#garfield Logs

Jul 16 2018

10:24 PM zhanx: so today, i did the dentist office in the morning and got a call to run out and troubleshoot a scale
10:28 PM zhanx: i get there and its RS-232 to cat5 via adapters to the wall. scale will not connect. Cable for the scale ran to the opposite corner of the building over 500 feet away
10:28 PM zhanx: no booster, no converter, nothing
10:29 PM Tom_L: fun
10:32 PM zhanx: yea they ran fiber from the rear to the front for the cash register setup but ran the serial cable the whole way. Someone failed to read specs
10:33 PM Tom_L: years back i ran serial to my bud's cnc machines but halfway across i added a booster
10:34 PM rue_shop4: heh
10:34 PM zhanx: if they ran low voltage serial with a booster it might have worked
10:34 PM rue_shop4: were you able to use the computer to serve the port for the scale?
10:34 PM zhanx: but rue_shop4 can tell me yes or no
10:35 PM zhanx: if i moved the scale back to the server room yes
10:35 PM rue_shop4: well, rs232 is a long haul proto, but I'm sure it would die over 500'
10:35 PM rue_shop4: it used to be constant current
10:35 PM rue_shop4: back it the teletype days
10:35 PM zhanx: thought the long haul on it was 100m at low voltage
10:35 PM rue_shop4: yea, well,
10:36 PM rue_shop4: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/RS-232
10:36 PM rue_shop4: what they say...
10:38 PM rue_shop4: I hear 50'
10:38 PM zhanx: i don't think new electronics have the same power as the old school stuff
10:38 PM rue_shop4: no
10:38 PM Tom_L: all about saving power
10:38 PM Tom_L: you could keep your feet warm on old ram cards
10:38 PM zhanx: yep
10:39 PM zhanx: they are sending me an IP based scale to install instead.
10:39 PM rue_shop4: yea
10:39 PM rue_shop4: cause, its the 21st and all
10:39 PM zhanx: you mean its not the 80's anymore?
10:40 PM rue_shop3: sorry dude, its not even the 1900's anymore
10:40 PM zhanx: now you are just trying to break my heart
10:41 PM rue_shop3: its ok, we have detailed records
10:41 PM * rue_shop3 puts on more 80's music
10:41 PM rue_shop3: its just a little bit of History Repeating
10:41 PM zhanx: i was shocked they had a scale that old still in use at a store that is 4 months old and it never worked and they didn't know why
10:42 PM zhanx: then i saw the VM and was more shocked
10:42 PM rue_shop3: so, my pipe bender is still curling the pipe a bit
10:42 PM zhanx: sand in the pipe?
10:42 PM rue_shop3: cant see why
10:42 PM rue_shop3: no
10:43 PM rue_shop3: its cork-scewing it slightly
10:43 PM zhanx: hydro form to fix it?
10:43 PM rue_shop3: it rolls a bit as it goes thru
10:43 PM rue_shop3: no It'll be a roller misalignment
10:43 PM rue_shop3: just not sure which one
10:43 PM zhanx: that is a feature right, not a bug
10:43 PM rue_shop3: mmmmm
10:44 PM zhanx: check it with a dial or a laser
10:44 PM zhanx: it could be a bearing
10:44 PM Tom_L: speaking of bending pipe, that water in the tube trick really works
10:44 PM Tom_L: http://tom-itx.no-ip.biz:81/~webpage/cnc/Mill_Steel/Assembly/spindle_cooler/Cooler1.jpg
10:45 PM Tom_L: it must be under pretty good pressure though, it kept spraying out a bit every turn
10:45 PM zhanx: yep, or tri fold and roll it
10:46 PM zhanx: i sweat one end close and put the hose on the other end for copper like that
10:47 PM Tom_L: i was kinda in a rush so i just grabbed what i found within reach
10:47 PM zhanx: looks like it worked fine
10:48 PM Tom_L: the hot spindle motor was keeping me from proving out the gcode
10:48 PM Tom_L: yeah it works great actually
10:48 PM Tom_L: still could use a bigger motor but i think that saved this one
10:48 PM zhanx: works good to form stuff also
10:49 PM Tom_L: i've made hydro blocks in the past for aircraft sheetmetal
10:49 PM zhanx: so you are more advanced than me on it
10:49 PM Tom_L: they use big bladders over the forms
10:49 PM Tom_L: not really
10:49 PM Tom_L: just gotta get the bend allowance right
10:53 PM rue_shop3: I dont have any kinking issues
10:53 PM rue_shop3: matter a fact, that motor cant quite take what the rest of the bender can
10:54 PM Tom_L: does that stuff harden when you bend it?
