Radiation detector

Had a bunch of empty coffie cans that i wanted to use for something. I found this article about using coffiee cans for ion chamber radiation detectors.
I did not have the parts they suggested so i used whateve i had:

The detector turned out to be extremely sensitive and should be able to pick up small changes in the background radiation. I plan to make a solar powered version that will sit in the window and keep a watch on things.

Say hello to my little (old) friend..

A couple of years ago I built this prototype power supply for a large CO2 laser. The interesting thing about it is that it completely microcontroller driven and uses a rare series resonant topology. It deliveres up to 30KV and an adjustable constant current of up to 25mA.
After considering it lost I was pleased to find it again.
I was able to get it running and decided to show some fruits who is the boss...

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As the picture from inside the power supply shows it is really simple consisting of only a few parts:

The power supply was originally inspired by this article

Mystery ECW figures

Maybe not as much a mystery as why I don't seem to have posted anything here since October last year - not intentional, just Vintage Wargaming is taking up most of my blogging time I guess.

Inspired by Tony's new ECW project over at Prometheus in Aspic I rummaged through my assorted ECW oddments a while ago to put together a unit and this is the result - after painting they waited a long time for me to decide on a basing convention for them. No command figures as yet.

The pikemen are not I think the same manufacturer as the musketeers. i suspect some of them may be Warrior, but I am not sure. Any clarification gratefully received.