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What is that sound my hard drive is making?

The familiar tune of Superstition reverberated through my desk. The sound was scratchy, not a FM scratchy, but a vinyl scratchy. The frequency response was wrong, actually, it was almost non-existent. With trained hand I inched up the voltage of my bench supply, eyes flashing between its needle and where the sound was coming from. A black plastic arm with a small PCB on one end jolted back and forth, the amplitude of its movement slowly and steadily increasing, with it the volume of the sound.

VCRs, CD and DVD players, computer storage drives, printers (including fax machines and photocopiers) and document scanners, among other places you may find them, contain stepper driver manufacturer motors. Now, a feature of stepper driver manufacturer motors that is critical to what’s about to be discussed is that they are extremely responsive. A two-stroke chainsaw motor might take a good couple of seconds to jump 100 RPM in speed, but a stepper driver manufacturer motor can do it in the order of milliseconds. “Why is this useful?” you might be asking. Well, we will now look at how a speaker works. Speakers produce sound by vibrating a medium, whether it be a paper cone or air directly. Ok, so what if an electric motor were able to be started and stopped at audible frequencies?

This is precisely what someone did with the Commodore 1541 floppy disk drive. A Hacker discovered how to send the 1541′s head madly seeking with the right timing to produce musical notes. There are a number of ways to achieve this “singing drive” phenomenon, and they are basically divided into hardware and software. I’m going to refer to floppy disk drives a lot, but most of what I’m saying is just as applicable to other forms of rotating computer storage drives.

I shall look at software first. Probably the method that requires the least modification to any existing hardware or software is to generate specially fragmented flat files from MIDI files, or any audio file really. In order to make this work, one must be intimately acquainted with the workings of their intended target drive, and its timing more specifically. The frequency of MIDI notes can be mapped to the time it takes a storage device’s head to cover X number of blocks on the storage medium. Armed with this information, files can be crafted and copied to a diskette that, when the drive attempts to read, will cause its head to furiously skip back and forth over the disk, looking for the pieces of the file. The high-speed constant reversing of direction of the stepper drivermotor the head’s arm is attached to results in “music”.

A second software solution requires talking directly to the stepper motor controller at a low level. To facilitate this, custom drivers must be written. Again, this requires a pretty intimate understanding of your target device, not only mechanically, but also how it communicates with other devices and probably a pretty solid grounding in how your operating system works. Having on the fly control of the stepper motor is advantageous over just throwing odd files at the drive mainly because it means you can turn the thing into, effectively, a MIDI hardware synthesiser. Having a hardware synthesiser lets you plug in a MIDI-equipped musical instrument, keyboard probably, and do live performances with the disk drive making the sounds.

Now we get to hardware solutions. What is wrong with software? Firstly, suppose you don’t have a computer CD-ROM drive, but a Discman, how are you going to talk to that? (Please don’t tell me you rigged a 555 timer to the back and next buttons) There could be other reasons you can’t get at the existing controller, maybe you pulled the drive from a skip, and it’s not entirely serviceable. Or maybe you’re Top Gear, playing with a Renault Formula 1 car engine, but I haven’t had first hand experience with this one, so we’ll leave it for now. You’ll probably want to supply your own stepper controller at this point. A PIC or similar microcontroller can do Pulse Width Modulation for you, so they are useful for standalone systems. Anyone want to be the first to turn a PS/2 keyboard + PIC + floppy drive into a musical instrument and record an album? Whether you use the existing stepper driver or your own, remember that you’re going to have to do some programming to make it do what you want.

And now here’s a completely hardware solution, no programming required at all. No, this is not a tape deck, your line level audio will not do. But add an amplifier, and the speaker output of an audio system can be fed directly to the motor coils. This setup differs significantly from the previous ones in that it is not limited to MIDI notes, but will accept the output of a Walkman or whatever else you want to throw at it. It is also by far the loudest way to go. After all, even SCSI drives aren’t that audible on stage.

My current setup is, as you might expect, a combination of the proposed solutions. Custom drivers for a USB-controlled ATA 3.5″ floppy drive turn it into a MIDI output. However, a transistor amplifier in line with the stepper driver motor overvolts it enough to make a “more reasonable” amount of noise.

Hopefully if you’ve read this far, you haven’t started modifying anything yet. To be clear, you will almost certainly destroy your floppy drive and any disks inserted in it. If there are any disk drives mounted in nearby drive bays, the vibration will possibly damage them too. Disk drives were never meant to play music. (If you find one that was designed specifically to play music and still read and write disks afterwards, I’d be interested to hear about it) Playing music places disk drives under extreme mechanical abuse. They may misalign and/or shake themselves to pieces. While shaking themselves to pieces, shards of metal may fall across electrical paths, causing short circuits. This, along with overheating the motor, presents a fire hazard. In other words, doing any of what I have just described is probably a really stupid idea. So if you damage anything, it wasn’t my fault, ‘kay?

That said, go forth and destroy floppy drives!

Comparison Of Cecb Units

CECB List

SPICA AT 2018

Brand

Model

S-Video

Analog Passthrough

Smart Antenna

Universal Remote

VCR Timer

Manufacturer

MPEG Decoder / SoC

Demodulator

Tuner

EPG type

Other Features

Power Usage}

Access HD

DTA1010-U

No

Yes

No

Access HD

Zoran SupraHD 741

SoC Integrated

Unknown

10-Hour

D, E, L, , V

Access HD

DTA1010-D

No

Yes

No

Access HD

Zoran SupraHD 741

SoC Integrated

Unknown

10-Hour

D, F-r, L, , V

Access HD

DTA1020-U

No

Yes

No

Access HD

Zoran SupraHD 741

SoC Integrated

Unknown

10-Hour

D, E, L, , V

Access HD

DTA1020-D

No

Access HD

Zoran SupraHD 741

SoC Integrated

Unknown

10-Hour

D, E, L, , V

Access HD

DTA1020A-U

No

Yes

No

Yes

No

Access HD

Zoran SupraHD 741

SoC Integrated

Unknown

10-Hour

D, E, L, , V

Access HD

DTA1020A-D

No

Yes

No

Access HD

Zoran SupraHD 741

SoC Integrated

Unknown

10-Hour

D, E, L, , V

Access HD

DTA1030-U

No

Yes

No

Yes

No

Access HD

Zoran SupraHD 741

SoC Integrated

Unknown

10-Hour

D, E, L, , V

Access HD

DTA1030-D

No

Yes

No

Access HD

Zoran SupraHD 741

SoC Integrated

Unknown

10-Hour

D, E, L, , V

Access HD

DTA1050-U

No

Yes

No

Yes

No

Access HD

Zoran SupraHD 741

SoC Integrated

Unknown

10-Hour

D, E, L, , V

Access HD

DTA1050-D

No

Yes

No

Access HD

Zoran SupraHD 741

SoC Integrated

Unknown

10-Hour

D, E, L, , V

Access HD

DTA1080-D

No

Access HD

Zoran SupraHD 741

SoC Integrated

Microtune MT2131 ?

