Featured

Photo Gallery: The Smoky Mountains in October

December 31, 2017December 30, 2017 / Lon Hetrick

This photo gallery post is long overdue. If this year end finds you freezing and snowbound, it’s my hope that this taste of October will warm you up a bit—maybe 30° or so. :)

Happy new year!

Maple Leaf on the Trail

Happy Camper

Photographing Stars at the Newfound Gap Parking

My first try at photographing stars. Newfound Gap parking lot

Mingo Falls near Cherokee, NC

The View from Clingman’s Dome

Now that’s a selfie!

Leaves fading to yellow

Along the path of Chimney Tops Trail

Dawn and me at Chimney Tops Overlook

Dawn, Heidi, and Haley at Chimney Tops Overlook

Roadside Overlook

Haley and Heidi

The easy part of Chimney Tops Trail

Just me

DIY Bluetooth Speaker in Spalted Cherry

December 3, 2017 / Lon Hetrick

I took some time off from work the week of Thanksgiving to spend that time enjoying my family and building this cool project.

I designed and built this self-powered, Bluetooth speaker from 5/4 spalted cherry. It is powered by a Dayton Audio KAB-250 amp board (2 x 50 watts) with integrated Bluetooth chip delivered to a pair of Dayton Audio RS100-4 full range drivers. It was really fun and relatively simple to build. The most challenging part was of this project was creating the large volume control, and flush mounting the drivers. I also learned how to cut dovetailed corner keys out of mahogany to strengthen the miter joints at the corners.

I hope you enjoy the photo gallery. You can also hear how it sounds in this video demo on my facebook page (you may need to adjust the volume of the video.)

Top view

This is how it looks before finishing.

This is the top view before finishing. You can see the volume control post and two LEDs.

Gluing in the mahogany corner keys

Here I’m testing the electronics to ensure I know how it should be wired before everything is installed.

Installing the electronics

Front View

Rear view

Mahogany dovetailed corner keys

Mahogany dovetailed corner keys and volume control

The nearly 3-inch volume control is made from the same cherry board

Photo Gallery: Remembering Ireland

July 16, 2017 / Lon Hetrick

We returned from Ireland a month ago, and the memory is still fresh for me. I vividly recall the smells, the colors, the wind, rain, and stone. Ireland presents a freshness and ancientness that my photos only hint at. If you ever travel there, be sure to meet the people, enjoy the food (and Guinness), see the sights, learn the history, and above all, enjoy each unhurried moment.

This is my final installment of Irish photo memories—a mix of new photos and some favorite moments in the order they were taken. I hope you enjoy them.

Previous galleries in this series: