my robotic vacuum cleaner, Neato XV Signature Pro, which has worked fine up until a couple of days ago. I loved that robot, it was one of the best things I've ever ownedAnd I have been trying to troubleshoot what is wrong with it. My first guess is that the battery needs to be replaced. The problem is that I keep getting an error: "My vision is blocked". But it does that anywhere, in the middle o an open surface, and just random places. I've checked so that there is no dust in it's laser eye, there is a rotating disc that has some distance measuring function. My first guess was that the battery might need to be replaced. I've run a battery callibration routine explained on Neato Robotics homepage, without any improved results. It has made me frustrated and angry. I've got two friends with the excatly same model, they have had them for a longer period that me, and they never replaced the battery so far. And theirs run just fine, *sigh*. Such things just destroys my day. I hate it, I hate going back to the store and going through all the hassle with returning a product etc etc. And with a tumour in my mouth I have problems speaking properly, making it more like something I want to do right now.And I just get this low, depressed feeling in me when some electronics equipment just stops working for no obvious reason.And then, this crazyness started happening when running the battery calibration routine.http://spekkio.blogspot.se/2015/08/neato-xv-signature-pro-battery.htmlIt might have been part of the battery calibration routine however, that it just started going randomly around everywhere just to deplete the battery before charging.However, today it cleaned my house fine without going crazy. But still displaying "vision blocked" errors very often, also once some new error I haven't seen before, problems with the fan....? I filmed that too and I am currently uploading that video to youtube. I was hoping that it would fail with the "vision blocked" error just as often as it usually does when cleaning. I filmed for 10 minutes, but ofcourse, as usual when you want to show something it does the complete opposite you want it to. Something we called "the demo effect" at my job. When you wanted to show our product for a customer. A product that has worked perfectly during countless of testing. But then it just starts to do new random errors during the demonstration, and you have to say things like "This never happened before" or "This can't happen, it's impossible, the program cannot do this". Or as in this case, the Neato seemed to just work fine when filmingExcept for the few errors just in the beginning when I started filming, *sigh*I have been frustrated and angry the last few days, because of failing electronics, failing software on my computer. At least Rocksmith and my new guitar has contributed to some happiness. If it wasn't for the PS3 also irritating me, by randomly just shutting off while playing. But I suspect that it might be the automatic shutdown feature, the coord for the guitar, most probably doesn't work as a usual control device. So the game should shut down after one hour if it hasn't detected any activity. I turned off that feature now, and I'll play some more tomorrow to see if it works better.