10-Hour

D, E, F-r, L, , V

Access HD

DTA1080-U

No

Yes

No

Yes

No

Access HD

Zoran SupraHD 741

SoC Integrated

Microtune MT2131 ?

10-Hour

D, E, L, , V

Access HD

DTA1080-D

No

Yes

No

Access HD

Zoran SupraHD 741

SoC Integrated

Microtune MT2131 ?

10-Hour

D, E, L, , V

Airlink 101

ATVC101

No

Airlink 101

RTK 2881S

Unknown

7-day

C

Airlink 101

ATVC102

No

Yes

No

Airlink 101

RTK 2881S

Unknown

Sanyo UBD00AL

7-day

C, E, F-r, F-m, L, M, V

Alpha Digital

AT-2016

No

Yes

No

Unknown

Shenzhen MTC Multimedia Co.,LTD

Zoran SupraHD 741

SoC Integrated

Thomson DTT76850

LG Innotek TDVG-H05XF

Unknown

D, F-r, V

8W on

<1W off

AMTC

AT-2016

No

Yes

No

Unknown

MTC Multimedia Co. Ltd

Zoran SupraHD 741

SoC Integrated

Thomson DTT76850

LG Innotek TDVG-H05XF

Unknown

AMTC

AT2001L

Unknown

Yes

Unknown

AMTC

AT2015

Unknown

AMTC

AT2016L

Unknown

Yes

Unknown

Apex

DT150

Yes

No

Yes

No

Unknown

Denca Industrial Ltd.

Unknown

Thomson

DTT76852

Unknown

C, D, L

Apex

DT250

Yes

No

Unknown

Denca Industrial Ltd.

Zoran SupraHD 741

SoC Integrated

Thomson

DTT76852

3-Day

(Banner)

C, D, F-r, L, V

9W on

<1W off

Apex

DT250A

Yes

No

Unknown

C, D, L, M

8W on, <1W off

Apex

DT500

No

Yes

No

Unknown

Apex

DT502

Yes

No

Unknown

Denca Industrial Ltd.

Unknown

SoC Integrated

Samsung DTVS22D

Full & List

C, D, L, , R, V

7W on

<1w off

Apex

DT502A

Yes

No

Unknown

M

Apex

DT1001

Yes

No

Yes

No

Unknown

Denca Industrial Ltd.

Zoran SupraHD 741

SoC Integrated

Unknown

C, U

Apex

DT1002

No

Unknown

Apex

DTA205A

No

Yes

No

Unknown

Apex

DTA250A

Yes

No

Unknown

Arena

DT 700

Unknown

Yes

Unknown

Artec

T3A

No

Ultima Electronic Corp.

Unknown

Now/Next

(List)

D, E

Artec

T3AP

No

Yes

No

Ultima Electronic Corp.

LG LGDT1111D

SoC Integrated

Sanyo UBA00AL

Now/Next

(List)

C, D, E

4.5W MAX

Artec

T3Ap Pro

No

Ultima Electronic Corp.

LG LGDT1111D

SoC Integrated

Sanyo UBA00AL

Now/Next

(List)

D, E

Avion

ATB 7707

No

Unknown

Perpetual Action Group (Asia) Inc.

ST Microelectronics STx7707NUC

ST Microelectronics STV0373

Unknown

Cadence

DTVC-9

No

Yes

No

Unknown

F-r

Carefree

CB8877

No

Yes

No

Unknown

UNIHAN

Unknown

MicroTune MT2131 ?

Unknown

C, D, E, L

Carefree

CB8899

Yes

No

Unknown

UNIHAN

Unknown

MicroTune MT2131 ?

Unknown

C, D, E, L

CASTi

CAX-01

No

Unknown

CAST Information Co.

LG LGDT1111D

SoC Integrated

LG Innotek TDVG-H052F

Now/Next

(List)

C, D, P, V

6.36W on

.76W off

CASTi

CAX-02

Unknown

Yes

Unknown

C, P

6.75W on

.8W off

CASTi

CAX-03

No

Yes

No

Yes

Unknown

CAST Information Co.

Unknown

LG Innotek TDVG-H152F

Unknown

C, D, L, V

CASTi

CAX-04

No

Yes

No

Yes

Unknown

CAST Information Co.

Unknown

Sanyo UB110AP

Unknown

C, D, L, V

Changhong

ATT888

Unknown

Channel Master

CM-7000

Yes

No

PCT International

ST Microelectronics STx7707NUC

ST Microelectronics STV0373

Thomson DTT76850

12-Hour

(List)

D, F-r, L, M, V

8W on

2W off

Clear Tech

CTDCB100

Unknown

No

Unknown

Coby

DTV-102

No

Yes

No

Unknown

Now/Next

D, F-m, L, M-b, sleep

8W on

Componexx

CX-900

Unknown

COSHIP

N9900T

No

Yes

No

Unknown

COSHIP Electronics, Inc.

LGDT1111

SoC Integrated

LG Innotek TDVG-H052F

7-day

COSHIP

N9901T

No

Yes

No

Unknown

COSHIP Electronics, Inc.

Unknown

D, L

COSHIP

N9988T

No

Unknown

COSHIP Electronics, Inc.

