Mark's Stuff

On the 13th of May 2009, Kirsty and I welcomed our daughter, Pia Grace, into this world. She was supposed to arrive mid-June, but was obviously in a bit of a hurry! She weighed in at a small 2.09kg, and will hopefully be able to come home with us in a few days time.

Kirsty and I have been spending a bit of time in the special care nursery at the hospital (Kirsty much more than me), and Pia is slowly building up the stamina to last a full feed before falling asleep!

Due to excessive badgering by friends and family alike, I’ve uploaded a few more pics in my new Family gallery.

Well I guess it should be fairly obvious.. you shouldn’t drive it upside down! We came across this unfortunate scene just outside The Rip at Port Phillip Heads en route to dive the Rotomahana. We’re unsure exactly how it happened, but suspect it was the driver trying to pull the anchor up while it was attached to the stern of the boat. Add to that an oversized 250HP outboard on the back, and the owner is lucky that the boat was eventually righted and towed to shore. We offered some assistance by way of a couple of divers suiting up and jumping in to try and free the anchor line, but eventually let the water police (nice jetskis, eh?) and port authorities take care of it, and we headed off to the Rotomahana.

The SS Rotomahana lies in about 40m of water, and although there is not much left of her, she still boasts two massive boilers which make for a cruisey little swim through, and there’s still quite a bit of the deck structure remaining, albeit rather broken up. And of course abundant fishlife. But at 40m, and Justin and I not diving with a deco mix, we had about 20 minutes bottom time, a 10 minute ascent to 6m, and a further half hour of thumb twiddling at the shot-line washing off deco obligations.

After the Rotomahana, next stop was a quick drop-off at Portsea for a fill, while Ocean Diver headed back to Sorrento to pick up some more passengers for Anchor Wall and he Arches. The wind and swell picked up a bit so after Anchor Wall we couldn’t head back outside the heads. The alternative was a rather slow scallop drift just off Rye. Having never had the urge to take a photo of a scallop before, I took this pic which shows quite nicely how this stingaree and scallop have buried themselves for camouflage from natural predators. Like divers.

And as usual, a few more pics in my Melbourne Diving gallery.

After much talk, and further proscratination disguised as “finalising the design”, I finally convinced myself to take a couple of weeks off work to build a deck out the back of our house.

Armed with a truckload of treated pine and merbau, a few hundred galvanised framing nails, a box of 2000 stainless steel screws, a power drill, two cordless drills, a circular saw, a jigsaw, a drop saw, two saw horses, framing gun, chalk line, laser level, sprit levels, line level, tape measure, two shovels, a pick, one hired post hole digger (broken), one hired post hole digger (working) and a 4m² skip, my dad I got to work.

Day One was marking out all 19 post holes, digging them cleaning them out and setting up string line stakes for when the posts got put in.

Day Two had us waiting around for the concrete to be delivered. It was scheduled for midday, and by 10:30 we had double checked as much as we could, so got to demolishing the front brick fence while we waited. The concrete turned up around 12:30, and we had 20 minutes to barrow almost one cubic metre from the truck around the back and fill up the holes. String lines went up, the posts stuck down into their holes, and we called it a day while waiting for the concrete to set.

Day Three was Framing Day. Five bearers, and eighteen joists later and we had a (pretty much) perfectly level footing to work with.

Day Four was a lazy start waiting for the merbau to arrive. It turned up just after lunch, and we only managed to lay 5 rows of decking before the umpire called stumps due to bad light.

Days Five to Eight had as doing the same over and over. Choose a “random” length of merbau so that the joins were well spaced out, bevel the end, find a suitable matching piece, bevel the end. Lay them down, measure against a chalk line, adjust spacing, drill and screw. Repeat for 63 rows of decking, to lay a total of 390 linear meters. With a rest day in between.

The last day of deck laying also included making a frame for the BBQ to sit on, and finishing up the base boards making up the edge of the deck. A plumber was enlisted to hook up the barbie to natural, then a couple of coats of Cabot’s Aquadeck for protection, a quick trip to Ray’s Outdoors for some furnishing, and we’re ready for entertaining!

The only outanding thing now is to find a suitable sink to install next to the BBQ. Hot and cold water and waste are ready to be hooked up, there’s nothing to hook them up to yet

Oh, and I suppose it would be nice to get some nice real grass out there instead of the rollout plastic stuff covering up the dirt at the moment!!

After many failed attempts at findind a suitable, cost effective, amplifier solution to drive all the ceiling speakers throughout our house I decided to finally give up and make my own.

So I got a hold of two 25W amp kits based on an LM1875 IC, and a power supply suitable to drive both of them.

Below are pictures of firstly the power supply driven by a 160VA 18-0-18V toroidal transformer, and secondly of the two amps mounted together and attached to the heatsink on the rear of the case. Each transformer can comfortably drive 4 x 25W amps.

