#robotics Logs
May 24 2012
#robotics Calendar
00:00 furrywolf they already know each other... he kept trying to get her to date him for a while...
00:01 furrywolf (like every other woman he meets)
00:01 katsmeow-afk date is one thing, sex is another
00:05 katsmeow-afk wooooooo, a score of 6066 in 127 sec in Solitare
00:05 tsmeow-afk does a screen grab and
00:05 furrywolf ...
00:06 katsmeow-afk i figure if i can keep making high scores in these things, i still have some control over my brains
00:08 katsmeow-afk ya know,, if i put the lil control transformers on the other side of the box, the weight will be more balanced
00:10 tsmeow-afk grabs a Diptera and rearranges everything o
00:10 katsmeow-afk there, rearranging done on the fly
00:39 katsmeow-afk i hope these heatsinks are enough, 6 diode blocks, 8amps, 2v drop, = 96 watts
00:40 katsmeow-afk of course, i can't imagine pulling 8amps on all 6 psu for any amount of time
00:40 furrywolf what're you building?
00:44 katsmeow-afk http://designerthinking.com/benchpsu.html
00:46 katsmeow-afk needs to be updated a few more pics
00:46 katsmeow-afk i made the box, rewound the mot
00:46 katsmeow-afk the front panel has all the holes in it now
00:55 katsmeow-afk no comment?
00:56 furrywolf so far the top 1" of each images has loaded.
00:56 katsmeow-afk o
00:56 dunz0r katsmeow-afk: Won't that box be incredibly heavy? Looks like quite thick steel
00:56 katsmeow-afk wann aload just the pics then?
00:58 furrywolf the problem is I have a very slow connection, and you gave a page with lots of images.
00:58 katsmeow-afk dunz0r , it's cheap, and 400watts total
00:59 furrywolf used normal wire instead of magnet wire?
00:59 katsmeow-afk the two 15vdc lines are good for 8amps each , that's 240, and i tested them to 15 amps the other day
00:59 katsmeow-afk furry, thhn, yeas, it's what i had
01:00 katsmeow-afk thhn is supposed to be good over 100C, and i have already run the mot by itself at 600w for an hour
01:01 katsmeow-afk *must* have a fan on it tho
01:01 katsmeow-afk there's the best of the pics :
01:01 katsmeow-afk http://designerthinking.com/images/benchpsu/IMG_1029.jpg
01:02 katsmeow-afk http://designerthinking.com/images/benchpsu/DSCF2018.jpg
01:02 katsmeow-afk http://designerthinking.com/images/benchpsu/IMG_1044.jpg <<== obsolete , had a fuse panel hovering over the bridges now
01:02 katsmeow-afk has
01:04 katsmeow-afk if i wanna suck 15 amps on both 15v lines, that's 450 watts delivered , and it's built for that, as long as i don't exceed the 400w (estimated mot rating) for long
01:05 furrywolf wouldn't a microwave oven transformer be ~1500w, with suitable secondary windings?
01:05 katsmeow-afk nope, there's dfferent sized transformers
01:06 katsmeow-afk it seems to work out to 100watts per pound, roughly
01:06 furrywolf there aren't different sized microwaves...
01:06 furrywolf smallest I've seen is 900W. :)
01:06 katsmeow-afk so yeas, a 15lb mot is 1500 w, but i haven't seen any over 10lbs
01:07 furrywolf and that's my tiny "Half Pint" microwave. (which I've never used... I got it just because it was so tiny)
01:07 furrywolf yay, page finally loaded.
01:07 katsmeow-afk i dunno, like i said, i'd have guesstimated this mot at 400w, but it put out 600w for an hour
01:08 furrywolf what're you going to use for electronics? lots and lots of 3055s?
01:09 katsmeow-afk irfz44's
01:09 katsmeow-afk i was going to use TIP35/36 with tip105/107 drivers
01:09 katsmeow-afk but the Vdrop was just too high at max current
01:11 katsmeow-afk so i made a huge (to me) adjuustment, and added separate floating control power, so i could swing the volts needed for mosfet gates
01:11 furrywolf heatsink them well... to220s get hot easily, compared to to3.
