#robotics Logs

May 20 2012

00:04 rrywolf sighs and curls up on kat's
00:06 furrywolf the grundfoss pump I got didn't come with the union fittings, but did come with a differential temperature controller, which is nice.
00:06 rue_shop well I made the battery box for the new mowerbot and took it for a spin
00:07 furrywolf the gps works, but I have no need for it... I can find a route on a paper map faster than it takes me to type in an address on the touchscreen. heh.
00:08 furrywolf will test the RO system when my TDS meter gets here...
00:09 rrywolf loves yard s
00:15 rue_shop yea I need to try toms gps in the yard
00:16 rue_shop the drive motors on the new mowerbot are backdrivable
00:16 rue_shop I have to make a system to do vector control based on the caster wheel
00:17 rue_shop god there is so much space in the shop when the mowerbots aren't parked in here
00:18 furrywolf I now have three RO units... I'm going to figure zero of them have good membranes unless proven otherwise. bleh.
00:24 furrywolf ouch! DI carts are fucking expensive.
00:39 furrywolf I'll need ~100gal of battery-grade water, might as well spring for one... bleh
00:40 rrywolf curls up next to kat for bed
00:49 rue_mohr thats part of the nice thing here, our tap water is good enough to go staight into batteries
00:51 rue_mohr kat?
00:53 furrywolf bbl
00:59 rue_mohr breathe! I must remember to breathe
01:01 rue_mohr hmm
01:01 rue_mohr so, take a chaotic mess
01:01 rue_mohr wrap it in feedback that changes the chaos
01:01 rue_mohr make it bump the chaos so its changed if its not doing what you want it to
01:02 rue_mohr and end up with a system that only does what you want
01:02 rue_mohr via chaos
01:07 acekitteh huggles furry
01:54 rue_mohr nowonder my soldering pot video has been such a hit on youtube, there are like a million pages that refernce the HaD article in different ways
08:31 katsmeow-afk testing confirms i must use a mosfet pass transistor in the bench hexpsu
08:35 katsmeow-afk the lowest volt windings, rectified and capacitorized, designed around powering 3.6v (and lower) logic, puts out 5v@1amp and 4.7v@5amps before regulation , so the regulator cannot drop more than 1v , so i choose IRFZ44 (3 in parallel)
08:36 katsmeow-afk the medium volt windings, rectified and capacitorized, designed around powering 5.1v (and lower) ttl logic, puts out 10v@2amp and 9v@10amps before regulation , so the regulator cannot drop more than 4v , so i choose IRFZ44 (3 in parallel)
08:42 katsmeow-afk the highest volt windings, rectified and capacitorized, designed around powering 13.6v (and lower) battery stuff, puts out 17v@2amp and 16v@8amps before regulation , so the regulator cannot drop more than 2.4v , so i choose IRFZ44 (3 in parallel)
08:48 katsmeow-afk the medium also puts out 7.6v@15amps , so for 5v output the regulator cannot drop more than 2.6v
08:50 katsmeow-afk i expect some of the voltages to drop a few tenths is all the outputs get loaded up
08:55 katsmeow-afk hmm, if i had a 7ohm 450watt resistor i could series them all and see what the unregulated outputs would be with all psu equally loaded at 7.5 amps
08:56 katsmeow-afk hmm, i happen to have a 12 ohm 4500watt resistor
08:57 katsmeow-afk 2 in parallel would be 8.75amps, more than i'd wanna do for more than a couple secnds, no fan on the bridge block heatsinks yet
08:59 sw0rdfish jeez!
08:59 sw0rdfish I am suffering here with my wifi.
09:04 katsmeow-afk ok, found a 7ohm resistor good for 10amps
09:05 katsmeow-afk it's going to need a fan on it too
09:05 tsmeow-afk decides this stress test can wait till to
09:06 katsmeow-afk yor lag ins under 1 sec, sw0rdfish
09:06 tsmeow-afk has got to stop multitasking before ty
09:07 SolarNRG http://i.imgur.com/EjutC.jpg
09:07 SolarNRG Did you see this y'day?
09:07 katsmeow-afk hmmmm, if i turn the psu on only long enough to get meter readings, i don't think i'd need all the fans installed yet
09:07 SolarNRG I'm rather proud of that I must say
09:09 katsmeow-afk in a word : "focus"
09:09 katsmeow-afk i can tell you have "something prolly gear-shaped" there
09:10 katsmeow-afk SolarNRG, what are they made of?