The case is just a cheap 19″ rack mount enclosure from Jaycar which is quite easily customisable with adjustable mounting rails, and is pretty solid once assembled. As you can see below, plenty of space for another 3 power supply circuits and 6 amps, to make the unit up to its capacity of 8 channels. I could potentially squeeze in another 2 channels, but then heat starts to become more of a problem, as does finding rear panel space for connectors.

Yes, I know the heatsinks aren’t straight.

Add four dual 50kΩ log pots for stereo volume controls, a power switch and LED on the front, and the amp is ready to go. Well, except for the fact that there’s only 2 out of 6 channels built so far.

The biggest challenge of this project was eliminating the hum that I first heard when I turned it on. I knew the electronics were fine, as the amp was very quiet when I first tested it outside the casing. The hum was very much indicative of interference, likely caused by a ground loop.

The first step was to change the wire from the input terminal, to the pot and then to the amp. I made the mistake of using cat6, as it conveniently has the right number of wires. But no good for unbalanced audio. The noise reduced significantly after replacing it with shielded coax. But it was still there.

I soldered in extra ground wires, I tied the ground to the mains earth, I moved wires away from the transformers, all to no avail. Then eventually when probing around with the multimeter, I accidentally shorted out the negative input signal wire to the casing of the volume pot, and the instantly disappeared. Now I have zero hum all through the volume range. And the 25W/ch is plenty for the ceiling speakers. Not sure about driving outdoor speakers for the deck (when it gets built), so I may need to make a 2×50W amp for those.

Next step is to introduce a microcontroller to drive volume and turn channels off by relay (power saving) via RS232.

This Queen’s Birthday Weekend I headed up to Mt. Gambier to finish off my last required dive for my CDAA Deep Cavern certification, which I completed in Little Blue on Friday morning. On Saturday Jake and Ellen took me on a guided tour of Piccaninnie Ponds, which was a treat after fudging around in the 1m visibility of Little Blue. Jake and I dropped into Ewen’s Ponds after that, but unfortunately on the tail end of about 20 other divers, so the water was a little stirred up.

My weekend finished on Monday morning at Kilsby’s, with this trip’s second awesome dive at that hole in the middle of a sheep paddock. I tagged my camera along for a couple of the dives, but my photos just don’t do the dives justice. Definately more practice required at this sort of photography. And maybe another strobe wouldn’t hurt either!

Over the last two weekends my dad and I have been hard at it with shovel and barrow attempting a Backyard Blitz in our backyard. We got half way there; the cleanup is pretty much done, now it just needs a deck and some landscaping. I should have taken some before shots, at the very least to see what a difference all our hard work made!

Last weekend we pulled up a heap of bricks that were laid as pavers, and also broke up the concrete slab from the old laundry/shed. We also took off about 150mm of dirt where the deck is going to be, to allow enough clearance for the bearers. The deck will be the full width of the yard and will come out to around where the bike is.

Our efforts last weekend filled the first 3 cubic metre bin in the space of two hours. The next one lasted a bit longer as the day wore on, and the wheel barrow seemed to get heavier and heavier. On Sunday we hired a jackhammer to break up the foundations of the slab, and that finished up the bin.

This weekend I gave up on the 3m bin, and went straight for a 6m one. More bricks to lift up and shift into the bin, but we gave ourselves a little break every now and then by shifting a few barrows of tan bar. Much lighter than bricks. The tan bark was a good idea when we first moved back in, with the aim of keeping the mud and dust down. But the stuff sticks to Connie (our King Charles Cavalier) like glue, and end up all through the house.

We also demolished the temporary lean-to shelter that I built for the boat about three (maybe four) years ago. That lone tree in the middle of the yard will go soon, but I first wanted to wait until we’ve got at least a little greenery in the form of those trees along the wall. It was rather satisfying to make that planter box – actually doing something constructive after two weekends straight of shovelling bricks, dirt and rubble! The mound of dirt around the tree at least shows how much dirt we took out of the backyard – the whole yard used to be level with the top of the mound.

After only about 18 months of trying to get a on a course I’ve finally managed to find a time where my schedule matches the course schedule, and I’ve started my CDAA Deep Cavern course. After three evenings going through theory and practising some line work in the shop, yesterday was the first pool session with instructor Jane from A.B. Ocean Divers.

Kira, Ed and myself spent the better part of two hours running line between milk crates sitting on the bottom of the pool, whilst Jane did her best at task loading us, including simulated OOA scenarios, simulated zero vis (blindfolds over masks and taking off masks), crossed lines and loose lines.

As this was the first time any of us had dived together, and we didn’t really get much time to discuss communication beforehand, there was some confusion going on, but for the most part I think we managed ok. It also didn’t help things out when our sequence was changed for every exercise. Certainly something to be discussed at length before getting wet at Mt. Gambier next weekend!

I definitely have to say that the GUE Fundamentals course I did last year went a long way to preparing me to be a lot more comfortable and confident with what the rest of this course is no doubt going to bring.