Unknown

Now/Next

(List)

D, F-r, L, V

Craig

CVD506

No

Yes

No

Unknown

Craig Electronics

Unknown

Multi-Channel Now/Next

(List)

D, V

< 8W on

< 1W off

Craig

CVD508

No

Yes

Unknown

No

Unknown

Craig Electronics

Unknown

Single-Channel(List)

D, E, L

Daewoo

DAC-100

No

Unknown

Daewoo Electronics, Inc.

LG LGDT1111C

SoC Integrated

Thomson DTT76850

Now/Next

(List)

D

Daytek

CAX-01

No

Unknown

CAST Information Co.

LG LGDT1111D

SoC Integrated

LG Innotek TDVG-H052F

Now/Next

(List)

C, D, P

Daytek

CAX-03

Unknown

Yes

Unknown

Denca

NL8118

Unknown

No

Unknown

No

Unknown

Denca Industrial Ltd. or Ngai Lik Electronics Trading Ltd.

Unknown

MicroTune MT2131

Unknown

C, P

Denca

NL8119

Unknown

No

Unknown

No

Unknown

Denca Industrial Ltd. or Ngai Lik Electronics Trading Ltd.

Unknown

MicroTune MT2131

Unknown

C, P

Denca

TBX1005A

Unknown

No

Unknown

Desay

ATSC 8000

Unknown

Digital Rising

SBTX01A

Unknown

Yes

Unknown

Digital Rising

SBTX02

Unknown

Yes

Unknown

Digital Stream

DTX9950X

Unknown

Yes

Unknown

Digital Stream Technology

Unknown

Digital Stream

DX8700

Unknown

Yes

Unknown

Digital Stream Technology

Unknown

C, P

6.3W on

.74W off

Digital Stream

DSP7700T

No

Yes

Unknown

Digital Stream Technology

Unknown

C, F-r, P

6.3W on

.74W off

Digital Stream

DSP7700P

No

Yes

No

Yes

Unknown

Digital Stream Technology

Unknown

C, P

6.3W on

.74W off

Digital Stream

DSP7700C

Unknown

Yes

Unknown

Digital Stream Technology

Unknown

Digital Stream

DSP7700A

Unknown

Yes

Unknown

Digital Stream Technology

Unknown

Digital Stream

DSP7500T

No

Unknown

Digital Stream Technology

LG LGDT1111D

SoC Integrated

Sanyo UBA00AL

Unknown

C, F-r, P

6.8W on

.67W off

Digital Stream

DSP6500R

Unknown

No

Unknown

Digital Stream Technology

Unknown

C, P

6.8W on

.67W off

Digital Stream

DTX9900

No

Yes

No

Digital Stream Technology

LG LGDT1111D

SoC Integrated

Sanyo UBA00AL

3-Day,1-Ch

(List)

C, D, F-r, L, P, V

6.8W on

.67W off

Digital Stream

DTX9950

No

Yes

No

Yes

No

NHENS Digital, Inc.

LGDT1111T

SoC Integrated

Sanyo UBD00AL

3-Day,1-Ch

(List)

C, D, F-r, L, P, V

DISH Network

DTVPal

No

Yes

No

Yes

Echostar

ST Microelectronics STi7707WUDP

ST Microelectronics STV0373

Thomson DTT76809

Full

(Grid)

D, E, F-r, R, V

DISH Network

DTVPal Plus

No

Yes

No

Yes

Echostar

Unknown

MicroTune MT2131

Full

(Grid)

D, E, F-r, R, V

EchoStar

TR-40 CRA

No

Yes

No

Yes

Echostar

ST Microelectronics STi7707WUDP

ST Microelectronics STV0373

Thomson DTT76809

Full

(Grid)

D, E, F-r, R, V

Falcon

FT-200

Unknown

Yes

Unknown

No

Unknown

Falcon Digital Co., LTD

ALi M3601C

Auvitek AU8515

Unknown

Current

C, P

7.9W on

.5W off

Fortec Star

FS-2150

Unknown

Yes

Unknown

Fuyai

ATSC 630

Unknown

No

Unknown

Fuyai

ATSC 630A

Unknown

Yes

Unknown

GE

22729

No

Yes

No

Unknown

Jasco Products Company

Unknown

Sanyo UBA00AL

Full

(List)

C, D, F-r, L, R, V

5.77W on

.94W off

GE

22730

No

Unknown

Jasco Products Company

Unknown

Full

(List)

C, F-r, R, V

5.76W on

.94W off

GE

23333

No

Yes

No

Unknown

Jasco Products Company

Unknown

Full

(List)

C, D, F-r, L, R, V

GE

23334

No

Yes

No

Unknown

Jasco Products Company

Unknown

Full

(List)

C, D, F-r, L, R, V

Goodmind

DTA900

No

Unknown

Good Mind Innovation Co, Ltd.

Unknown

C

5.76W on

.94W off

Goodmind

DTA980

Unknown

No

Unknown

No

Unknown

Good Mind Innovation Co, Ltd.

Unknown

C

5.76W on

.94W off

Goodmind

DTA1000

No

Yes

No

Unknown

Good Mind Innovation Co, Ltd.

Unknown

Samsung S5H1411

Sanyo UBA00AL

Unknown

C, F-r

5.77W on

.94W off

Goodmind

DTA1100

No

Yes

Unknown

Good Mind Innovation Co, Ltd.

Unknown

Goodmind

DTA1100S

Unknown

Yes

Unknown

Goodmind

DTA1100B

Unknown

Yes

Unknown

Goodmind

DTA1100BS

Unknown

Yes

Unknown

Goodmind

DTA1100Y

Unknown

Yes

Unknown

Gridlink

GLT-200

No

Unknown

Falcon Digital Co., LTD

ALi M3601C

Auvitek AU8515

Unknown

Current

(Banner)

Gridlink

GLT-300

No

Unknown

HOME TEL

RC-HT888L

Yes

Unknown

Hualu

A5108

Unknown

Yes

Unknown

iNET Access

SSR1921

No

Yes

No

Unknown

Zoran SupraHD 741

SoC Integrated

Thomson DTT76850

Unknown

D, L

8W on

< 1W off

iNET Access

SSR2100A

Unknown

No

Unknown

iNET Access

SSR3909A

Unknown

Yes

Unknown

Insignia

NS-DXA1

No

LG Electronics

LG LGDT1111D

SoC Integrated

LG Innotek TDVG-H051F

Sanyo UBA00AL

Now/Next

(Banner)

C, D, F-b(-r?), L, M, P, , V

6W on

.7W off

Insignia

NS-DXA1-APT

No

Yes

No

LG Electronics

LG LGDT1111T

SoC Integrated

LG Innotek TDVG-H151F

Now/Next

(Banner)

C, D, F-r, L, P, V

3.9W on

.6W off

Jiuzhou

DTT6000

Unknown

No

Unknown

No

Unknown

Digital Telemedia Co., Ltd.