09:10 SolarNRG ABS, WAX STEEL
09:11 SolarNRG Graphite crucible
09:11 SolarNRG ;)
09:11 SolarNRG 3d printed to wax intermediate gear to steel final gear
09:11 katsmeow-afk you cast steel gears??!
09:11 SolarNRG Sure you can, you just gotta deal with the shrinkage with enough copes and drags
09:11 katsmeow-afk but YOU did it??
09:11 SolarNRG Uh huh :D
09:12 SolarNRG Whoseurdaddy
09:12 katsmeow-afk how did you get the steel so hot?
09:12 SolarNRG microwave, easy
09:12 katsmeow-afk you cannot melt steel n a microwave
09:12 SolarNRG Sure you can, put a steel spongecloth in the microwave
09:13 katsmeow-afk i am not believeing you melted steel in a microwave when you could not melt aluminum in on
09:17 SolarNRG http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KuWEUnxG1SE
09:18 SolarNRG I haven't melted steel yet, I admit that but I have done a lot of extensive microwave experiments and I believe that I am very close to coming up with a reusable microwave melting of steel method by using aluminium oxide and fine grade silicon carbide powder
09:21 furrywolf ... aluminum oxide to melt steel. why don't you just use plain aluminum, and steel oxide, and skip the microwave? :P
09:21 rrywolf stretches out and y
09:22 rrywolf flops onto spacekitteh's lap, since it's too early to be up and a
09:22 acekitteh flops over and falls as
09:22 spacekitteh nite :3
09:23 rrywolf becomes a kittymatt
09:23 spacekitteh =^-^=
09:23 SolarNRG Ahh but in this case I'm not using a chemical reaction to melt it, I am using a microwave-thermal approach, all that is required is the use of electricity to melt, you are not consuming anything material wise to melt other than the intended scrap to recycle
09:23 furrywolf cyas :)
09:24 SolarNRG And I've discovered both aluminum oxide, and Silicon Carbide are both microwave conductors
09:25 furrywolf but my suggestion is quicker. :)
09:29 furrywolf well, good news: the clouds aren't opaque yet. now they just need to stay that way another 9 hours...
11:13 katsmeow-afk Walmart has 4 diff pools for sale atm, all priced way more than ebay, but all are also kits containing filter, pump, etc
11:14 katsmeow-afk all Walmart's seem to hold only 2ft of water, i think their lawyers figure you won't drown in that
11:15 katsmeow-afk i not only have confidence in the locals to drown in2ft, but i encourage them to
11:16 katsmeow-afk May 20, 2012 -
11:16 katsmeow-afk The NAACP made waves on Saturday evening when its board of directors voted to support same-sex marriage, releasing a statement that "civil marriage is a civil right and a matter of civil law" and citing the 14th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution as a reason for backing marriage equality.
11:16 katsmeow-afk "The mission of the NAACP has always been to ensure the political, social and economic equality of all people," said Roslyn M. Brock, chairman of the NAACP's board of directors, in a statement. "We have and will oppose efforts to codify discrimination into law."
11:16 katsmeow-afk seriously, they been fihting gays for 100 years
11:22 katsmeow-afk most humans that are ok with it now were against it 30 yrs ago, but it was just as discriminatory then as now, it has not changed, so it must be humans have changed, i need more data on that
11:26 katsmeow-afk i think there's enough religions that do not recognise a religious ceremony of anotehr religion, that i fail to see why a marriage in a church carries any validity at all , especially when in the usa you must get a civil license to get married anyhow, and a judge doing the ceremony is as legal as any preacher/minister/priest/shaman/emam/masseuse
11:28 katsmeow-afk with over 50% of church weddings ending in divorce, are xtians trying to conserve/save marriages like they are running out of them because the 50% are being wasted on heteros?
11:28 katsmeow-afk and, when will robots be allowed to marry?
11:45 katsmeow-afk "mormachure" is a funny word
12:03 rue_bed looks like today is gonna be cool
12:03 rue_bed 10am, hmm
12:03 rue_bed sleep or wake up?
12:03 rue_bed need to get the smelter back up again
12:04 rue_bed ? the roommates up?, huh
12:05 sw0rdfish hey.
12:05 rue_bed I need a system to monitor the castor on the mowerbot for vector and amplitude
12:05 rue_bed which will be trickey, cause the castor on that dosn't have a hollow shaft
12:06 rue_bed not that I'm sure how I'd do it if it did
12:06 rue_bed oh maybe an avr and an optic link
12:06 katsmeow-afk you did that 6 months ago
12:06 katsmeow-afk you even showed us pics
12:06 rue_bed I wonder if I can use a data link thru a vcr head transformer via a high freq modulator
12:07 rue_bed where did I do that?
