#robotics Logs
Apr 12 2012
#robotics Calendar
07:09 DanFrederiksen hi
07:20 Skwint my mobile phone has a camera in it, from which I could in theory retrieve a video feed from a RC plane
07:21 Skwint but the phone should be laid flat to reduce air resistance, so I was thinking of mounting a mirror in front of the camera, on a servo, to let it look around
07:22 Skwint I'm struggling to come up with a configuration that doesn't become awkward at atleast one direction
07:23 Skwint I guess I could just toggle between forwards and downwards and not concern myself with the 45 degree option
09:16 katsmeow-afk lay on edge
09:16 Steffanx Yeah, whatever
09:16 katsmeow-afk then a mirror can sweep from forward to down to rear
09:17 katsmeow-afk if you tilt the mirror and have enough clearance, you can sweep side to side, else, tilt the plane
09:18 katsmeow-afk before you send the phone up, delete all personal details from it, like your cc info and social # and such
09:18 katsmeow-afk you never know where it might crash
09:19 Steffanx Script for katsmeow-afk's new movie?
09:19 katsmeow-afk what?
09:20 Steffanx ^^
09:20 katsmeow-afk i was answering what Skwint said
09:20 Steffanx oh :)
09:21 katsmeow-afk you did not see what he said?
09:22 Steffanx No, he probably said that before i joined
09:22 Steffanx zlog
09:36 Skwint kats - not a bad plan tbh
09:36 Skwint and my phone is already using an email account that exists just for the phone - no interesting details :)
09:36 Tom_itx did TI buy national?
09:37 katsmeow-afk i thought so
09:37 Tom_itx Your myNational account will transfer to Texas Instruments
09:37 Tom_itx and become a my.TI account this weekend.
09:37 katsmeow-afk i dunno "my.TI"
09:38 Skwint might need to make a vertical slot in the middle of the plane, so it doesn't overbalance it
09:38 Steffanx I love TI.. especially their sample service
09:39 katsmeow-afk putt he phone on one side, the battery pack on the other side
09:39 Tom_itx the mirror will become a flap and drag it into an unrecoverable tail spin plummeting to earth at the speed of light
09:39 katsmeow-afk keep the mirror inside the fuselage
09:40 katsmeow-afk just do what the usa did to take pics: dual cameras alternate firing, with 26,000ft of film in each, each weight 8 tons
09:42 Tom_itx film?? lots of flash
09:42 Tom_itx or a cluster of ssd
09:43 katsmeow-afk film, i was thinking of the balance problem in the U2 and SR-71
09:44 Tom_itx the SR-71 wasn't lacking any thrust to keep that airborn
09:44 katsmeow-afk by using two camera, and alternately taking piics, the worse the plane was out of balanse was on pic's worth of film
09:45 Tom_itx that's still one of my favorite planes
09:45 katsmeow-afk yeas, but you didn't want it 1) rocking side to side, 3) out of aerodynamic trim at mach 3
09:45 Skwint tbh, not sure my plane will be able to carry 1 phone, let alone 2
09:46 Skwint but I'm prepared to find out!
09:46 katsmeow-afk keeping it baalanced at mach 3, the air would prolly waear away the airfoils
09:47 Skwint also, it's a brute force plane and I doubt it will be doing mach3 :p
09:47 Tom_itx Skwint umm i don't
09:47 Skwint it has a sonic gun thing you can attach, which simply wires into the side of the plane, so I think it can handle a bit of off center drag
09:48 Skwint I meant my plane, not the SR 71
09:48 Tom_itx :D oh
09:48 Skwint also, I like the look of this: http://www.r-c-models.com/epages/BT2807.sf/?Locale=en_GB&ObjectPath=/Shops/BT2807/Products/ST-D19D-RTF&ViewAction=ViewProductViaPortal
09:49 Skwint but I'm going to play with my slow fat prop plane before I try flying that into the ground :p
09:51 Tom_itx ducted fan?
09:51 Tom_itx i've seen several of those around this area
09:52 Skwint they look quite cool
09:52 Skwint I have trouble with cool things ... quad copters are cool and ducted fans are cool ... so ...
09:52 Tom_itx the cool would dissappear in a heartbeat if something were to go wrong
09:53 Skwint yes, I know - that one does about 80mph I could loose that pretty quick I'm sure
09:53 katsmeow-afk someone was talking baout that bat-winged uav the otehr day, and i said it was a clone of the daughter plane made for the SR-71, and here's data and pics of the D-21 SR-71 daughterplane : https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lockheed_D-21/M-21
15:01 rue_house hey
15:01 Steffanx Lo
15:14 roboalchemist hi
15:14 Steffanx Lo
15:16 roboalchemist This place usually this inactive?
15:16 furrywolf yes.
15:17 Steffanx Yeah, even katsmeow-afk seems to be asleep
15:17 furrywolf kitties need lots of sleep.
15:19 ace4016 i wouldn't say it's that inactive...just a low SNR
15:19 ace4016 or high rather >_>
17:02 theBear it's the middle of the night, of course it's quiet
17:13 Skwint it's always the middle of the night somewhere
17:15 theBear yeah, but right now it's here <grin> tho most of the locals don't live here, so i dunno why they're sleeping this time of day <cheeky grin>
17:55 ace4016 hrm...anyone know of some really good CAD software for cheap/free (and not google sketch)
17:56 ace4016 so far i've seen DesignCAD 3D Max 21, alibre, and turboCAD deluxe....
18:22 Skwint define "CAD" ? Does blender count?
18:25 katsmeow-afk are you calling Bender a cad?
18:29 theBear he'd be complimented i'm sure :)
18:29 theBear he might like boundless cad even :)
18:29 tsmeow-afk waves to the
18:30 bsilvereagle ace4016: are you a student?
18:31 ace4016 no, but i have a student email still and can get autodesk software :P
18:32 bsilvereagle yeah that's what I was angling for
18:32 ace4016 but i'd prefer something I can use for commercial projects and not worry about license restrictions
18:32 bsilvereagle iirc it's a 3 year license
18:32 bsilvereagle oh, well. yeah. Don't use it for commercial stuff.
18:32 ace4016 i know; i have 3ds max through the student license :P
18:33 ace4016 i don't know many places that use autodesk actually...solidwork/solidedge i've sene more often (i've only used autocad, but that was way back in the day)
18:43 ace4016 well going to try some trials and see what works well for me :P
18:49 e4016 really needs to get two nice big monitor
18:51 sw0rdfish Turns out learning C is more of a challenge than I though.
18:52 bsilvereagle What book are you using sw0rdfish?
18:54 sw0rdfish well I started with K&R ... but it turns out that may not be the best thing for inexperienced people.
18:55 sw0rdfish so now I'm gonna read a chapter from C For Absolute beginners that is completely devoted to Data Types... I need a good read on those cuz lol when I got to exercise 1-9 I messed up BIG time because of misconception of data types and stuff
18:56 sw0rdfish then I'm gonna use Head First C (which I just found out about today... its has a fun, goofy, child & google-like environment really :D)
18:57 sw0rdfish all of that ofc.... and then perhaps I can try out K&R and go through it without problems.
18:57 sw0rdfish bsilvereagle, ^^ thats bout it, lol.
18:57 ace4016 new to programming?
18:58 sw0rdfish yes.
18:59 ace4016 ah; well have fun
18:59 ace4016 and experiment
19:00 ace4016 especially because experimenting in software is free
19:04 bsilvereagle sw0rdfish: For Dummies is good in my opinion. I went from there to O'Reilly and I think I'm decent now.
19:06 sw0rdfish oh
19:06 sw0rdfish well for dummies is NOT recommended by ##C but i dunno
19:06 sw0rdfish thats why i avoided it.
19:07 ace4016 i wouldn't recommend it either...but everyone has thier preferences
19:07 sw0rdfish hold on let me to their site... lol dude today alone I visited it like 50 times already! bsilvereagle
19:08 sw0rdfish http://www.iso-9899.info/
19:08 sw0rdfish there is a list to be avoided and a separate page for recommended books and stuff
19:08 bsilvereagle well you see, ##C will shoot something down for the *tiniest* thing. Dummies will get you the basis. Then you can go do some of #C's recommended stuff which will be all the nitty gritty details.
19:14 sw0rdfish i have 2nd edition
19:14 sw0rdfish let me check out the contents.
19:19 bsilvereagle I usually recommend Dummies to people that are struggling and they've had good results. But like I said above, using ##c books for a second step is a good idea.
19:20 sw0rdfish oh
19:20 sw0rdfish have you mentored people on C? bsilvereagle
19:21 bsilvereagle eh, some. Not a lot. Probably 7 people or so.
19:21 sw0rdfish well anyhow I took a glance at the contents of the book... I think I'll stick to my plan and DuDE! seriously take a look at Head First C .... it is amazing!