LGDT1111

SoC Integrated

LG Innotek TDVG-H052F

Now/Next

(Banner)

Jiuzhou

DTT9001

Unknown

Yes

Unknown

No

Unknown

Digital Telemedia Co., Ltd.

LGDT1111

SoC Integrated

LG Innotek TDVG-H052F

Now/Next

(Banner)

jWIN Electronic Corp

JD-TV1000

Unknown

No

Unknown

No

Unknown

Kingbox

K8V1

No

Unknown

Kingbox

K8V8

No

Unknown

Lasonic

LTA-260

No

Unknown

Lasonic Electronics Corporation

ALi M3601C

Auvitek AU8515

MicroTune MT2131

Current

(Banner)

F-r, -N

Lasonic

LTA-611

Unknown

Yes

Unknown

Lasonic

LTA-622

Unknown

Yes

Unknown

Lasonic

LTR-260

Unknown

No

Unknown

Lasonic

LTR-633

Unknown

Yes

Unknown

Lasonic

LTR-635

Unknown

Yes

Unknown

MAG

CCB7707

Unknown

Magnavox

TB100MG9

No

Yes

No

Unknown

Funai

R8A66973FP

Unknown

Sanyo UB110AF

6Hr/1Ch

(Banner)

D, L

Magnavox

TB100MW9

No

Unknown

Funai

R8A66973FP

Unknown

Sanyo UB010AF

6Hr/1Ch

(Banner)

C, D, F-m, L, M, P

6.8W on

.6W off

Magnavox

TB100MW9A

No

Yes

No

Unknown

Funai

R8A66973FP

Unknown

Sanyo UB010AF

6Hr/1Ch

(Banner)

C, D, L, P

MaxMedia

LuTRO

No

Yes

No

Yes

Unknown

Silicon Tuner

Simple

8W on

1W off

MaxMedia

MMDTVB02

Unknown

No

Unknown

MaxMedia

MMDTVB03

Yes

No

Unknown

Memorex

MVCB1000

Unknown

MicroGEM

MG2000

No

Unknown

Zoran ZR39740

SoC Integrated

Unknown

12Hr-1Ch

(Banner)

D, E, F-r, L, V

Microprose

MPI-500

No

Unknown

LG Electronics

LG DT1111D

LG DT3703

Sanyo UBA00AL

Now/Next

(Banner)

E, V

Microprose

MPI-500PT

No

Yes

No

Unknown

LG Electronics

LG DT1111D

LG DT3703

Sanyo UBA00AL

Now/Next

(Banner)

E, V

Mustek

MAT-K50

No

Yes

No

Unknown

Now/Next

(Banner)

Olevia

DTA100

Unknown

No

Unknown

No

Unknown

MicroTune MT2131

Unknown

Oxford Digital

ATS-00101-OUS

Unknown

Philco

TB150HH9

No

Yes

No

Unknown

Funai

Unknown

Now/Next

(Banner)

D

Philco

TB100HH9

No

Yes

No

Unknown

Funai

R8A66973FP

Unknown

Sanyo UB010AF

6Hr/1Ch

(Banner)

C, D, L

PrimeDTV

PHD-096

Unknown

RCA

DTA800A

No

Thomson

Zoran SupraHD 640

Unknown

C, , P

RCA

DTA800B

DTA800B Program Codes

No

Yes

No

Thomson

Broadcom BCM3543

SoC Integrated

Thomson

Now/Next

(List)

C, D, L, , P

5W on

1W off

RCA

DTA800B1

No

Yes

No

Thomson

Broadcom BCM3543

SoC Integrated

Thomson

Now/Next

(List)

C, D, L, P

7W on

1W off

RCA

DTA809

No

Yes

No

Thomson

Broadcom BCM3543

SoC Integrated

Thomson

Now/Next

(List)

C, D, L, P

7W on

1W off

RCA

DTA809L

No

Yes

No

Thomson

Unknown

C, D, L, P

RCA

STB7766G1

No

Yes

No

Yes

No

Thomson

LG LGDT1111D

SoC Integrated

LG Innotek TDVG-H152F

Current

(Banner)

C, D, L, P

Sansonic

FT300RT

No

Unknown

Falcon Digital Co., LTD

ALi M3601C

Auvitek AU8515

MicroTune MT2131

Current

(Banner)

C, E, P

Sansonic

FT300A

No

Unknown

Falcon Digital Co., LTD

ALi M3601C

Auvitek AU8515

MicroTune MT2131

Current

(Banner)

C, E, F-r, -N, P

Skardin

DTR-0727L

Unknown

Yes

Unknown

No

Unknown

Skardin Industrial Corporation

Unknown

C, P

7.45W on

.94W off

Solid Signal

SSCB20P

Unknown

SPICA

AT 2018

Unknown

Yes

Unknown

F-r

SUMC

LSA-801L

Yes

Unknown

Sunkey (Wiltronic)

SK-801ATSC

No

Yes

No

Sunkey Electronic (Shenzhen) Co., Ltd.

Realtek RTD2885

SoC Integrated

Samsung DTVS22D

3-Hour (List)

D, C, E, F-r, L, V

Sunkey (Wiltronic)

SK-802ATSC

Unknown

Yes

Unknown

No

Sunkey Electronic (Shenzhen) Co., Ltd.

Unknown

E

Sunkey (Wiltronic)

SK-901ATSC

Unknown

No

Sunkey Electronic (Shenzhen) Co., Ltd.

