INSTAX MINI 12

INSTAX MINI 12

I bought an Instax Mini 12 on a spur of the moment purchase. I bought it with a similar intention as the Innioasis G3 MP3 Player I bought which was that I wanted a camera separate to my smartphone and after a bit of searching on Amazon I found the Instax Mini 12. I wanted something that took ZINK or something similar and the Instax range of cameras take Fujifilm Instax film, which is similar to ZINK, which allows for an instant picture, similar to an old Polaroid camera just a little smaller.




Not only did I get a camera but it came with quite the collection of accessories, such as camera case, photo album, frames, 2 packs of Instax film and coloured lens covers all of which make the camera feel more like a toy than a serious piece of kit but you do get quite a bit for your money.


What
I didn't realise is that there are plenty of Instax cameras out there
that have rechargeable batteries built in and also take a microSD
card for storing your photos so that you can print them later if
needed, so the options of printing straight away or storing your
pictures on a microSD card are available, this also means you could
print multiple copies of the same image.

The
problem is the Instax Mini 12 takes two AA batteries so no inbuilt
rechargeable battery, for me this is a drawback, and it doesn't take
a microSD card, so storing photos is not an option, it's an instant
picture or you choose not to take a picture at all and unfortunately the picture quality is definitely lacking, it is difficult to judge the correct distance to make sure you don't get a blurry picture and I even also found that with the flash my pictures were never lit well, they were too dark or over exposed and nothing in between.

How does it hold up against a disposable camera?
 
 Instax Mini 12 
 Kodak Fun Saver Disposable 
 Release 
 16/03/2023
 2007
 Cost
 £139.95
 £16.95
 Built-In Flash 
 ✓
 ✓ On/Off Switch
 Film Format
 Instax Mini
 35mm
 Shots
 40
 39
 Weight 
 900 grams
 113.4 grams
 Accessories
 ✓
 ✓
 Shutter Speed
 1/250s
 1/25s
 Shooting Mode 
 Automatic
 Automatic
 Video Capture
 ✗
 2K DCI 1080p
 Screen
 ✗
 1
 Instant Photo
 ✓
 ✗
 Reprints
 ✗
 ✓

A
disposable camera may not have instant prints but you do get
negatives which means you can have as many prints of each picture as
you like. The price of a disposable camera is also a big selling
point as it's almost 1/10 the price.

Would
I recommend?
Well
erm... Let's just say it's not for me. I'm sure there is a market out
there for someone, just not me. I would still like an instant camera.

Now
I have used up the cartridge of 10 prints I had in the Instax Mini 12
it will probably get resigned to the loft never to see the light of
day again. I will just have to keep looking. Specifics that would
sell it for me are... a camera with instant prints but also stores
the images on a microSD for multiple prints at a later time, inbuilt rechargeable
battery, compact and at a reasonable price (not sure what that would
be). I don't want a disposable camera it may be cheap and cheerful
but I'd like a camera with a longer lifespan.

Follow and comment below

Michael

COPILOT: A.I., SCARY OT WHAT?

COPILOT: A.I., SCARY OR WHAT?

So,
the question is, scary or what? The answer is both, the worry that
A.I. can be a dangerous thing in the wrong hands such as that of an
orange vegetable in the White House is scary but so far I've had
nothing but good experiences. My new laptop has a Copilot button
where the right “ctrl” button should be, very frustrating but
I've gotten used to it. Somehow “I” have managed to write two
programs, I will continue to refer to the work created as mine (I am
aware I have put very little effort into them). The two programs I
have written are a music player and a cataloguer for movies.

Well, below is where I started just a simple music player "music player01".


And below is mid way between where I started and where I am at present, even this was pretty cool but no coverart as yet "music player55".


And below is the first time I got coverart to work, what a break through and as you are probably starting to see the slightest change is quickly achieved "music player85".


I've
had other laptops with Copilot integrated but never thought of using
it before thinking A.I. just isn't my thing, it wasn't until this new
one with the Copilot button that I really gave it some thought and
that thought was to pick up where I had left off with programming.

I
had created a music player using Hollywood and Hollywood Designer on
original Amiga hardware and an emulated Amiga called “inTune” but
had gotten stuck in quite a few places such as, use of playlists,
album artwork not displaying and opening only certain music formats,
so I stopped work on this some time ago only going back to it from
time to time with no real progression.

So
to start from scratch was a bit unnerving but I have a mental image
of what I want the music player to do and what I want it to look
like. So I started early on Saturday, using Copilot for the first
time, and I just asked it to create a music player, simple question
and it gave me quite the simplistic player, I could open a mp3 and
play it, that was it. I guess I had to start somewhere, so I just
kept asking Copilot to add another feature then trying it to see if
it was better and if it was I'd save it and then go back and ask
Copilot to add something else and if it worked I'd save it.

I
repeated the cycle of asking Copilot for some new features and then
saving it multiple times, to be honest it was about 80 times or so
but I was definitely getting somewhere. The initial version “music
player01” had a button called “Choose File” and that allowed
the opening of a single music track and a “Play” button to play
that track. I needed to be able to open multiple tracks and have a
playlist and that didn't take too long.

