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Inside a DSL line filter

Found a DSL phone line filter from the Earthlink DSL days in one of my junk boxes. This particular one is an Excelsus Z-BLocker DSL filter Model Z-230PJ. The www.excelsus-tech.com website printed on the back is dead, but a bit of Googling brought me to Pulse Electronics, so maybe there was a name change or some merger-ing happening.

DSL line filter
DSL line filter

Since I’m not likely to be going back to DSL service any time soon, I figured I’d have a look to see what’s inside. DissectionDisassembly was pretty easy. The top is just held in by clips and not glued, so a little bit of prying with a thin bladed screwdriver and it pops right off. There’s not a whole lot to see inside: a couple of inductors and a capacitor soldered onto a circuit board.

DSL line filter innards
DSL line filter innards
DSL line filter circuit board
DSL line filter circuit board

It’s a pretty simple device, just an inductor on each line with a capacitor in parallel (I think that makes it a low pass filter on each line).

DSL line filter schematic
DSL line filter schematic

The inductors aren’t labeled on top, so I don’t know what value they are. If I’m reading the code correctly, the capacitor is 22 μF.

I wonder what kind of project I can come up with to make use of this…

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Church coffee & donuts

Connie and I have been parishioners at Blessed Sacrament Catholic Church over in West Ashley for maybe a little over a year now. I’m hardly the religious type, but Connie is Catholic, so I go along for the ride. It’s pretty good people watching too.

Since the beginning of the year, we have been doing the coffee/donut social after the 9AM Mass. It’s a nice social gathering after Mass in the church hall, a chance to sit down and chat/hang out with fellow parishioners over coffee and donuts. It’s been a fairly popular thing, and from what I’ve gathered, a long standing tradition at the church.

Every Sunday morning except for the third Sunday of each month (the Knights of Columbus do pancake breakfast that Sunday), and the Sunday immediately preceeding or following a major holiday, we head over to our local Dunkin’ Donuts to pick up anywhere from 13-18 dozen donuts (makes the car smell really good…)

With the donuts, apple and orange juices, and any other supplies needed for the day, we get to the chuch hall around 0745 and start setting up. Tables and chairs are moved around, donuts are set out and the coffee brewing is started. By the time everything is set up, it’s about 0830, and time to head over to the church.

After the final blessing (but not after communion, because you’re not supposed to leave until at least after the blessing), we’re out the door back to the hall to set out the coffee urns and start pouring the juices. Not long after that (sometimes there are people waiting already), there’s a line of people coming to get their coffee and donuts.

It’s nice to see people hanging out and socializing. People are talking, having a good time, sometimes there are kids running around and playing. After 8 months now, there are a lot of familiar faces, and sometimes a few new ones. It’s a nice little community, and part of what I expect churches to be.

If you’re in the area, come join us for coffee and donuts!

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Charleston Worldwide Photowalk

Another Scott Kelby Worldwide Photowalk is coming up soon. This year it will be October 11 and one is already set up for downtown Charleston. I’ve participated in a few previous photo walks and they’ve always been fun events. It’s a chance to meet and hang out with some fellow photographers, explore the city and get some great shots.

Previous years have seen other photowalks in North Charleston and Summerville, so if you aren’t able to make it to the Charleston photowalk, try to organize one near you.

Go sign up for a photowalk near you! You won’t regret it.

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Nexus 5 X-ray

Continuing the tradition of making radiographs of my electronic things, I got a radiograph of my new Nexus 5, the DDS modules and the Arduino Pro Mini.

The Nexus 5. The battery takes up a good bit of the space inside. The square object to the right of center near the top is the camera module. The SIM card tray is easily visible below that. The boards look pretty crowded (click for the jumbo sized image).

Nexus 5 x-ray
Nexus 5 x-ray

The AD9850 modules. Not a whole lot to them. The crystal in each module is easily visible as the rectangular object on the left. The AD9850 chip is in the middle.

AD9850 modules
AD9850 modules

Sparkfun Arduino Pro Mini. Not a whole lot to this either. There’s the AT Mega 328P chip in the middle, and at the top is the reset button.

Sparkfun Arduino Pro Mini x-ray
Sparkfun Arduino Pro Mini x-ray

All images were acquired using an 8″x10″ cassette. X-ray technique was 80 kVp, 5 mAs with the small focal spot (0.6 mm). Source to image distance (SID) was 172 cm, and the object to image distance (OID) was about 100 cm giving a magnification factor of about 1.7. This results in some magnification blur, but at this magnification, the Nexus 5 takes up pretty much all of the cassette.

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More Arduino and some DDS modules

Jason/NT7S was doing some more shack cleaning so I took the opportunity to buy an Arduino Pro Mini and some AD9850 DDS modules he put up for sale.

Arduino Pro Mini
Arduino Pro Mini
AD9850 DDS modules
AD9850 DDS modules

No immediate plans for either of them yet. I’m looking forward to learning more about the DDS modules and figuring out how to use them with the [Net|Ar]duinos.