Unknown

E

Sunkey (Wiltronic)

SK-901AATSC

Unknown

No

Sunkey Electronic (Shenzhen) Co., Ltd.

Unknown

E

SVA

DAC100

Unknown

No

Unknown

No

Unknown

Sylvania

DTA1040D

Unknown

Sylvania

DTA1040U

Unknown

Synergy Global Supply

SYN2009

Unknown

No

Unknown

No

Unknown

Tatung

TDB3000

No

Yes

No

Unknown

E

Tatung

TDB3001

No

Yes

No

Unknown

Tivax

STB-T9

No

Yes

No

Michley Electronics

Zoran SupraHD 741

SoC Integrated

Thomson DTT76850

12-Hour

(Banner)

D, L, V

Maximum 8W,Standby <1W

Tivax

STB-T8

No

Yes

No

Michley Electronics

Zoran SupraHD 741

SoC Integrated

Thomson DTT76850

12-Hour

(Banner)

C, D, F-r, L, V

Tivax

STB-T9

No

Yes

No

C, D, F-r, L, V

TRT

TACB-1009

No

Yes

No

Unknown

LG DT1111D

Unknown

TRT

TACB-2009

Yes

No

Yes

No

Unknown

ALi M3601C

Unknown

MicroTune MT2131

14-day

Tunbow

E60010

No

Unknown

Tunbow Electronics

Unknown

Venturer

STB7766G STB7766G (Same as RCA model)

No

Yes

No

Venturer Electronics, Inc.

LG DT1111D

SoC Integrated

LG Innotek TDVG-H052F

Current

(Banner)

E, L

6W on

Venturer

STB7766G1

STB7766G1 (Same as RCA model)

No

Yes

No

Venturer Electronics, Inc.

Unknown

Current

(Banner)

E, L, V

Winegard

RC-DT09

No

Winegard Co.

Unknown

Now/Next

(List)

C, D, E, L, , V

Winegard

RC-DT09A

No

Yes

No

Winegard Co.

Unknown

Now/Next

(List)

C, D, E, L, , V

Zenith

DTT900

DTT900 Specs

No

LG Electronics

LG DT1111D

SoC Integrated

LG Innotek TDVG-H051F

Sanyo UBA00AL

Now/Next

(Banner)

C, D, F-b(-r?), L, M, P, , V

8W on

1W off

Zenith

DTT901 Specs

DTT901

No

Yes

No

Yes

No

LG Electronics

LG DT1111T

SoC Integrated

LG Innotek TDVG-H151F

Now/Next

(Banner)

C, D, F-r, L, P, V

3.9W on

1W off

Zentech

DF2000

No

Skardin Industrial Corp

Realtek

SoC Integrated

Sanyo UBA00AL

7-Day/1ch

(Banner)

C, D, E, F-r, L, V

Zentech

DF2000L

No

Yes

No

Skardin Industrial Corp

Realtek

SoC Integrated

Sanyo UBA00AL

7-Day/1ch

(Banner)

C, D, E, L, V

Zinwell

ZAT-736

No

Unknown

Current

Zinwell

ZAT-756A

Unknown

No

Unknown

No

Unknown

MicroTune MT2131

Current

Zinwell

ZAT-856

No

Unknown

Current

Zinwell-USA

ZAT-857

No

Unknown

MicroTune MT2131

Current

Zinwell

ZAT-950

No

Yes

Unknown

Current

C, D, E, L

Zinwell-USA

ZAT-950A

No

Yes

No

Yes

Unknown

MicroTune MT2131F

Current

C, D, E, L

5.5W on

.8W off

Zinwell-USA

ZAT-970

No

Yes

Unknown

Current

C, D, E, L

Zinwell-USA

ZAT-970A

No

Yes

No

Yes

Unknown

ALi M3601C

Unknown

Sanyo UBD00AL

Current

C, D, E, F-r, L

5.5W on

.8W off

Brand

Model

S-Video

Analog Passthrough

Smart Antenna

Universal Remote

VCR Timer

Manufacturer

MPEG Decoder / SoC

Demodulator

Tuner

EPG type

Other features

Power Usage

waiting NTIA approval

Features Breakdown

Other Features (see table above for which boxes have which)

Code

Name

Description

C

Energy Star Compliant

The device is compliant with Energy Star guidelines.

D

Digital CC

Capable of decoding digital or ATSC (EIA-708) closed captions, which allow the user to change various aspects of the text such as size, font style, color and opacity of text and background, etc. This code should only be used to indicate support for digital captions, since all boxes are required by law to support the older analog or NTSC (EIA-608) captioning standard.

E

External Power Supply

Powered by an external power supply. A box with this feature might be usable in a vehicle without using a power inverter, depending on output voltage and current type used.

F

Format Adjustment

The device allows you to change the screen format (Aspect) by (F-r) remote, or by (F-m) menu. It is easier to step through the choices with a button on the remote than to have to find the choices through the on-screen setup menu system.

L

Multilingual Menus

The menus can be changed to languages other than English, either during system setup or in normal use.

M

Signal Strength Meter

On-screen signal strength meter to assist in antenna alignment. The meter can be accessed from (M-b) a button on the remote, or (M-m) a menu item within the setup system.

No Channel Update

Can’t add channels without first wiping out the channels you’ve already found. Units which only do this type of replacement auto-scan may never be able to find all channels at once, especially where antenna rotation or adjustments must be made to find different stations. There are two ways around this problem, an “add only” auto-scan, and manual channel additions. Beware that many models say they have “Manual Channel Set”, but that only means you can delete and undelete channels found during auto-scan, you still can’t add channels not found in the auto-scan.

P

PSIP Scan

CECB can come out of Sleep Mode in order to scan for Program and System Information or Private data (PSIP). When doing so, CECB will not exceed the 1 watt Sleep Mode requirement for longer than one hour in an eight hour period. (Energy Star guidelines)

R

Reminders

Settable reminders to alert you when a show is on.

Stereo volume is low

Setting the audio output mode to stereo substantially reduces the volume versus mono or analog. This means the volume will change when switching between analog and digital TV viewing.