12:07 katsmeow-afk on irc
12:07 rue_bed I think I was planning it
12:08 katsmeow-afk http://duckduckgo.com/?q=monitor+the+castor+on+the+mowerbot+for+vector+and+amplitude+robotics
12:09 katsmeow-afk i think i'll go look around the nest box for a nap to take
12:09 katsmeow-afk i been up al nite, bbl
12:10 rue_bed sensor options for wheel rotation would be optic, magnetic, or mechanical
12:11 rue_bed hmmm
12:39 mindlogger guys is there any international competition with a prize higher than 50k $ ?
13:01 sw0rdfish I want a guide on printer-tools or something.
13:05 e_shop lays the parts of the mowerbot castor out infront of
13:05 rue_shop hmmmm
13:09 rue_shop aha I have a plan
14:10 rue_mohr I frgot two tings this morning, my shower and my breakfast
14:19 iR0b0t1 So asking this question is usually pointless, but has anyone ever used any of Zilog's "newer" chips?
14:34 rue_mohr I have an eval kit I havn't done anything with
14:38 iR0b0t1 Which one?
14:39 iR0b0t1 I've got one for their lower-end chips, and then one for their Acclaim! ones which I think have ethernet MACs on them.
14:39 iR0b0t1 But, I was interested in getting some of their lower-end chips working... I have a few I got as samples, which I'd like to end up using somehow.
14:39 iR0b0t1 But even with a programmer I can't get them to work :|
14:39 iR0b0t1 They're pretty thoroughly fucked.
14:59 rue_mohr what I found was that, compared to avrs, the docs aren't that good, and there is no library set for io stuffs
15:00 rue_mohr if I want to build up a microcontroller from scratch, I have lots of 8032 I can play with
15:01 rue_mohr iirc the chip datasheet dosn't even have examples for io initialization
15:02 rue_mohr ok I'v finished breakfast
15:02 rue_mohr good thing, cause lunch was an hour ago
15:02 e_mohr gets to work on l
15:02 rue_mohr iR0b0t1, ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
15:03 iR0b0t1 Yeah
15:03 iR0b0t1 The docs suck, so does customer support. But I had some lower end ones (and some motor controller ones) that were cheap enough I would have been interested in getting them working.
15:04 iR0b0t1 But I think the company is just around as a way to collect royalties on Z80 stuff.
15:04 iR0b0t1 I've ceased taking them seriously.
15:06 iR0b0t1 But, yeah. I guess thanks. I'll just avoid them for now.
15:07 iR0b0t1 I was asked to look into them, there's this older piece of equipment that uses some Zilog chips in it. Time to create some new internals for it, I guess :)
15:08 rue_mohr there are a lot of tools for the true-blue Z80 chips
15:09 rue_mohr my problem with the new stuff was lack of information on the io system
15:09 iR0b0t1 Yeah
15:10 iR0b0t1 And IO seems to include programming, because fuck I can't get this shit working.
15:11 iR0b0t1 (note: "older" doesn't mean Z80 old, the stuff uses Z80 Encore! or something)
15:15 rue_mohr heh
15:15 Tom_itx afternoon
15:15 rue_mohr damn it is
15:15 rue_mohr I need to make lunch!
15:22 Tom_itx hope to get these drivers wired soon
16:06 rue_mohr thisis new drivers for your cnc machine?
16:14 Tom_itx yessir
16:14 Tom_itx i will have a set of steppers and driver as a spare then
16:14 Tom_itx to conquer the world with
16:14 iR0b0t1 I once read some phrack article on traffic lights. It was really old. Anyone know anything about those DOT signs that go over highways?
16:14 iR0b0t1 Big dot-matrix displays.
16:14 Tom_itx better hurry up
16:14 iR0b0t1 DOT as in dept. of transportation
16:24 iR0b0t1 No no no
16:24 iR0b0t1 like uh
16:24 iR0b0t1 I guess it is different between cities, but every intersection in my city has a big silver box by it.
16:24 iR0b0t1 Same for those big displays.
16:24 iR0b0t1 I know a guy who knows a guy who wants to hack one.
16:25 Squint I know it's possible
16:25 iR0b0t1 I've read that the boxes are usually ethernet, or older and less common phone. Not sure about the interface to the signs themselves.
16:26 iR0b0t1 But I know industrial/civil stuff like that usually isn't secured.
16:26 Squint or it usually is secured, but very very badly :)
16:26 iR0b0t1 I'm not talking about the portable construction ones, these are gigantic hanging-over-the-road ones.