I
added a volume bar and that worked, a forward and back button and
things seemed to be going really well, a few more tweaks such as the
moving the progress bar to the title bar until... "music player112".


So is it scary or what?
Not in the slightest, I have found it quite exhilerating and most enjoyable and since starting this project have just wanted to keep going, the idea evenually being a stand alond application.

Would
I recommend?
Most
definitely, anyone wants to pass some time and just maybe create
something interesting, useful, beautiful or amusing. I'm not sure if it's a drawback but Copilot seems to only be able to produce web browser based applications, I believe using Visual Studio by Microsoft can produce a stand alone application with a bit of tinkering.

Follow and comment below

Michael

GETTING AROS UP AND RUNNING PART 1

GETTING AROS UP AND RUNNING PART 1

Below follows a post I originally made on 4th November 2018, I wanted to repost here as I intend doing a part 2 very soon due to the latest developments with AROS.

I've been wanting to get AROS working on a laptop for some time now due to my great need for an Amiga laptop. Considering the number of old laptops I have it seemed possible that one of them would be capable of running one distribution or another. Which combination to choose though, I have a Medion, Acers, Asus, Fujitsu Siemens, Toshiba and a couple of Samsungs.

Laptop size was not a consideration at this point, I just wanted one that booted and ran. The only thing I wanted it to do to start with was boot from the hard drive.

Which Distribution
AspireOS - Latest release 29th October 2023
Icaros - Last updated 2023
Broadway - Last updated 27th May 2024



AspireOS

AROS Broadway








Icaros


I downloaded Icaros, for no particular reason and I brought down, from under the bed, a small selection of old laptops, A Medion, a couple of Acers (2 of the same model, Aspire 5920), a Fujitsu Siemens and a Toshiba. Considering the age of some of them they had been butchered and were in various states, some had memory removed, 1 had no hard drive.

I first tried the two Acers only to find one had no hard drive or memory and the others screen didn't work, so I took the hard drive and memory out of one and put it in the other making one complete Acer laptop.

I thought I would do a little bit of research for compatible hardware on to see which hardware would be compatible but it seems that compatibility can be a bit hit and miss so I thought I'd just dive in and try each one until I found one that booted.

I decided I'd make a major effort and use the Acer that now had a hard drive and memory, I created a boot CD of Icaros and easily booted the Acer Aspire 5920 into AROS from the CD and this was nice to see, but could I install it and boot from the hard drive?

I was able to use the Install AROS application to wipe the hard drive then restart and install Icaros and finally boot from the hard drive but none of the software worked, were my hopes of an AROS machine dashed?

Then it dawned on me that AspireOS was a distribution that should work on Acers but would it work on an Acer 5920? I guess I'll give it a go and see. Again I had issues, this time earlier on, I was able to boot from the AspireOS CD and it looked more Amiga like than Icaros which pleased me but on running the Install AROS software I was unable to wipe the hard drive, again, was I dashed?

Icaros can wipe the hard drive but doesn't install properly and AspireOS wouldn't wipe the hard drive, what to do? Well, lets use Icaros to wipe the hard drive and then swap the CD and install from AspireOS, this, surprisingly worked a treat.

I took out the CD and restarted the Acer and it booted into AspireOS, it's a start. Would any of the software that comes with AspireOS work? Yes, woohoo.

There seemed to be a lot less software on AspireOS than on Icaros, for one Audio Evolution, my thought, can I copy Audio Evolution from the Icaros boot CD to my newly installed AspireOS laptop? Yes, another woohoo. Does it run from the hard drive? Yes, woohoo.

I'd like to get the Acer 5920 online but not sure if the Ethernet, Broadcom BCM5787M or the wireless, Intel 3945ABG work under AROS and even if they do I am unsure how the networking software works.

It has taken 2 days on and off, for me to get to this point and am quite happy with my progress. My ultimate goal it to get online, install Mason icons and make it more Amiga looking, install Hollywood and Hollywood Designer.

I intend following up this post with future information on my progress. Could this be the Amiga laptop that I have longed for? I have a MorphOS PowerBook, my E.M.M.A. (Emulated Machine, My Amiga) project and hopefully my AROS machine. If I can get all three working then I can do a comparison of all the systems.

If anyone has any information on my next step then please let me know in the comments below.

Follow and comment below

Michael

RASPBERRY PI ALL-IN-ONE

RASPBERRY PI ALL-IN-ONE

I've chosen a new
project and that is to create a Raspberry Pi 5 tablet. I bought a few bits and
pieces such as an Geekworm
H505 Raspberry Pi 5 Active Cooler with PWM Fan - Aluminium Heatsink,
a Geekworm X1004 Dual M.2 NVMe SSD Shield PCIe Peripheral Board and
PRI All-In-One 10.1”, I already had a Raspberry 5 and a MicroSD
256GB card, so that's most of what I need, the only thing I didn't
buy was some NVMe SSD storage.


