Battle chess

I was talking to my in-laws today, it's my Father-in-law's birthday.
Not sure what sparked it off but I was reminded of battle chess.
A little internet searching and I found
http://www.download-game.com/Battle_Chess.htm

Not tried it yet but I am already feeling nostalgic about watching the pieces beat each other up.
Hmm - must curb those violent tendencies,

AV cables - 3 RCA to 4 pole 3.5mm

I have been tasked with trying to get a device working with a television.
The device is an IUBI blue which was bought second hand and did not come with manual or the right cables. The manual is no problem, I found a link from the forums on www.advancedmp3players.com that worked brilliantly.

The cables are another issue. I thought I had found one on ebay but it turned out not to work as I had hoped. The left speaker appeared to be fine, the right speaker sound was coming through the video connector and very, very fuzzy video with insufficient synch signal was coming through on all three. My guess was that the pinouts were slightly wrong and that the video signal was coming through on the shield of all 3 RCA connectors.

I then return to that popular research tool, the internet search engine and do some further digging. I find a few possibilities, including a note on the page for the cable I bought saying it would not work with the ipod. The device is not an ipod so had not considered this relevant at the time. I rethink this... I then find a page about the AV cable for a Zune (never heard of it? neither had I until this search) listing the compatibilites of several devices and the comparitive pinouts. The site is www.anythingbutipod.com, the link is to the "about" page which is an interesting read.

Anyway - it seems there are at least 4 different pinout combinations in use by different product manufacturers. I need to beep test my cable, see which one it ties in with and then see if one of the other variants will work. Alternatively I could try making a conversion gadget to remap the RCA connections. I think it will depend on how much time I end up spending on it.

Model railway info

I was recently asked if I knew anything about a model railway society in Bromley that was holding an exhibition in June, specifically the weekend of the 23rd-24th.

This is what I came up with

Culled from http://www.brmodelling.co.uk/diary/default.asp
23 June 2007 to 24 June 2007
Orpington and District MRS - Bromley Model Railway Show 2007
Crofton Junior School, Towncourt Lane, Petts Wood, Bromley, Kent., BR5 1EL
Saturday: 10.00 am - 5.00 pm
Sunday: 10.00 am - 5.00 pm
Prices: Adult £3.50, OAP £3.00, Child £1.50
Telephone: 0208 402 7093



From http://www.semg.org.uk/model/clubs.html

Orpington & District Model Railway Society	Opening Nights are Wednesdays and Fridays from 20:00 'til 23:00.	John Arkell (Chairman) john.arkell@meadowrd.demon.co.uk
Founded in 1951 the Club has layouts in the following scales/gauges: O, O16.5, EM, OO, HO, and N. One member has two foot gauge in his paddock with a Simplex (working) and a Barclay steam engine (being rebuilt). The Club usually has an open day there each year. There is a permanent Clubhouse, built ny the Club, with layout room and library / tea-room (most important). Southern Interest. The EM layout is Admiralty Exchange Sidings most recently exhibited at the Fairfield Halls autumn 2001. Many of the members actively model Southern or its constituents/sucessors and several of the Society members are active at the Bluebell and KESR. Usually holds an exhibition in late June or early July