Author: kpcnsk

Canon EOS Elan 7E Door Latch Repair

I discovered that the latch on my fantastic plastic Canon EOS Elan 7E had deteriorated, and the door had sprung open, exposing that roll of film (grumble, grumble.) Repair was an easy process, after acquiring a replacement latch off eBay. There’s a full howto write up on J. David Buerk’s website. Essentially you have to remove the latch cover (2 screws) and the front faceplate (5 screws), pop the old latch out and the new one in. I had to move the electrical contacts to the new latch as well, as those weren’t included on the new latch. The metal piece was welded on to the latch, so I used a couple dots of superglue to keep the contacts in place. Reassembled, and now everything seems fine. For reference, the Elan 7E is cross marketed as the EOS Elan 7 and EOS 33.

AppleRAID in Disk Utility

Had to replace a failed ssd which was part of a mirrored RAID set in a Late 2012 Mac Mini. It was running MacOS 10.11 El Capitan, so the RAID functionality that used to be part of Disk Utility was not available through the app. Apple’s simple RAID tools are still available in terminal, using the command:

diskutil appleRAID <raidverb>

Options for <raidverb> include list and repairMirror.

Martin Backpacker Guitar closeup

Re-Topping my Martin Backpacker Guitar

Years ago I bought a Martin Backpacker guitar. To call it a guitar is generous. Like Douglas Adams’ no tea, the Backpacker is something almost, but not quite, entirely unlike a guitar. It sounds like the mutant child of a baritone ukulele and a banjo. Playing it is cramped, with a short scale and a narrow neck. Without a truss rod, only extra light strings should be used on it, and even then the action is high enough drive a Miata beneath them.

Mine came with a rectangular gig bag which provides almost no protection. So of course, somewhere on my travels over the years, the top got smooshed in. I sent it to a luthier friend who did some miracle work to fix it. He pointed out replacing the top would be more expensive than the guitar was worth, so he just straightened it out as much as he could and braced it. It looked better and sounded fine, but still had a bit of a sad, crumpled look to it. And as we all know, when playing guitar, looks matter.

This spring I therefore came to the conclusion that I wanted to do something about it. I found I could get a new solid cedar top from Stew Mac for under thirty bucks, and that seemed reasonable. I also purchased some mandolin kerfing to make the thing a bit more robust. It would hardly do to backpack with it if it couldn’t withstand being strapped to my back. After watching a few online videos, as one does, I decided it was within my skill set. How hard could it be?

Turns out, not exceptionally difficult. That’s not to denigrate the skills of a skilled luthier, but this was a Backpacker I was dealing with, not a pre-war D-28 (although it is a pre-Afghan War specimen). The basic steps were to separate the old top, attach a new top, and finish it. All told, a nice weekend project.

inside view of a disassembled Martin BackpackerBecause there is no edge work on the Backpacker, separating the top is a fairly straight forward process. Some heat, applied with a heat gun, softened the glue. I then worked a palette knife or sharpened scraper between the top and the body to separate the pieces. It helped also that there no support bracing or edge kerfing. I worked small sections, and had the two apart in pretty short order. Then I used the same process allowed me to salvage the bracing and bridge from the old top. I didn’t have to be too careful about the old top, since I wasn’t planning on reusing it.

added kerfing to the Martin BackpackerOnce that step was done, I cleaned up the body and the salvaged pieces, removing any traces of glue or wood from the top that broke off.

Next, I took the opportunity to beef up the body a bit. I put kerfing around the back and top edges of the body, which would provide a more ample and supportive edge to attach the top and back to the sides of the guitar.

lovely book matched cedar grainUpon turning my attention to the top, I had a decision to make. I had purchased a low grade cedar guitar top, which came as a pair of book matched pieces. My plan was to use a single piece, which would have been large enough on its own to top the guitar. When the wood arrived, however, I discovered that it had some significant shading variation, and had I used a single side, I would have ended up with a two-tone guitar. Not really what I wanted. To get a single-tone top with this wood, I’d have to join either the light or dark sides together as if I was making a larger guitar. It was an extra step, but upon examination, I discovered the darker portion had some lovely pronounced grain which, would look rather stunning. In for a penny, in for a pound, as they say. I did a bit of research and came upon a video which described the tent method of joining the pieces of wood. It was simple and required no special jigs, so I thought I’d give it a go.

Turns out it worked very well, and soon had a book matched top for a Backpacker. Fancy!

Clamping the guitarThe next step was joining the new top to the body, which illustrates perfectly one of the real values of professionals: they have the tools to do the job right. In this case, it’s the clamps. I used my assortment of bar and c-clamps to get the job done, but it would have been much easier if I had professional tools at my disposal. In the end, I clamped it well enough, and got the job done. Once the top had set, I routed the rough edges and sanded them flush.

Martin Backpacker GuitarFor finishing I decided to just use a hand rubbed and buffed linseed oil finish. Instrument makers prefer a shellac or varnish which doesn’t absorb into (and thus deaden) the sound of the wood. Let’s be honest here, however; shoeboxes are more resonant than Backpacker guitars. A few coats of oil weren’t going to kill the sound. And the result is beautiful to behold. And after restringing and making some bridge adjustments to compensate for a thicker, straighter top, it sounds as good as I remember it. On top of that, I have a deeper connection to this guitar now, and it’s a unique piece.

