22 August, 2014

The Daves Workshop / Wildersport Outdoors podcasting audio studio is live!

I have the audio studio set up and tested. I put up a video / audio clip slideshow on youtube walking you through... Like I said, I am working my tail off trying to get Daves Workshop media to be first rate to make your time spent here to be as enjoyable and productive as possible!

I wasn't happy with my sound editing on the video I initially posted. I made some changes, and re-uploaded the video, the URL has changed, take a peek, it sounds MUCH better. (Thank God for Audacity Compressor function!)

Thanks for visiting.



17 August, 2014

XENYX 502 Podcaststudio usb mic port test



I have been in discussion with some folks about this issue. In my efforts to produce a better product for my readers / viewers I am wanting to produce quality audio, and video, I made this quick and honestly lazy presentation / test of the mixing board that came with my podcaststudio kit, and shows how a simple, very small mixer will allow for multiple microphone connections. Admittedly the channel 2 connection isn't ideal as it bypasses the equalizer circuitry, but it will work well enough for studio guests if I ever get them in... Yes folks I have ideas for where I want to take this blog, and I am looking at breaking into podcast / video podcasting territory...



11 August, 2014

Crash course to better serve my readers / viewers!

I am wanting to provide instructional / educational resources on my blog, and honestly the audio from my Camcorder stinks. I am also considering making a recurring podcast for those audio oriented folks, so I am crash coursing on using some home recording gear that is not attached to the camera, doing some intense video editing, and other multimedia work that I honestly haven't done any of since before Adobe Systems acquired Macromedia, so if it seems like I am taking longer between posts, there is a good reason for it. Think of it as the human version of electrolysis rust removal for the brain...

And before I get any more email on the subject, I wanted to let everyone know what I am doing with this blog / video / podcast I am hoping to make completely unique. While you will undoubtedly see similarities between my content, and the content of others, and I would be lying if I said others don't inspire me and my desire to dive deeper down this rabbit hole, I first and foremost have fun with what I am doing, I don't limit myself to talking about just one subject (Such as woodworking, automotive, outdoorsmanship, faith, family, etc...) rather I am using this as a platform to cover what interests me, and I use it as a way to help you along the process. I assume some knowledge, but try to keep that assumption as basic as possible, and I am open to feedback. If I went over something too fast, ask me for clarification and I will be more than happy to oblige!

I sincerely hope you enjoy the content I am putting up here as much as I enjoy creating it for you, and that you express that enjoyment by either donating to my site by purchasing products from my Amazon Store. And of course you are free to send a gift via PayPal with the PayPal link on the main page. Sadly the PayPal and Amazon e-stores don't link together... I will post up the best bargains I can find on anything and everything that I think might be of interest, and certainly what I feature in my posts, assuming it is available on Amazon. I will also let you know when an item is better priced elsewhere! Your purchases and gifts will help offset my costs, and help me justify what I am doing with this to my wife thus enabling me to keep diving down this crazy rabbit hole!

02 August, 2014

Making the tee splice in the 7 pin wiring harness.

Hopefully you can make heads or tails of the video. Sorry. I obviously have not figured out the finery of Youtube video publishing... Hopefully I will get better, soon...

If you have been following this on the forum, you will notice the use of a yellow wire to tie into a red wire. That is intentional as it meets the requirements of my documented circuit design.

As a reminder the design of the circuit is as follows...

12V red power feeds the hot side of supply side of a SPST illuminated switch which is already installed in the dashbaord. Sorry if you wanted to see that done. I figured that was so basic as to not be worth my effort of documenting... I can do a fresh one if you'd like... Another 12V red power feed runs and terminates at terminal 87 on the relay. Thus feeding power to the relay.

The load side of the SPST switch is a green wire in the diagram, I will likely use white as it is what I have, and is routed to share a common lug with the yellow wire we just soldered on, and those will terminate on terminal 86 of the relay.

Terminal 85 will have a black wire run to a grounded ring terminal.

Terminal 30 will be a blue wire feeding back, and a Y splice shooting 2 wires off, 1 to each of the LED reverse lamps. (The 2 pin couplers actually). The couplers other side will be soldered to a short black lead attaching to ring terminals at the mount and grounding as close as possible to the mount.

As many of the connections as possible will be either weathertight, or soldered. I don't EVER want water problems with my circuit...



I MAY switch wire color from switch to relay to blue, and use white wire from relay to lamps. The lamps are factory wired white / black, and I don't have any green wire.  The relay is to be mounted underhood, so I am figuring I will need to carry 2 wires via a split loom to the front of the truck from the back, the yellow signal wire from the reverse light circuit, and the white power feed wire to the lamps. The relay can be grounded in the engine compartment, and the lamps themselves can be grounded at the frame mounting tab the lamps will mount to. This will minimize the amount of wire actually run throughout the vehicle, and theoretically at least, minimize the weight gain on the truck, by at least a few ounces, but every bit adds up!


A close up view, and sorry my camera work is a little jiggly here, but that red wire is heading straight to the center pin. According to every manual I have seen that is the reverse light wire, so that is the one we are going after!



So we fish back through the split loom a few inches back and fish that red wire out so we can trim the insulation off of it and make our solder joint. My camera work here is MUCH better as I wasn't trying to one hand it...



Strip back the insulation on the wire you are going to solder to the main, stripping enough insulation to make 5 full turns around the main wire.


If using stranded wire, twist the wires together before wrapping, at least this is the habit I got into. When you are done with your wraps it should look like the photo above...


In future videos the sound will be much improved. I didn't really need to be narrating it while I was shooting except my old M-audio duo USB isn't compatible with any OS newer than Windows 98... I could barely get it working in XP, but under Windows 8.1 forget it... I've got some new equipment coming from Behringer that should allow me to get back up to speed audio wise...