Basic Etching

Today I will explain about the process of manually creating a printed circuit board (PCB) from scratch. The process start with an initial design of the circuit and then reverse drawing the circuit into a piece of copper plate with a permanent marker. Before drawing on the copper plate, the plate is cleaned with an extra fine sand paper until the plate is shining. This process is to eliminate the oxidized layer from the copper plate.

Finished circuit drawed on the board

After drawing the circuit on the board, and the ink is let dry, the etching process is implemented. What is etching? Etching is the process of creating an image on metal or other surfaces by means of an acid. Remember to wear gloves when doing this process as it involves highly acidic materials.

Chemical used as the acid

Etching process 1

Etching process 2

While the board is inside the acidic liquid, the tray is to be shake constantly to remove the unwanted layer of copper until the circuit design can be seen clearly. After etching process, the circuit connection lines which are covered with the permanent marker can be observed clearly. The board should be dry completely and then remove the permanent marker layer and the copper connections in the circuit can then be seen.

Before Etching

After Etching

After removing the permanent marker

The end result is shining connections of copper on the board which we called as printed circuit board or PCB. After this the board can be drilled with holes so that components can be placed on it and be soldered.


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Minolta 110 Zoom SLR

The Minolta 110 Zoom SLR was a 110 single lense reflect(SLR)camera produced by Minolta of Japan between 1976 and 1979. It was the first SLR in 110 format. This type of camera has builtin 1:4,5/25-50mm Zoom-Lensa zoom lens which mean it has a focal length between 25mm to 50mm. It uses porro-mirror instead of pentaprism. The camera shutter and appature appear to work without film loaded and the viewfinder displays an indicator when the shutter release is pressed. It also has macro focusing down to 11 in (280 mm). This gave a field of view range approximately equivalent to a 50–100 mm zoom lens on a 35 mm format camera. Unfortunately, there was no built-in flash, but a hot shoe on the top allowed an external flash to be attached.

Minolta 110 Zoom SLR

Bottom view

Back view

Top View

Film insertion

Front View

Camera Info and History.
First introduced in September, 1976.
Camera type : 110 cartridge porro-mirror SLR camera with zoom lens
Picture size : 13 x 17mm
Lens : Zoom-Rokkor f5/25-50mm
Light metering : external metering system, aperture-priority automatic exposure
Shutter : horizontal-run focal-plane shutter with metal curtain Shutter speeds : B, 10-11/1000sec.
Body dimensions : 53.5 x 108 x 132 mm, 430 g
Body weight : approx. 430g.

The manual of this camera can be obtained at here.

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Mees~

The famous Sarawak Kolo Mee

Sarawak Wan Tan Mee

Prawn Mee or Har Mee

Alcoholic Mee or Se Chiu Mien (mandarin)

Mee Po

Alright...What is the difference between all those "Mees"? As you can see...kolo mee can be said as the mother of all the other mees above. It is Sarawak proudest and famous mee because of the mee species which only available in Sarawak, though certain places in the West Malaysia also do have that kind of mee. First impression of the mee is a maggi mee (instant noodles). However, its actually different from the instant noodles. Its more soft and tender and it taste almost like "instant noodles + wan tan mee".

Then below it is Sarawak wan tan mee...its the kolo mee plus some wan tan. Oh ya..they don't have kon lou (soy sauce) wan tan mee. If you wan to experience the West Malaysia wan tan mee there then you should tell your own recipe to the shop. I usually does this. I will order wan tan mee and then ask the taukeh (shop owner) that i wan the wan tan in a separate bowl with soup and the mee add some thick soy sauce. Whenever my friends and me order this kind of wan tan mee, many of the surrounding people will look at us one of a kind as though they saw us eating something weird.

Next is Sarawak Har mee (prawn mee). Its really Prawn mee. Kolo mee with three prawns...really not worth it. By adding 3 prawns on top of kolo mee the price of the mee increses like about RM1 which I could have bought a lot of prawns at the market. The next is the alcoholic mee which I think can be found in many places.

Mee po. It is different from kolo mee as the mee is "fatter" and it taste a bit like the pan mee. Usually, when we order mee po we can choose to have pork meat or chicken meat. Usually a RM3.50 mee po can be eaten by 1-2 people because its a lot. Really a lot! But, the downside is that usually they will just give a few meats and a lot of mee which causes you to eat until your mouth saliva dried up.

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Can you eat?

The unique kueh chap with kueh teow kind of mee that I am clipping with my chopstick

Basically, kueh chap consists of pork internal organs such as the meat, of course, fats, liver, intestines, skins, egg, kueh teow, egg and soup. The soup taste a bit like bak kut teh but only with a little bit more sour. Kueh chap can be eaten just like that or with rice.

Another kueh chap but without the kueh teow

Looks like bak kut teh right. But, its actually the internal organs of pig. Sometimes, when eating the kueh chap you will experience some hard, thin and short hair sticking between your teeths. Its actually the fur of the pig that is not well cleaned. The fur can be seen clearly around the organs if you look carefully at it but unfortunately, I don't have the upclose picture to show you all. Don't worry! I am still alive after eating all those things so many times. Its actually quite delicious especially when ate with spicy sambal which i usually do.

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-B-L-O-G-

This is my first post of blog. I don't know what to write and therefore, I'll start with what is a blog?

Personally I think it can be a diary, news, event, journal, personal remarks, and a place to write, complain, comment, promote and express of our thoughts. Some uses blogs to earn fame, advertisers, friends, traffic (not traffic jam; its internet traffic), network and money. How? Simple! Just obtain an internet account bank such as paypal, maintain your blog for 3 years with adequate well written blogs with interesting and captivating topics, and then apply to some company that pay for your each post of blogs such as payperpost, Wordpress and Smorty and get some advertisers such as Google Ad Sense.

However, some uses blog as a place to let go their frustrations and to express their overwhelming creativity thoughts that were contained within their mind since the day they were born till the present day and even up till their dream and expected, soon-to-be future that is still unknown. I think most of the bloggers these days prefer to choose the half diary, half of half diary's personal opinion and half informational factualism knowledge types of virtual writing which provides benefit to both the left and the right side of the brain. It helps to release stress and at the same time helps to increase the knowledge of the world. Some will write whenever they have the feel or mood to write while some wrote a blog as a mean of storing his/her experiences, knowledge, desires of the past, identity, and other personal objectives.

Anyway, it doesn't really matters what is the purpose of blogging because a blog has a scope that is abstract and intangible, vast and prodigious, wide, comprehensive and broad scopes, definitions and purposes. As long as one is happy when blogging, that is the main concerns. Additionally, it helps to exercise one's brain and hence, might mutated into a stronger and healthy brain. Talking about brain, did you all know that Albert Einstein's brain is 15% larger and its left side hippocampus were consistently larger than those on the right?

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