19:21 sw0rdfish you feel like you're working at googleplex or something
19:22 sw0rdfish with visual representations and goofy stuff :D
19:22 sw0rdfish well anyhow I'll work on my math now... cya!
19:23 moriarty sw0rdfish, indispensable guide to C is decent
19:23 moriarty sw0rdfish, readability is top notch
19:23 moriarty if you're looking for something other than the classic K&R
19:24 moriarty K&R is more of a reference anyway, it's more useful if you're a practitioner of C that got rusty more than anything else
19:26 bsilvereagle ^^^ this is what I feel like ##c books are.
20:50 rue_house well this sucks
20:51 rue_house it took me 3 weeks to get to the automotive store AND them to be OPEN to get the new alternator for my truck, and its the wrong one
20:51 rue_house the face plate is a mirror of what it should be
20:51 rue_house }:|
20:52 rue_house on the + side, all the bots are loosened off now
20:54 DanFrederiksen you went down on the bots? :)
20:56 Tom_itx rue_house why not just get a diode pack and bearings?
20:59 theBear oh man ! what is it with the very poor dirty (just-barely-)jokes thismorning ? we are sposed to be techs, we should be able to come up with slightly more intelligent humour
21:00 theBear then again, i am fond of some bad ones myself
21:03 ace4016 :D
22:23 katsmeow-afk Tom, they don't sell parts anymore, most peole are just too stupid to replace a diode array
22:24 katsmeow-afk besides, some parts, like ps pumps, need 75 ton presses to get things on/off the shaft to replace the bearings
22:26 tsmeow-afk won't point out the engine mount for a 1960's Chrysler alternator she made and put in a Nissan 2
22:49 rue_house bolts
22:49 rue_house Tom_itx, I will, when I have a rebuild to put in right away
22:50 katsmeow-afk ............../?';{]
22:51 e_house tries to coax the cat off kats keyb
22:52 katsmeow-afk 5upwj;lsd.xz.xzc
22:56 rue_house http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eZVzVtadZPc&feature=player_embedded
22:56 rue_house too bad you dont have audio kat, thats a home made 32bit computer
22:57 katsmeow-afk is it noisey?
22:57 katsmeow-afk holycops, that woman has a haiey arm
22:57 katsmeow-afk hairey
23:02 katsmeow-afk i wann aknow what is wrong with my body atm, every time i blow my nose to clean it out, like every 5 mnutes, i lose 2 pounds
23:03 katsmeow-afk if i don't blow it out, then me sitting here resembles the scenes in Aliens with them dripping snot from every opening on their face
23:03 tsmeow-afk erases that
23:04 katsmeow-afk rue, for the most part i don't see much reason to haveing 32bit homemade puter, i think an 8bit puter would be smaller and faster, ad give directions to an intelligent ram module to do 32bit address munging
23:06 katsmeow-afk just about any brute force search on a 32bit address space in a cpu is wasting time, when a smart address module can do the same search at 2x the average memory address time, or faster, and return a vector to the resulting 32bit address
23:10 katsmeow-afk ...?
23:11 katsmeow-afk unless you're using fpga or such
23:11 katsmeow-afk but a home made ttl cpu isn't going to be very fast, and the memory will sit idle a lot waiting on it
23:13 katsmeow-afk for an instance, a 100Mhz clock signal on the cpu pcb will be 180 out of phase in 6 inches, as if you'd run it thru a 74F04
23:15 katsmeow-afk if you rely on system gnd to run a signal 1 inch to another pcb, but sysem grd is the long way the otehr direction, good chance your signal will never be interpreted properly
23:16 katsmeow-afk hence differential ecl or usb lvds
23:18 katsmeow-afk whyfor no one talk in here any more?
23:18 tsmeow-afk goes away and lurks
23:28 Rez pets katsmeow-
23:33 theBear http://testing.rememberit.com.au/pics/interfrnce.jpg pal 25fps 'tv' kinda output cheap security camera... the bars/distortion roll from top left down to bottom right at roughly 5 lines/second rate... i know it's noise picked up on a VERY 'wrong' unshielded long cable run, anyone know instantly from looking if it's 50hz/mains , wifi or 100meg network that's causing that kinda interference ?
23:54 Sinbad22 Can my switch handle up to 25W and 8 to 52 VDC? This is the max specs of the computer the output of the switch powers up. The switch says on it 3A 250VAC, 6A 125VAC.