16:28 iR0b0t1 The best one I have found would seem to be one where the control box is right by a bike trail. Partially viewable from a housing complex. It is by far the easiest to get to, but then again one just by the side of the highway might be less visible w/ people going by at 60mph
18:21 rue_shop ok I moved the bearing from inside the wheel to being on the fork
18:21 rue_shop wow
18:21 rue_shop now I can put a rotation sensor on it
18:21 rue_shop and focus on how to get the signal off the caster
18:39 rue_shop I wonder how much of one rotation I should sorry about detecting
18:39 rue_shop aha! sensors
18:39 e_shop digs around in a box of serial
18:43 rue_shop all I really need is a 'yes were still moving" signal
18:55 Tom_itx paint a stripe on the wheel
19:01 zhanx i should have brought stuff to play with while on staff duty onight
19:01 zhanx tonight
19:01 Tom_itx eclipse
19:01 Tom_itx tonight
19:01 zhanx on the east coast wont see it
19:02 Tom_itx i doubt i can either really
19:02 Tom_itx i wonder what time it starts
19:02 zhanx you have a better chance than me, the sun will be done here when it starts
19:02 Tom_itx rue should be able to
19:02 rue_shop Tom_itx, the wheel is directly in the path of the grass cuttings
19:03 rue_shop so its all going into a box thats bolted on the end of the wheels shaft
19:03 rue_shop overcast
19:03 Tom_itx ok, back out to the shop
19:03 Tom_itx more work to do
19:03 Tom_itx i came in for something....
19:04 Tom_itx wtf was it..
19:04 rue_shop I have a 12 line encoder
19:04 rue_shop Tom_itx, the problem is that your memory of it is location assosciated
19:04 rue_shop close your eyes and think of where you were
19:04 rue_shop picture it infront of you
19:04 rue_shop then try to remember
19:05 Tom_itx tall blonde...
19:05 rue_shop I suppose I should go quadrature
19:05 Tom_itx err
19:11 rue_shop on a good day with all the space in the world I'm not good at working out how to mount these sensors
19:16 Tom_itx rue_shop, maybe a pic or two would be in order
19:17 rue_shop NO PICS!
19:17 rue_shop but if you want it might be a good idea if I took you a photograph
19:18 m_itx goes back out to
19:24 rue_shop the new idea for coding the mowerbot is
19:24 rue_shop a) if the caster indicates you stopped moving, do something different
19:24 rue_shop b) if the load on the blade goes down, speed up, vise versa
19:24 rue_shop that mixed with the gps and bumpers
19:40 zhanx and round 10 thousand of checks is completed in a most boring manner
19:41 rue_shop ?
19:42 zhanx on duty tonight
19:42 zhanx its sunday and the place is a ghost town
19:59 furrywolf bleh. it is, of course, overcast.
20:02 furrywolf forecast: There still
20:02 furrywolf is an outside chance that a hole will appear at eclipse time.
20:07 Tom_itx rue_shop, have you wired in the gps yet?
20:07 Tom_itx i presume you're gonna use the one i sent?
20:09 Tom_itx zhanx stir up some crap
20:09 Tom_itx make it lively
20:10 zhanx Tom_itx: that means paperwork
20:10 rue_shop the plan is to use it yes
20:10 zhanx and the printer is broke, so I would have to write it all out by hand
20:10 rue_shop I found some linux software but havn't tried it yet, I was thinking to make it a project for one of the kids
20:11 rue_shop fix the printer
20:11 rue_shop just keep your boots away from it
20:12 rue_shop ok well I think I should take a break from this encoder project for a bit
20:12 rue_shop maybe work on buddys overload boards for a bit
20:12 rue_shop do the pcb corrections
20:13 zhanx my new boots are steel shanked with heel and toe caps
20:14 e_shop looks
20:14 rue_shop ugh there are pieces of 8mm everywhere
20:31 GuShH furrywolf: did I annoy you out of ##electronics?
20:55 Tom_itx ok i think that's the 3rd one i've seen
21:07 rue_mohr http://dexhand.com/gallery/dexhand-v-2
21:10 rue_mohr http://www.cemetech.net/projects/item.php?id=16
21:33 furrywolf GuShH: you and a number of other people.
21:33 furrywolf and, blah, no eclipse for me. just the clouds getting darker then lighter again.
21:34 furrywolf and $#@$@#$@!!! I should not have moved this workbench in the house by myself. almost killed myself and about 50 random objects along the path.
