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  • This video can’t be played

    It looks like your HDMI cable or connection doesn’t support HDCP, which is required to play this type of video. Try reconnecting the HDMI cable from Apple TV to your TV, and play this video again.

    OK

    Yeah, not fun. Older TVs don’t know about the encryption stuff that’s happening now to help prevent us from recording the output, say from Apple TV of a BlueRay. Well don’t go buy a new TV unless you need to. Instead get this gizmo to solve the problem until you do. It’s a simple splitter and you don’t NEED a splitter but it has the HDCP decoder in it. Just get this and another short HDMI cable and your shows will play all day long. Bonus if you wanted your shows output to 2 TVs you can do that not too!

    This worked for older equipment – DOES NOT WORK ON APPLE TV. Ordering a different part and will update if there is success.

  • Can’t connect your Trezor One?

    Deposits are simple you just send to the address and crypto comes in. However if you need to open the hard wallet and you have a new MAC, yer stuck without one of these little gems. On the theme of everything seems to be USB-C these days this converter is cheap and simple to just leave connected. Turns that Trezor One into a USB-C capable device.

    USB C to Micro USB Adapter, (4-Pack) Type C Female to Micro USB Male Convert Connector Support Charge & Data Sync Compatible with Samsung Galaxy S7/S7 Edge, Nexus 5/6 and Micro USB Devices (Orange)

  • USB-C console cable

    As you know we are geeks here @ McYork. So when we needed to get work from home all ramped up – our kit had to include console cables. Everyone (of the geeks) has these. However, most are now on new laptops and such where the older style USB is not native. Well simply grab one of these – we got 5 of them now.

    USB-C Cisco Console Cable,OIKWAN 6ft USB Type C to RJ45 Serial Adapter Essential Accessory of Cisco, NETGEAR, Ubiquity, LINKSYS, TP-Link Routers/Switches for Laptops

  • 2020 shopping list

    For the next, while I will be posting products we’ve bought and used with links to the sites (mostly Amazon – thank you 2020!) These are “affiliate links” and so I’ll be clear – when you use these links I do get some type of a kickback. However, you may or may not know that I’d never steer you wrong just for my own gain. Every product listed I have bought in the past, probably in 2020, or have personally used (through a friend or work). As we get more “stuff” this site will grow.

    What about all the other amazing McYork projects and blogs from the past? These exist and will be reorganized into a new section. Don’t panic.

  • A perfect read/listen

    For the sci-fi lover or not, this is a fun book. Trust me if you like sci-fi you can buy this book without reading anything about it in advance. Go get it is all I can say. Go in blind it really will be one of the best ways to experience it. The audio version is very well produced.

    Project Hail Mary

  • Sound Great on Zoom

    It is clearly getting better out there. We’ve endured the heart of the storm. Regardless you will want to up your Zoom game as that’s never going to end. This is what I use now and have for most of 2020. Simple plugs in USB-C and if I recall came with a selection of cables for other USB options. I use it on Windows 10 so that’s my experience. I expect it will work on MacBooks too.

    Audio-Technica ATR2100x-USB Cardioid Dynamic Microphone (ATR Series)

  • A great garden hose

    With Summer here I wanted to cover two producst which have proven particularily usesful.

    This hose is just a great hose. On the “farm” we use a lot of hoses in different locations. One problem we have is the hose bibs are not all exactly where you’d like them to be. We run a 25-foot section of this hose to the valve and then this 10-foot section. This setup lets us keep the tap on, as this hose bib is deep in a bush and just the other side of a fence. Not easy to turn on or off – so we leave it on (not the best thing to do, and it works for us).

    What makes it so great? It’s out in the Sun all day – remains soft and flexible and does not get hard kinks. If you do loop it on itself it will fix when the water is turned on most of the time and it is soft enough to never “remember” to kink up in the same place and ruin the hose over time.

    Now we can use the easy leaver on the valve to turn on/off the water as needed out by the chicken coop.

    Flexzilla Garden Hose with SwivelGrip, 5/8 in. x 10 ft., Heavy Duty, Lightweight, Drinking Water Safe - HFZG510YWS

    Melnor 65087-AMZ EZ-Flow Control Valve with 2 Hose Washers Set, 1-Way

    In fact, we just bought 2 more of these hoses.

  • Bitcoin vs Fiat = MP3 vs RIAA – lost before it begins

    A battle that’s lost before it really begins. Simply put I see these cryptocurrencies as exactly like MP3. Wait for it… yer paying in Crypto for bread and eggs.

    Apple saw mp3 and digital music as a way forward. Bitcoin and the leading cryptocurrencies see the gap and will become the new and dependable (gold) standard.

    Printing money to balance the books will become unacceptable, soon.

    Get ready to see it all play out one more time.

  • NeoPixel Link connector board

    Building an array or grid of leds from Neopixel strips?  You might want one of these little boards I’ve come up with.  Here is a video (terrible) of me soldering together a few strips into a 3 x 42 array.  I found them to reduce the time and mistakes made when using individual wires.

     OshPark is where you can oder the boards.

    Questions?  Please email me (ian @ mcyork.com)

     

  • What could you possibly use 8 relays on a board for?

    I’ll be honest, today is payday and, I’ve been thinking about improvements to existing projects, surf’n the web looking to buy!  Then I thought of my binary Christmas tree display.  I remember seeing an 8 relay board on the web a long time ago, and thinking what could I use THAT for?  I had to come up with an excuse to buy it of course.  I convinced myself I could build a holiday light display with a twist.  I decided I’d flash the lights in binary.  Check it out if you have not watched it yet.

    Now that was a fun project.  How do I expand on that in the context of “the farm”.  There’s a solar array in the field  – ideas?

    I can’t say I bought this one below – but they all look about the same.  When you are just having fun with an Arduino you can afford the 8 pins to drive these things.  I suspect some have a BCD to relay decoder chip built in.  That would reduce the number of pins you need to dedicate.  Or you can use a shift register (those are fun. Look em up if you have not considered them in your project yet).


    5V Eight 8 Channel DC 5V Relay Switch Module for Arduino Raspberry Pi Arm AVR | eBay

    So now you’ve got a project for yourself to figure out.  The code for an Arduino to do the above binary tree display was fairly simple.  You can get fancy if you want.  Where you’ll want to be careful is how you wire up the high voltage side of the system.  I took a lot of care modifying a power strip.  This had the advantage of 8 sockets ready to plug into.  Go for it – be safe.