The
All-In-One monitor has some quite decent specifications:
 RPI ALL-IN-ONE 
 Specifications

 Aspect Ratio
 16:10

 Screen Finish
 Glossy

 Contrast Ratio
 1000:1

 Display Type
 60Hz

 Display Tech
 LED

 Viewing Angle 
 178 degrees

 Image Brightness 
 370 Lux

 Has Colour Screen 
 Yes

 Picture Quality
 Enhanced Tech IPS

 Resolution 
 FHD 1200p Ultra Wide 

 Max Display Resolution 
 1920 x 1200   

 Native Resolution
 1920 x 1200


The
use of a Raspberry Pi 5, the active cooler and Geekworm products are
nothing new but the rest of the hardware is a bit of an unknown but
I'm looking forward to the end result. From what I can gather from
the reading it appears to have all that I need to get it up and
running, again apart from the NVMe storage (a bit too pricey).


I
don't foresee any problems in putting it together but I have said
that before about other projects I've done that haven't gone quite to
plan but I am optimistic and very excited for this one. Just got to
remember, read all the instructions before I unscrew anything, screw
anything or plug anything in and I should be OK.

First
thing is open the box the Geekworm
X1004 Dual M.2 NVMe SSD Shield PCIe Peripheral Board
is in and see what it comes with, there is the board and a small bag
with bits in, so after watching a bit of YouTube I make a start with
the board, first by attaching 4 risers with four screws trouble is
there are no screw but I have a collection of small screws so I
attach the risers. Next lets pop the board on top of the risers and
guess what, the risers are too short so at present the X1004 is not
an option. A bit disappointing but I have ordered some risers.


I'm
going to take the NVMe SSD board ut of the equation for now and let's
turn to the RPI All-In-One, I watched a video about this and saw that
it appears very tricky to put together, the sort of tricky where you
need 3 or 4 hands to get it together. There is a problem with the
microSD card slot, once the Raspberry Pi is in situ you cannot remove
or insert a fresh microSD card, so I thought I'd use a microSD
extension ribbon so that I could feed the cable out and have access,
however once the extension ribbon is inserted the Raspberry Pi cannot
be located properly so that is not an option, I just have to make
sure I have what I need on the microSD card so that I don't need to
worry about swapping it out.

Using
Raspberry Pi Imager on my laptop I got Raspberry Pi OS (Trixie)
installed onto a 32GB microSD card, then inserted the micro HDMI
adaptor into the micro HDMI port on the raspberry Pi and the USB-C
adaptor into the USB-C port and placed the Raspberry Pi and bits
inside the All-In-One and switched it on but the Raspberry Pi wasn't
getting any power and on further inspection the USB-C adaptor wasn't
seated correctly so I took the board out and tried again, this time
Raspberry Pi had power but there was no display and on inspection the
micro HDMI adaptor wasn't seated right, in and out, in and out a few
times before getting both adaptors and the Pi board seated correctly,
so after a bit I switch on the All-In-One and there is life.

I
found a slight problem with a 10.1” screen at a high resolution,
anything displayed on the screen is way too small to see and therefore the preferences needed addressing to change the resolution, I also
accessed the preferences to get my internet up and running, both were
very straight forward.

My
first thought now it is working is get some games up and running so I
installed ScummVM and got “Beneath a Steel Sky” working, this was a very straightforward job and done quickly.

Would
I recommend the All-In-One?
I
must admit I am a bit hesitant to recommend, if you have plenty of
patience, like to tinker and have 3 or 4 hands then I'd say give it a
go but do know it will take you some time. There is one thing I would
have liked would have been to have it rechargeable.

Follow and comment below

Michael

STEM DIY FM RADIO KIT

STEM DIY FM RADIO KIT

I wanted to treat myself to a little project, something that wouldn't be too taxing, so I did a search on Amazon and purchased a Stem DIY FM Radio Kit (8+). It seemed like quite a fun project and needed no soldering, which is handy as I have no idea where my soldering iron is (I'll have to track it down at some point).

As usual my package arrived while I was out of the house. I wasn't quite sure what to expect when I opened the package, but very excited to make a start. The package consisted of a zip lock bag containing a loud speaker, some wire, an antenna, some double sided tape, some long & short screws, a battery box, 2 boards and even a small screwdriver. On examining the instructions it seems reasonably straight forward to put it together, there are only 6 steps to creating a working FM radio.

Thankfully all that is needed is a little time, I have to admit I am looking forward to having a completed FM radio that I have put together no matter how basic it may be, so let's make a start and I will let you know how it looks and sounds.

Well it's together and works, took me just a little over 10minutes to get there but looks amazing and, yes, looks home made as expected. The seek functionality works just as intended forwards and backwards, a little red led light lights up when switched on, volume up and down and power switch, also with the extending antenna.

Would I recommend this kit

I would most definitely recommend this kit to anyone 8 years and over, yes even adults, wanting to experiment with electronics and not to have to worry about dealing with a soldering iron. I am most impressed with the quality of the product.

I think I'll buy another kit, there are quite a few to choose from. Possibly even track down my soldering iron. Watch this space.

Follow and comment below

Michael