21:35 furrywolf I carried it on my back up the stairs, or at least tried to. bad idea. ended up with me being unable to keep supporting it, then being trapped under it.
21:36 rrywolf curls up into a completely exhausted and sore wolfy
21:37 furrywolf it weighs more than I do, and is 7ftx2ftx3ft...
21:54 furrywolf bbl
21:56 GuShH furrywolf: sorry
22:35 Tom_itx ok updates..
22:36 Tom_itx http://tom-itx.dyndns.org:81/~webpage/cnc/psu/frame1.jpg
22:37 Tom_itx http://tom-itx.dyndns.org:81/~webpage/cnc/psu/frame2.jpg
22:37 Tom_itx http://tom-itx.dyndns.org:81/~webpage/cnc/psu/frame3.jpg
22:39 GuShH why use a linear supply?
22:39 Tom_itx i got it surplus cheap
22:39 GuShH neat
22:40 Tom_itx i plan to make an enclosure for it, this is to test it all out
22:40 Tom_itx the mesa electronics will mount under the geckos
22:41 Tom_itx i'll trim all the wires etc then
22:41 GuShH Seeing gloves and underwear at the same time worries me.
22:41 ShH slowly moves
22:41 Tom_itx rag sack
22:41 GuShH Tom_itx: but you'll enclose it around what you've built I imagine
22:42 GuShH otherwise it sounds like a waste of time and materials to have drilled all that alu
22:42 Tom_itx the only waste might be the 2 uprights
22:42 Tom_itx i had all the aluminum
22:42 ShH doesn't like drilling unless it's for a permanent pro
22:43 Tom_itx i wanted it secure so i didn't short something out
22:45 Tom_itx that power cord is temporary too
22:45 Tom_itx the black one behind it is the good one
22:46 Tom_itx so i did the frame and cnc'd the temporary plastic mount for the plugs
23:10 rue_shop yay I'm smart
23:11 rue_shop when I made the motor drivers for buddy I only connected the motor and data grounds by one trace
23:11 rue_shop so to use my current drivers I just have to cut the one trace
23:11 rue_shop well... and swap the FG and - on the motors
23:15 rue_shop I should be abel to cut 9 of the traces without complete dissassembly of the robot
23:17 rue_shop all I have to do is successfully track 90 jumper cables
23:17 rue_shop :/
23:34 rue_shop oops, might have been 772 days since I booted buddy?
23:44 Tom_itx rue_shop, what did you get done today?
23:46 rue_shop uh
23:46 rue_shop well I redid the bearings on the caster wheel for the new mowerbot
23:46 rue_shop uh
23:46 Tom_itx i posted my progress
23:46 Tom_itx get the encoder mounted?
23:46 rue_shop I wokred out the mod I need to do to buddys motor drivers
23:47 rue_shop its worse than that I have to make the encoder
23:47 Tom_itx you should have plenty
23:47 rue_shop I found something that will work, but I'm still figuring out how to tie the pieces togethor
23:47 rue_shop na
23:47 Tom_itx i wanna make one for my spindle head so i know the rpm
23:47 rue_shop most of my good ones are built onto the back of motors
23:48 rue_shop well you dont need 1024 liens for that
23:48 Tom_itx put an avr on it with a 7 seg display
23:48 Tom_itx no
23:48 rue_shop may I suggest 1 line?
23:48 Tom_itx umm maybe
23:48 rue_shop use quadrature :)
23:48 Tom_itx naw, it doesn't reverse
23:48 Tom_itx yet
23:48 rue_shop then your rez is 4
23:49 rue_shop so I booted buddy3 up
23:49 Tom_itx it may only reach around 5 or 6000 rpm
23:49 rue_shop I cant for the life of me find the software to operate it
23:49 Tom_itx k, i need sleep now
23:49 rue_shop the only source I can find dosn't compile
23:49 rue_shop so when wil your machine be up?
23:50 rue_shop ?
23:50 rue_shop :/
23:50 Tom_itx i only get so much time per day to work on it
23:50 Tom_itx hard to tell
23:50 Tom_itx i gotta rewire the steppers too
23:50 Tom_itx for parallel mode instead of series
23:51 rue_shop hmm
23:51 rue_shop what wire guage thye using?
23:51 Tom_itx not a big deal except i gotta redo the shrinkwrap
23:51 Tom_itx i don't remember
23:51 rue_shop mmm
23:51 rue_shop gnight
23:51 Tom_itx gnite
23:53 rue_shop confusing as hell I now I was operating buddy with the onboard computer cause the serial was plugged into it
23:53 rue_shop ah, there is dos software to operate it, maybe I was converting it