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Welcome to Stefan Vorkoetter’s web site! I’m a private pilot and model aviation hobbyist, slide rule, calculator, fountain pen, and watch collector, electronics hobbyist, Hammond organ enthusiast, and software developer living on a Fjord horse farm in Ontario, Canada. This page is a gateway to the ever growing collection of articles I like to write describing my projects and hobbies. If your interests coincide at all with mine, I’m sure you’ll find something useful here.
MusicRack – A Digital Sheet Music Display System NEW
MusicRack is a simple yet flexible digital sheet music display system that I developed for the Raspberry Pi, but which can also be built on other Linux systems, and probably Mac and Windows too. The main application is implemented in Lazarus/FreePascal, and the image processing engine used to prepare music for display is written in C.
Electronics Reviews
In-depth tests, reviews, and discussion of batteries, chargers, computers, and gadgets I use.
Electric R/C Airplanes
Over 50 articles demystifying the design, construction, theory, and practice of electric R/C planes.
Building a Volksplane
Follow my progress in words and pictures as I build an Evans single seat VW powered Volksplane.
Hammond Organs
Understanding, maintaining, and modifying the Hammond tone-wheel and vacuum tube organ.
Vintage Calculators
Repair, programming, and use of HP programmable calculators from the 1970s to today.
Slide Rules
My collection of slip-sticks and whiz-wheels, the calculating tool of choice for 350 years.
Miscellanous Articles
Articles and papers on other topics that just don't fit neatly into any of the categories above.
A Compact Home-Made Raspberry Pi Tablet
After recently discovering the Raspberry Pi and its matching 7-inch touchscreen, the first thing that popped into my head was that I could build a tablet. Mine certainly isn’t the first Pi-based tablet, as Googling “Raspberry Pi Tablet” will reveal, but I believe it to be the smallest and lightest so far. This was a make-it-up-as-I-go project, and this article is as much about the journey as the end result.
Rebuilding a Hammond AO-29 Amplifier from the Ground Up
I’ve owned my Hammond organ for eight years now, and although working quite well, there was still an unresolved issue of a rumbling or rushing sound, whether or not anything was being played at the time. Such sounds in old equipment are often caused by degrading carbon resistors. Rather than attempt to isolate and replace the problematic resistors, I decided to rebuild from the ground up.
A Display Case for My Slide Rule Collection
I’ve been collecting slide rules since 2007, and until now, have kept my collection in a large shoebox in a drawer. I have been wanting to build a proper display case for them for a few years now, and finally got this project underway over the 2015 Christmas holiday. The glass is in a removable frame, making it easy to access the slide rules to use or show to friends.
Building a Musical Sunrise Quartz Alarm Clock
For the past twenty years, I’ve been waking up to an LED alarm clock, but the large glowing red digits disturb my sleep. As both an electronic hobbyist and amateur watchmaker, I decided to build my own new alarm clock, with luminous analog dial, gradual wake-up beginning with soft lights simulating a sunrise, and a random music generator instead of an annoying beeper or irritating radio chatter.
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