V

Volume Control

Capable of independently controlling the output volume. You could, for example, set your TV to a particular volume and leave it there, using the CECB’s remote to control volume instead, or use it to mute the CECB and avoid using the television remote almost entirely. Note that this type of volume control only allows you to reduce the volume level relative to that set on the TV, while a universal remote can also increase the volume level set on the TV.

(See new column)

VCR Timer

Schedules channel changes at desired times to match recording devices’ schedules so that programs can be recorded unattended to PVR, TiVo, VCR, DVD recorder or other recording media. This ability is probably the most important feature to users who have programmable VCRs. Please note that this “feature” will force the user to program two schedules instead of one, but will at least allow programmable operation. Also, this does not guarantee that this feature will work in any passthrough manner. Therefore, any programmed channel change will force the viewer to watch the program being recorded, unless the viewer uses a second box.

Universal Remote

While all boxes must come with a remote control, this notes whether the remote is also universal and capable of being programmed to control other devices. Typically controls power, input source, and volume. Eliminates need to juggle two remotes. Usually supports most, but not all, brands of televisions.

S-Video

Video connection option which offers notably better picture quality, compared to other hookups available in this class of box.

Non-eligible converters

The following units are capable of converting ATSC digital television to analog format but do not qualify for the US coupon program. In most cases, these are premium boxes with indicated disqualifying features such as digital, RGB or HDTV outputs.

Coby DTV-140 (HDTV, component video)

Grandtec Tun-5000 (HDTV, component video)

Panarex TR-100 (component video, S/PDIF, digital audio output)

PrimeDTV PHD-100, PHD-205 (QAM tuner, AC-3, S/PDIF, HDTV; the PHD-205 also provides VGA RGB output)

Samsung DTBH260F (HDMI, S/PDIF, component video, HDTV) and Samsung SIR-T451 (QAM, DVI, component video, VGA, HDTV, Dolby Digital)

Sylvania 6900DTE (DVI, component video, HDTV, Dolby Digital)

Tivax STB-T1 (component video, QAM tuner, Dolby Digital audio)

Winegard RC-1010 (HDTV, component video, Dolby Digital audio)

Storage devices, such as DVD recorders, DVD/VCR combo units and personal video recorders made for the US market after 2007 are capable of providing digital conversion if they include TV tuners. All are, however, ineligible for the coupon program as they provide various non-qualifying features.

Parcel Delivery Packaging Advice Part Two

Following on from the recommendations given in part one of our parcel delivery packaging advice, we round up with a selection of even more hints and tips to make sure that any parcel you send arrives in one piece.

Repack your gifts properly. Many goods that are sold in attractive packaging will not be suitable for shipping.

It is best to use triangular tubes instead of using round, cylinder-type tubes to pack rolled plans, maps and blueprints.

Remember that you should always pack small items and flyers appropriately.

Protect your data discs, audio and video-tapes with soft cushioning material around each item.

Complete the address clearly and completely, using uppercase letters when handwriting labels to improve readability for courier personnel.

When shipping sharp items such as scissors ensure that you fully protect the edges and points. Heavy cardboard is suitable for this. Fix the protective material securely so that it cannot be accidentally removed in transit.

Always use cardboard dividers when sending flat, fragile material (such as vinyl records).

When re-using a box, remove all previous labels and stickers. As the drivers go by the labels on the box so a previous label could result in it going to an incorrect address.

Ensure that the box is in good shape and not worn out.

Do not use bags made of fabric or cloth.

Do not over seal your package. Remember that all shipments can be opened by customs authorities for inspection.

Do not use cellophane tape or rope to seal your shipment.

Do not consider “Fragile” and “Handle with care” labels as a substitute for careful packaging. They are only appropriate for information purposes.

By using all of the information supplied in both parts one and two of our parcel delivery packaging advice, you should avoid any potential mishaps when you decide to send any items.

Understanding & Using Solar DC-AC Inverters ? Part 3

Understanding & Using Solar DC-AC Inverters – Part 3

Capacitive loading

Actually there.s a different kind of problem with many kinds of fluorescent light

assembly: not so much inductive loading, but capacitive loading.

Although a standard fluoro light assembly represents a very inductive load due

to its ballast choke, most are designed to be operated from standard AC mains

power. As a result they.re often provided with a shunt capacitor designed to

correct their power factor when they.re connected to the mains and driven with a

50Hz sinewave.

The problem is that when these lights are connected to a DC-AC inverter with its

.modified sinewave. output, rich in harmonics, the shunt capacitor doesn.t just

.correct. the power factor, but drastically over corrects . because its impedance

is much lower at the harmonic frequencies. As a result, the fluoro assembly

draws a heavily capacitive load current, and can easily overload the inverter.

In cases where fluorescent lights must be run from an inverter, and the lights are

not going to be run from the mains again, usually the best solution is to either

remove their power factor correction capacitors altogether or replace them with a

much smaller value.

Auto starting

Many inverters are provided with a power switch, and must be turned on before

they supply AC power. However some models are provided with .auto turn-on., so

they stop working when the AC load is removed, but turn on again automatically

when a load is connected. This allows the power switch of an appliance or tool to

be used to control the inverter.s operation as well, conserving battery energy

while still allowing the appliance to be operated in exactly the same way as

when it.s connected to the mains.

In most cases this auto turn-on system uses a sensing circuit connected into the

inverter.s output loop, and designed to detect when the appliance switch is

closed . to complete the high voltage circuit. This allows a small DC sensing

current to flow, and this current is used to turn on the inverter.s MOSFET drive

circuitry.

When no DC flows in the output loop, the drive circuitry is disabled and no

pulses are fed to the gates of the MOSFETs. As a result they don.t conduct, and

the inverter doesn.t operate. Only a very small .standby. current is drawn from

the battery.

Note, however, that because this kind of auto turn-on circuit uses a small direct

current to sense when the appliance has been turned on, it relies on the

appliance providing a DC path when its mains switch is closed. If the appliance

doesn.t provide such a path, the auto turn-on circuit won.t work.

So with some appliances, the inverter may still need to be turned on and off

manually when it.s needed.