10:54 PM rue_shop3: harden?
10:54 PM Tom_L: i bet it does
10:54 PM Tom_L: yes
10:54 PM Tom_L: work harden
10:54 PM rue_shop3: yea prolly
10:54 PM rue_shop3: get HOT
10:54 PM rue_shop3: gets
10:54 PM zhanx: a little bit but not a ton, i bet
10:54 PM rue_shop3: the bender shrinks the dia down quite a bit
10:55 PM Tom_L: do you do it all at once or several passes?
10:55 PM rue_shop3: 55.4mm -> 52mm
10:55 PM rue_shop3: quite a few passes
10:55 PM rue_shop3: have to
10:56 PM rue_shop3: motor cant take more than about 1/12 turn on the bolts by the end few passes
10:56 PM rue_shop3: first pass can be ~1/4 turn
10:56 PM Tom_L: i blame that on work hardening
10:56 PM rue_shop3: its amde of 1/2" plate
10:57 PM rue_shop3: and it deforms a lot loaded up
11:05 PM rue_shop3: !? my shop has fleas?
11:05 PM rue_shop3: wtf...
11:08 PM furrywolf: lol
11:09 PM * furrywolf needs a shop. :(
11:12 PM rue_shop3: sorting
11:12 PM rue_shop3: its just a lot of things that need sorting
11:12 PM furrywolf: I don't have anywhere to put things.
11:12 PM furrywolf: I can't walk in my house because my living room is full of tools.
11:13 PM rue_shop3: tool horder?
11:13 PM rue_shop3: :)
11:13 PM furrywolf: of course.
11:13 PM furrywolf: also, living in a 500ft2 house with no garage, shop,...
11:13 PM furrywolf: (50m2)
11:13 PM rue_shop3: yea, <-- 480'^2 workshop
11:14 PM furrywolf: bah
11:14 PM rue_shop3: I been wondering if I should rent out the spare bedroom again
11:14 PM rue_shop3: take applications, "why you would make a good roommate"
11:14 PM furrywolf: "I have money"
11:14 PM rue_shop3: na
11:15 PM rue_shop3: I'm a mad scientist, I have other needs
11:15 PM rue_shop3: somone who dosn't hide under a pillow when I say something
11:16 PM rue_shop4: maybe someone good with screws
11:16 PM rue_shop4: like 100lbs of screws that need sorting
11:17 PM furrywolf: looking for a roomate who's a good screw will probably get the wrong type of people...
11:18 PM rue_shop4: er, yea,
11:19 PM rue_shop4: Requirements: - can solder
11:19 PM rue_shop4: maybe I need a shop lackie
11:19 PM furrywolf: hunchback optional.
11:19 PM furrywolf: being named igor a plus
11:22 PM rue_shop4: "throw the switch!.... NOT AT ME!!!!"
11:24 PM furrywolf: heh, that reminds me, I got a lab coat today. haven't even opened the package. sadly, not the mad scientist variety... a welding jacket. https://www.ebay.com/itm/Lincoln-Black-Flame-Retardent-Lab-Coat-Large-K3112-L/140755089648
11:25 PM rue_shop4: http://ruemohr.org/~ircjunk/rentroom/rentme.html
11:25 PM rue_shop4: oh thats not the one that talks about the occasional explosion and stuff
11:25 PM rue_shop4: PPE: must include radiation suit
11:26 PM furrywolf: ... a tear-off flyer? it's not 1990. use craigslist. :P
11:26 PM rue_shop4: yea, see people tear that online tag off!