Now I just need to make a better case. Perhaps something like this.

 

Adding Hidden Tool Tabs in Capture One 23

In Capture One 23, a number of the built-in tool tabs are no longer selectable when you try to perform an Add Tool Tab command. These include the Black and WhiteComposition, and Local Adjustments tabs. Although you can add and assign icons to custom tool tabs, the icons associated with the built-in tool tabs are not available for selection when creating a custom tool tab. So, if you want to utilize the icons associated with those tool tabs, then you need to re-enable them. Fortunately, this is not difficult, and simply requires some manual editing of the workspace .plist file. Once they are visible (and in the desired order) it’s just a matter of customizing the tools on each tab to your liking.

The workspace .plist file is organized into various dictionaries, defined by the <dict> key. The one which controls the visibility of tool tabs is identified by <key>com.phaseone.captureone.sessionwindow.tools</key>. Near the end of that section is an array identified as <key>tabConfiguration</key>. Adding members to this array will control their visibility within the workspace. It also controls their order.

The following procedure are the steps I took:

  1. Select the default workspace.
  2. Add any desired missing tool tabs which are selectable.
  3. Save the custom workspace.
  4. Open the .plist file associated with the new custom workspace. The file is located in /[User]/Library/Application Support/Capture One/Workspaces.
  5. Locate the appropriate key; add the appropriate strings. For the hidden built-in tabs, these are named BlackWhiteToolTab, CompositionToolTab, and LocalAdjustmentsToolTab, respectively. Optionally, organize the tabs as desired.
  6. Save the file.
  7. Refresh Capture One by selecting the default workspace, and then reselecting the custom workspace. The hidden tabs should be visible.

Spoofing OSX 10.11.16 El Capitan Install

When trying to install El Capitan via the recovery partition on a 2014 MacBook Air, I get a message that “no packages were eligible for install.” The problem is that the certificates are out of date, so the installer won’t proceed. The general workaround is to change the computer date to sometime in mid 2017.

  1. Upon receiving the prompt that “no packages were eligible,” don’t restart. Turn off the wifi.
  2. Go to Utilities>Terminal
  3. Change the date using this command: date 0115124517
  4. Quit terminal.
  5. Disconnect from wifi, or select a network with an unknown password.
  6. Click Restart.
  7. (After restarting) Click continue, and follow the onscreen instructions.

From there, the computer should install El Capitan. If it hangs after reaching a full bar, cycle the machine power. Now it should prompt you to complete the installation.

Apple Music Displays the Wrong Album Art

So my iPhone SE was displaying the wrong album art for a number (though not all) songs. When I checked these albums on iTunes, all the songs had the correct album art. I tried deleting all the songs and then resyncing the playlist, but that didn’t fix the problem. A quick web search turned up the following tip from Reddit.

First delete the playlist, but before starting another sync from the computer, also turn off wi-fi and cellular communications. The easiest way to do this is to place the phone in Airplane mode. Then start the sync, and the correct album art should appear on the iPhone. Apparently this happens when syncing playlists.

What an annoying bug.

Fevermonks Revived

Many, many years ago, I wrote and played a bunch of songs with my friend Tom Rump. We called ourselves the Fevermonks, and we’ve recently been able to reconnect and record those songs through the magic of the Internet. We’ve published the songs on Bandcamp, so now you too can enjoy them in highest of fidelity. Go give the songs a listen and a download if you like. We appreciate the support.

Texas Busfest 2016

For the second year in a row, I attended Texas Busfest, although sadly without Melina as she was under the weather. Which was too bad, because the weather during the campout was, in fact, perfect. Temperatures were mild, skies were mostly clear, and nights were cool. It was a bit windy on Friday night, but that’s why you always bring a jacket.

It was good to see some familiar faces from the VW, and in particular Texas Vanagon communities. Word is that in total there were 85 VW vans, including a record 32 Vanagons in attendance. It wasn’t as big as last year overall, but still very well attended.

Olly ran great, and with his freshly painted bumpers, he looked pretty sharp as well. I used Rustoleum Bumper and Trim Paint, which is darker than the stock charcoal gray, but it has a satin trim that looks good. We’ll see how long it lasts. A number of other Vanagons had their lower rockers painted with Rustoleum Bed Liner Paint, and I think I’m going to go that route. I need to clean up some of the lower body seams, and then that should provide a pretty durable finish. Also on my mind are new seats. Sludge had some installed, and they are quite comfy. And leather! Shooftie has a write up, and if I can get the brackets made, it should be an economical option. I’m not crazy about black, but I could live with it for more comfortable seats.

I picked up some of Abel’s bug screens, and they’re quite nice. Very compact, and I think they’ll do a good job of keeping critters out when the front windows are open. Also, although  designed to be placed on the outside of the van, they’ll work on the inside as well, to deter theft. Now if I can get a three panel canvas for the pop top, and some darker curtains, we’ll be traveling in cool comfortable style.

Maybe you’d like to see some pictures?