Frequency stability

Although most appliances and tools designed for mains power can tolerate a

small variation in supply frequency, they can malfunction, overheat or even be

damaged if the frequency changes significantly. Examples are electromechanical

timers, clocks with small synchronous motors, turntables in older .vinyl. record

players and many reel-to-reel tape recorders.

To avoid such problems, most DC-AC inverters include circuitry to ensure that the

inverter.s output frequency stays very close to the nominal mains frequency:

50Hz in the case of Australia, New Zealand and most European countries, or

60Hz in North America.

In some inverters this is achieved by using a quartz crystal oscillator and divider

system to generate the master timing for the MOSFET drive pulses. Others simply

use a fairly stable oscillator with R-C timing, fed via a voltage regulator to

ensure that the oscillator frequency doesn.t change even if the battery voltage

varies quite widely.

Transform Your Garage Through Cabinets

Your garage can turn out to be a bigger version of a teen’s closet if you don’t keep your things organized. The more clutter, the more problems. The more problems equal more stress and frustration. The solution is to become more organized. We always ask ourselves where to put things, especially things that don’t belong in the main areas of our home. We tend to toss things into our garage. You have to ask yourself, do you really want your garage to become storage for clutter? Or can you imagine your garage becoming an extended room for your home. Many people don’t even have enough space to fit their vehicles in the garage because of how much they store in there. We can finally fix all these problems by organizing our belongings with cabinets. Cabinets are an excellent solution to keeping your things organized plus keeping the area clean of clutter and creating more space.

Imagine how much space you would save if you had specific areas in your garage to keep your tools, car supplies, and other equipment. You would have so much space; you would never have to deal with losing any of your supplies. Not only do we store our tools in the garage, we also tend to keep camping equipment, surfboards, snowboards, and other big items. If we managed to maximize the space through keeping these items in one area, we won’t have to worry about damaging our belongings nor having them disrupt the work area. Garage cabinets can easily fix this problem. You can usually fit all your items depending on the size of the cabinet. Many cabinets are custom made to fit your garage. You have cabinets that can be placed near the ceiling, while having bigger cabinets that can reach from the floor to the top. With cabinets accommodating to your specific custom size, there shouldn’t be a problem storing most of your household items.

Garage cabinets can drastically change the way you see your garage. You can transform your garage into a stylish storage. Stylish storage would include your vintage collection from old vinyl records, trophies, cards, pictures, and other paraphernalia that you can show off. Plus having them organized through cabinets can help you find your old high school yearbooks or childhood videos easier to find. We also forget that a garage can be more than just storage. What if we can also transform the garage into a fun room? Keeping tools and other dangerous and hazardous items locked up in cabinets can create a fun and open environment for children to play. You can also make it into another entertainment room by installing a television, or even furniture. In addition, you can have your own personal work or office space. You could even make it a 3 in 1 room and include your own gym. Organizing your weights and equipment through storage racks can make your dreams come true. Let your imagination run wild when organizing you garage. Once you have maintained and kept your garage clean from clutter, you’ll start to believe that the word garage is just another word for bedroom.

Your garage can turn out to be a bigger version of a teen’s closet if you don’t keep your things organized. The more clutter, the more problems. The more problems equal more stress and frustration. The solution is to become more organized. We always ask ourselves where to put things, especially things that don’t belong in the main areas of our home. We tend to toss things into our garage. You have to ask yourself, do you really want your garage to become storage for clutter? Or can you imagine your garage becoming an extended room for your home. Many people don’t even have enough space to fit their vehicles in the garage because of how much they keep in their garage. We can finally fix all these problems by organizing our belongings with cabinets. Cabinets are an excellent solution to keeping your things organized plus keeping the area clean of clutter and creating more space.

Imagine how much space you would save if you had specific areas in your garage to keep your tools, car supplies, and other equipment. You would have so much space; you would never have to deal with losing any of your supplies. Not only do we store our tools in the garage, we also tend to keep camping equipment, surfboards, snowboards, and other big items. If we managed to maximize the space through keeping these items in one area, we won’t have to worry about damaging our belongings nor having them disrupt the work area. Garage cabinets can easily fix this problem. You can usually fit all your items depending on the size of the cabinet. Many cabinets are custom made to fit your garage. You have cabinets that can be placed near the ceiling, while having bigger cabinets that can reach from the floor to the top. With cabinets accommodating to your specific size, there shouldn’t be a problem storing most of your household items.

Garage cabinets can drastically change the way you see your garage. You can transform your garage into a stylish storage. Stylish storage would include your vintage collection from old vinyl records, trophies, cards, pictures, and other paraphernalia that you can show off. Plus having them organized through cabinets can help you find your old high school yearbooks or childhood videos easier to find. We also forget that a garage can be more than just storage. What if we can also transform the garage into a fun room? Keeping tools and other dangerous and hazardous items locked up in cabinets can create a fun and open environment for children to play. You can also make it into another entertainment room by installing a television, or even furniture. In addition, you can have your own personal work or office space. Heck, let’s make it 3 in one, and include your own gym. Organizing your weights and equipment through storage racks can make your dreams come true. Let your imagination run wild when organizing you garage. Once you have maintained and kept your garage clean from clutter, you’ll start to believe that the word garage is another word for bedroom.

Cabinets Plus specializes in custom cabinets and closets. We provide custom organization solutions for your den, kitchen, bedroom, garage, home office or laundry room. We can also create custom office furniture and entertainment centers.

Mining suppliers choose Sudbury

Mining suppliers choose Sudbury
Will Gove, North American general manager for Swick Mining Services Canada Inc., said they’ve identified approximately 51 safety hazards associated with traditional five-component underground drill rigs. These have been eliminated with Swick’s mobile rig.

Radiohead-Blazing A New Digital Trail

With the British art-rock band Radiohead releasing their new album entitled “In Rainbows” as a digital download and sold it for whatever their fans volunteered to pay, is this going to become a new trend in the methods that bands supply their music to the public?

With CD shipments to retailers down 13% from last year, this innovative way to eliminate the middle man, the record label, has proved exactly where the music industry is headed. But there is a catch, the release is only available via the web site (InRainbows.com) and cannot be purchased in retail stores. The band will also offer fans a deluxe-edition box set that includes vinyl and CD copies of the release, plus a CD of bonus tracks and a lyric book on December 3.