This year’s Cup Weekend dive trip with Ocean Divers was to Jervis Bay just south of Sydney, for three nights aboard Ocean Trek. I managed to squeeze onto the trip at the last minute due to a cancellation (sorry you couldn’t be there with us, Pam). There were a total of 10 dives scheduled, but due to some pretty bad weather, we couldn’t get any dives in on Monday morning.

We did see plenty of Wobbegongs and Port Jacksons (below), as well as a number of cuttlefish and a couple of morays amongst other fishlife. The weather was also kind enough to let us into Spider Cave as the last dive on Sunday, but surge stopped us from getting too far. Pics of the weekend are in my Jervis Bay gallery.

Even though to winds were squalling and the waves pounding outside the heads, Mick and Lyn managed to find a quite spot inside the bay for us to anchor on Sunday night.

On Monday there wasn’t much to do other than sight seeing at the local museum or national park, so a few of us opted for a walk to the cliffs above where we were diving over the previous couple of days, and I took the opportunity to photograph some plantlife.

Time for a quick update on the progress of our house. We’re about six weeks away from moving in and can’t wait! Here’s some photos I took a couple of weeks ago, and never got round to uploading, as well as some from today.

First up, the view of our house from the street. The street frontage hasn’t changed at all really. Still looks pretty shabby and in desperate need of a new paint job. We’re slowly getting to that bit.

Stepping out to the side of the house, you can see the added storey. Looks much nicer all freshly painted and such. That’s what I spent a week of my life doing – patching, sealing, sanding, priming and painting the second storey weatherboards before the scaffolding got taken down.

View from the back yard. Or what’s left of it, amongst my dodgey old lean-to boat shelter, a couple of overgrown palm trees (if anyone wants a palm tree or two, bring a shovel and a trailer) and a huge pile of dirt left over from digging foundations. The doors is the entrance to my workshop, and above that is the balcony coming out from the master bedroom upstairs.

The boys from M.K. Millar Constructions laying the Tasmanian Oak floorboards, working frantically to prepare the house for plastering before the plasterers arrive. Picture taken from the courtyard, looking into the new living area through a sliding door.

Just off the study into the ceiling cavity is the data and electrics room. On the left is the mess of data and A/V cabling. Almost a kilometer of cabling including around 40 Cat6, 10 Cat5e, 12 RG6, and 24 speaker wires. Just beyond that is where the electrical switchboard will go, and to the right is the all the lighting wires along with Clipsal’s signature pink C-Bus Cat5 cable.

Smoko room. We decided Kirsty’s old couch could find a better home, but we figured we might as well leave for hte builders to use until the end of the job. Just like the palm trees, if you’re in need of a couch. Dire need. Come along with a trailer. You won’t need a shovel for this one.

Master bedroom, looking into the walk-in robe. We had to cut the upstairs ceiling height from 2700mm down to a rather low 2400mm to fit the roofline into the “building envelope” to avoid having to go to town planning to build the extension. So to add a bit more headroom in the master bedroom, the centre of the ceiling is raised back to 2700mm. It’s actually ended up looking quite good.

The kitchen got delivered today, and looks pretty good. Stone benchtops and two-pack paint finish. Aside from a couple of minor problems, and that the door contours aren’t exactly what we asked for, it looks pretty good. When the pantry door closes, another cupboard door opens itself. Might have to get them to fix that one!!

The plasterer is still hard at work. Most of the upstairs and the the whole kitchen has been plastered now, but there’s still a fair stack of plasterboards to go. Definately not a job I envy.

This is a photo from the entrance hall, looking at the stairwell. I thought about cancelling the stair order, and just leaving the ladder there. Much cheaper, but it might be a bit tough to get the furniture upstairs. By the end of tomorrow, the ladder will hopefully be replaced by a proper staircase.

The bathroom vanities also got delivered today, and the one in the ensuite upstairs has been installed already. I was pretty much over looking at cabinets and benchtops and doors and handles and things, so the bathroom vanities get the same handles as the kitchen.

I think that’s enough photos for one post to bore anyone still reading. And I’m also all out of things to caption any other photos with.

September 14th 2007. Kirsty & I got married. Forty of our closest friends and relatives followed us up to Hamilton Island in Queensland for a week of magnificient weather, good food, great sunsets and a little bit of drinking in the leadup to our big day.

Kirsty and I arrived on the island the Sunday before, along with our immediate families and a few friends. Others arrived on various days during the week, whilst those on the island partook in many a merry affair. Watching sunset from One Tree Hill with cheese and wine in hand was an event we were told not to miss. So much so in fact that we did it twice.

My own photos on this trip are a little light on – I didn’t need to take that many photos, we had a photographer doing that for us! Well okay, she was only there for the wedding day and the sunset cruise aboard Banjo Paterson on teh Thursday night. But I was just having way too much fun the whole week. So to any of our guests that took photos, we’d love it if you could send them to us!