11:45 PM rue_shop4: furrywolf, I wrote the fn to test for grey code change
11:45 PM rue_shop4: still need to put it into the brute-force code I have
11:46 PM rue_shop4: but the other two itterations of the program havn't finished running
11:46 PM rue_shop4: 13264 root 20 0 2212 516 464 R 98.4 0.0 2827:21 a.out
11:46 PM rue_shop4: 15886 root 20 0 2328 1208 980 R 97.7 0.1 2031:20 a.out
11:46 PM rue_shop4: (uh, 2000 and 2800 mins runtime ea
11:46 PM rue_shop4: must be a multicore machine
11:47 PM rue_shop4: load average: 2.08, 2.06, 2.05
11:48 PM furrywolf: did you compile it with -O3?
11:49 PM rue_shop4: hell no
11:49 PM rue_shop4: I didn't think it would take more than a few hours to run
11:49 PM furrywolf: -O3 often makes things many times faster
11:49 PM furrywolf: sometimes 20x...
11:49 PM rue_shop4: but it looks like its easy to hit the best solution quick, over the 2000 mins, its not come up with any better solutions than it did in the first minute
11:50 PM furrywolf: you need to figure out how to generate them algorithmically. :)
11:50 PM furrywolf: also, you need to not do random coding as root.
11:52 PM rue_mohr: what did you do today then, I made a 3 way
11:52 PM rue_mohr: optical feedback component
11:52 PM furrywolf: heh, I was thinking about doing a project where I'd need to solve the traveling salesman problem... that will be fun.
11:52 PM rue_mohr: I have one I call bestroute
11:53 PM rue_mohr: its for a robot taking tracks between nodes in the house
11:53 PM rue_mohr: I dont quite understand the code, but I wrote it
11:53 PM rue_mohr: you define nodes and path lengths
11:53 PM rue_mohr: every split is a 3 way
11:53 PM rue_mohr: so you always have a left and right path
11:54 PM furrywolf: today, I fucked around more with water pumps, then used a pile of dirt to fill in depressions left where some trenchwork had compressed, killing my back (shovelling is really, really bad for it), fucked around with a pair of gel-cells that look to be toast, and then went to work. and then I got on irc and got some comment about fleas. :P
11:54 PM rue_mohr: heh
11:54 PM rue_mohr: I find that whent eh gells are gone, they leak current
11:55 PM rue_mohr: I'v not been able to recover any that start to leak down
11:55 PM rue_mohr: tho I'd had a few ok after losing a cell
11:55 PM furrywolf: these ones are less than two years old, but seem to have no capacity... I think they were boiled.
11:55 PM rue_mohr: not easy to charge a 10V lead-acid
11:56 PM rue_mohr: water pumps?
11:56 PM furrywolf: they're either badly sulfated or badly dry, and since they have perfectly flat sides rather than the bulging-old-crappy-battery look, I'm going with dry.
11:56 PM rue_mohr: running off a well?
11:56 PM rue_mohr: there is a huge diff in weight on a dry battery
11:56 PM rue_mohr: I tried watering some old ones, that didn't work out either
11:56 PM furrywolf: eh, I think the MK gels don't have much water...
11:56 PM furrywolf: they're pretty much AGM, probably only a squirt a cell.
11:57 PM rue_mohr: once they start to buldge, even a little, their done
11:57 PM rue_mohr: yea,I added the mount to bring them to about origional weight
11:57 PM rue_mohr: then gave them a charge cycle to let it propigate in
11:58 PM rue_mohr: part of my problem is that I have about 25 of them
11:58 PM rue_mohr: and they been sitting
11:58 PM rue_mohr: I need a cycling charger
11:58 PM rue_mohr: go thru them all one at a time and keep them topped up
11:58 PM furrywolf: https://cdn3.volusion.com/tkqet.npkhu/v/vspfiles/photos/MU-1-SLD-G-2.jpg these are little wheelchair batteries, like that
11:59 PM rue_mohr: ah, yea, mine are between 5 and 12Ah, 6 and 12V
11:59 PM furrywolf: I saw them sitting in someone's garage when I was buying stuff at a yard sale, asked if he wanted to get rid of them... if they don't work, which seems to be the case, I'll scrap them for the lead.
11:59 PM rue_mohr: er, there are two 18Ah