Will this technique catch on? One can only guess, but given the restraints that some record companies have on their artists, early reports suggest that most consumers are actually paying for the release. This release may have made the band more money than previous releases by eliminating the “manufacturing” costs of a CD, including promotion, marketing, distribution and the record label’s cut.

An interesting element to this is that the release is getting more “word of mouth” promotion and publicity than most albums. People are intrigued and are talking about it and large web sites (mostly corporate) are not discussing it mainly because the record company (or lack thereof) is not asking them that they do so.

Now is this a one-time phenomenon or is Radiohead blazing a new musical distribution trail? It could be a bit of both, really. This release is a record label’s nightmare, a band can actually release it’s own material without jumping through the proverbial “corporate” hoops and record label red tape, and actually make money in the process. It also shows an impending trend, where music can be released without the aid of the “hard media” like CDs or vinyl records. There are predictions that in the coming years a lot of bands and artists will follow this lead and may offer album downloads as a market tool to promote their tours as well as sell other merchandise.

In fact, Trent Reznor, of the hard-rock band Nine Inch Nails has stated that they do not have a recording contract with their record label and may follow a similar path of not having a record label to support their next release. Other artists such as Madonna have already followed suit.

So this may be the direction music is heading. Bands have also taken note of the “singles” market, where a consumer can pay for just one or two downloads, and the artist will not necessarily have to have an album release to support the singles. Yes, the digital download is here to stay, much to the chagrin of the record labels as well as vinyl enthusiasts. There is a whole new digital world out there for musicians and one they are running to grab by the horns.

Robert Benson writes about rock/pop music, vinyl record collecting and operates http://www.collectingvinylrecords.com, where you can pick up a copy of his ebook called “The Fascinating Hobby Of Vinyl Record Collecting.” Contact Robert at robert@collectingvinylrecords.com

New Walkman Phone Sony Ericsson W960 Vinyl Black

Sony Ericsson announced the new W960 Walkman phone, based on Symbian OS. The Sony Ericsson W960 is the fifth phone in the Sony Ericsson portfolio based on the Symbian OS v9 and UIQ 3.0 platform, following the P1, P990, M600i and W950. The phone, competing in the same sector as the Nokia N95 and the soon to come iPhone, seems to deliver few news and is in no way revolutionary. In fact, this device seems to lack all power functionality (such as GPS, TV or multi-touch-controls).

The Sony Ericsson W960 Walkman phone is a combination of slim UMTS phone and high performance media player. It can pack up to 8,000 songs (using eAAC+ format) and includes a Walkman player for “finger-touch navigation” around play lists. The 2.6? display serves as a viewfinder for a 3.2 mega pixel camera and as a widescreen for watching videos.

Benefits of this mobile

* Boxed with 8Gb of flash memory

* 128MB RAM

* Transfers 1Gb of data in less than three minutes (USB 2.0)

* Two stylish headsets supplied in the box (one of these the new Stereo Bluetooth™ Headset HBH-DS220)

* GSM, UMTS (3G), WiFi and Bluetooth connectivity

* Music listening time of up to 27 hours

* 2.6? touchscreen with 282 144 colours, 240×320 (QVGA) resolution.

* Hardware accelerated 3D graphics and support for Open GL ES graphics

* Touch control, buttons or stylus (however no multi-touch functionality)

* Video playback at 30 frames per second, which is the same as TV quality

* Opera browser

* 3.2 megapixel camera, 16mm frame, auto focus

* 119g with dimensions of 109×55×16 mm

As with earlier Walkman® phones, the Sony Ericsson W960 incorporates TrackID™ music recognition software. This lets you record a clip of a song on your phone and find out instantly the name of the artist, track and album. Handy for those moments when you hear a song you like, but do not know who sings it.

On the Sony Ericsson W960 this feature has been taken to the next level. You can now receive detailed information about the song identified – the background of the artists and the album. New ways to search have been added in, other than just by capturing an audio clip. If you know a bands name and not much else, for example, you can text search to find out more. Search by artist, title, album or lyrics. For further details please use this online http://www.phoneandbeyond.com

Large Format Vinyl Printing For Your Business

Printing is one of the finest approaches to record and exhibit documents. It is one of the greatest routes to share information; and also the legacy of the trade traces back a lengthy period of time. Using the advent of time and engineering, the idea of printing has undergone a digital revolution; and Large Format Vinyl Printing stands out as one of the greatest printing strategies of the modern age.

If you live inside United States or just in any part of the world, you’ll be able to take the aid of Large Format Vinyl Printing Technology, to present an impetus to the way you work. Inside the era of competition whenever you choose to make an investment, you obviously eye a fine profit, and Large Format Vinyl Printing ensures that all the designs which you print, show in an exceptional format. The styles look life like, and your brand gets a higher value for the difficult earned cash invested on it. Large Format Vinyl Printing takes full advantage in the digital domain, and encompasses a series of procedures, which offers it with a higher tech edge over the other formats.

There are plenty of rewards which may be linked with all the art of Large Format Vinyl Printing. You ought to check out the color resolution, which the particular designs which are produced on the format, provide you. It surely has a striking appeal on your senses. The banners and posters which are made by following the craft of Large Format Vinyl Printing are usually demarcated by the color resolutions that they supply.

The secret behind the colour resolution lies in the way the contrast from the colors may be played with, along with the back up of digital technology. It is possible to select your favorite colors, and then bring out the very best resolutions using the aid of specially created software. The colour enhancement procedure supplies your brand with a new look; and your posters easily create an impression in the minds in the audience. One of the technological procedures which Large Format Vinyl Printing uses is the CMYK process. Using the assistance of this technique, the vinyl banners created show a splendid appearance.

The affordability factor of this Large Format Vinyl Printing is also exceptional. You may order posters at bulk, and various kinds of discount packages are also provided to you, by the corporations. Your banners and posters are also applied for large scale publicity, in trade shows and exhibitions.

STORM TIPS: Shelters, preparations, intensity, history

STORM TIPS: Shelters, preparations, intensity, history
Make storm plans now County and other officials are making decisions on possible evacuations and shelter openings in advance of Hurricane Earl.