Archive for the ‘Home Improvement’ Category
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Wednesday, March 6th, 2013
Gladiator Garageworks – Possibly the best garage system and made in the U.S.A.
I’ve been meaning to organize my garage and turn a section into a place where I can work on my Myro Control stuff. I have been researching and looking at all sorts of “Garage Systems” and everything I have seen is either VERY expensive or VERY cheaply made using flimsy metal or thin wood/melamine.
My dream garage would be filled with Lista Cabinets (as seen on American Chopper) as they offer both of my requirements: American Made and modular cabinets on casters. The only drawback being cost.
Sears Craftsmen’s popped into my mind — thinking everything Craftsmen’s would be American made, right? Uh, nope. Then right next to the Craftsmen benches was this product called Gladiator Garageworks by Whirlpool Corporation. Modular cabinets on casters, check. Made in the U.S.A.? YES! Apparently all their “premium” welded case products are made in the U.S.A. That includes the benches and the gearbox. The ones you need to assemble are not so keep that in mind.
The only design element I’m not too big on is the “tread” or “diamond plate” texture on the doors. I would have liked a smooth finish or options for different colors (silver, red, black, blue, etc) like the Lista Cabinets offer. Not a huge deal and the pattern is growing on me.
Overall, I dig them! The price, the quality and the fact they are Made in the U.S.A. — I couldn’t be happier.
Off to finish organizing the garage!
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Friday, September 2nd, 2011
Obihai OBi100 – Google Voice To POTS (Plain Old Telephone Service)
I’ve been on the look out for a device that can leverage Google Voice *and* offer up a POTS port that can be tied into my whole house Panasonic telephone system (Hybrid-PBX) as a CO line. The search is finally over — Obihai’s OBi100 does exactly what I need for less than $50 and NO monthly fees! I ordered the OBi100 from Amazon for only $43.99 when it arrived the setup was easy and was up and running within 30 mins. If you were to base the sound quality on looks alone, you’d suspect it’s terrible, however, it’s not! I couldn’t perceive any notable sound quality differences from my landline service and there were no issues sending or receiving faxes over the line either. This little device is a must have for any Google Voice user! If you have any questions feel free to post in the comments.
- Obihai: What is it?
- Obihai: How to use it with Google Voice
- Buy now via AMAZON: OBi100 VoIP Telephone Adapter and Voice Service Bridge…
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Thursday, July 22nd, 2010
Russound RNET to Sonos Bridge
Check out PART 2, which goes into more details
Here’s a sneak peak at my latest project — the RNET to Sonos Bridge. All coded using an Arduino and Ethernet Shield. What this little device allows you to do is control a Sonos device using any Russound whole house audio system that supports RNET sources. It allows next, previous, play, pause and I’m working on playlist access and support. Current track metadata gets sent to these keypads as a multi-field message.
I’m pretty much code complete but I’m running into a few memory issues… The Arduino only has <2K of available RAM that I can work with. I have an Arduino Mega (which offers 8K) on order to see if that solves things. I think I can still optimize my code to make it work with the 328.
I’ll post more when I get it 100% stable.
Update: Got it working! With about 500bytes left of RAM on the 328 chipset… this was a fun little project. Below is a video:
Also running on E6 Color Keypads:
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Thursday, March 18th, 2010
TorZo Petrified/Infused Polymer Surfaces
My wife’s blog, frillas, typically covers home decor products, but TorZo’s surfaces has caught my attention. It’s manufactured in the Pacific Northwest (Oregon) using renewable materials ranging from wheat, wood chips, sugar cane stalk, sunflower seed, and fibers. I particularly like the look of the Tiikeri line (pictured above) which is composed of 50% sugar cane stalk and the remaining 50% consists of an inert non-hazardous acrylic polymer.
Check out their complete product line here and if you are looking for some cool surfaces made from renewable materials TorZo’s product line should definitely be considered! I’m trying to figure out how we can incorporate this product in our home…
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Saturday, March 13th, 2010
Powerbuilt Digital Torque Adaptor – My Favorite Tools – March 2010
When I’m changing my brakes I just tighten to what I think is “tight enough” — not always a good thing. All automotive bolts and parts have a recommended torque amount that should be followed. Sure, you can get yourself an analog torque wrench, but why would you when you can get the Powerbuilt Digital Torque Adaptor that turns any 1/2″ rachet into a digital one?
This little gadget not only can be used to calibrate analog torque wrenches (which you’d pay about the same as the adapter if taken to someone to calibrate) but you can use it in situations where you need precise torque pressure using a standard rachet wrench. The feature I really like is that you set the torque amount you want to achieve and then as you tighten you get both visual (LED light & LCD torque amount) and audible indication.
The Powerbuilt Digital Torque Adaptor is Mavromatic’s, “My favorite tools”, for March 2010. It runs about $50.
- AMAZON.com – Powerbuilt Digital Torque Adaptor…
About the archives
Welcome to the archives here at MAVROMATIC.
These are a collection of our previous posts. If you'd like to read about the latest and greatest, click here.
Welcome to mavromatic! My goal is to bring to your attention the latest DIY projects, the greatest home automation and home theater products. As well as, the occasional offbeat entry, to spice things up a bit.