01:11 katsmeow-afk yeas
01:11 furrywolf a seperate floating power for each output?
01:12 katsmeow-afk http://designerthinking.com/images/benchpsu/IMG_1040.jpg <<== shows two of the heatsinks with fans
01:12 katsmeow-afk yeas
01:13 furrywolf that's a lot of power supplies. didn't want to use a high-side fet driver chip, which has a built-in charge pump?
01:14 katsmeow-afk a) i didn't have any , b) didn't want to build something i could not get parts for real easily
01:15 katsmeow-afk also, what you think would happen if i managed to pop a 10,000u main cap, and then crashed the psu, and the fet driver lost power?
01:15 furrywolf it would turn off?
01:16 katsmeow-afk this way, i will have a +12/-3 control power, and can hang a 7805 on it to power a avr to make the digital displays mean something
01:16 katsmeow-afk each psu can monitor it's own temperature and ripple and etc
01:16 furrywolf if you're putting uCs in there, add basic function generator operations too.
01:17 katsmeow-afk why not just a modulator input jack?
01:17 katsmeow-afk i am kinda running out of front panel space too
01:17 katsmeow-afk and like i said, the holes are all drilled already
01:17 furrywolf are the microcontrollers controlling the supply, or just monitoring it, with an analog feedback loop?
01:18 katsmeow-afk monitoring and setting, using TL08x for analog control
01:18 katsmeow-afk i prolly won't program the avr any time soon
01:19 katsmeow-afk but if can make them run a test cycle under pc control, so much the better
01:20 katsmeow-afk but i don't need that right now
01:20 furrywolf I'd probably have stuck a hd44780 lcd on one of them, with some buttons, for programming the supply.
01:20 katsmeow-afk what i really need to get up and running is the lowest volt supplies, i have work for them right now
01:21 furrywolf I was planning on building a 100A supply for a while... might still do it.
01:21 furrywolf 150V, 100A.
01:21 katsmeow-afk why?
01:22 furrywolf its primary purpose would be a mppt charge controller, but the same design can be used for other dc-dc operations.
01:22 katsmeow-afk that would be a monster of a switcher, and pricey
01:22 furrywolf 12-150V in, 12-60V out.
01:23 furrywolf yep. mppt charge controllers are monster switchers.
01:23 furrywolf I have an Outback power one now... 60A. uses big heavy inductors wound with lots (20-30 at a guess) of strands of #18 (at a guess) in parallel...
01:24 Triffid_Hunter one of the things I want to make is a mppt switcher that's sized for a single panel but designed so the output can be paralleled with other switchers, then you can just stick random panels all over the place and have it all sort out nicely, no need to worry about them all having the same angle or one panel in an array being shaded or anything like that
01:24 furrywolf Triffid_Hunter: already done.
01:24 katsmeow-afk would it not be tons easier to string the cells for max useable volts, and then buck down to the batteries, and never boost voltage?
01:25 Triffid_Hunter furrywolf: oh I'm sure it exists already, still want to design one just for the learning
01:25 furrywolf they even have panels with micro inverters on the back, so you just string mains wire between them and wire it in.
01:25 katsmeow-afk oh, well, if they get shaded, nevermnd
01:25 furrywolf katsmeow-afk: yes, most mppt controllers are buck only.
01:25 furrywolf it still takes big heavy inductors. :)
01:25 Triffid_Hunter srsly? that's silly, they should use cuk or sepic or some other boostbuck topology
01:25 katsmeow-afk ok, i thought you said 12v in and 60 out at 100 amps, was do-able, which seems difficult and even inefficient to me'
01:26 furrywolf output < input. heh.
01:26 katsmeow-afk ok
01:26 furrywolf 12-150 in, 12-60 out, out < in.
01:26 Triffid_Hunter panel I got here goes up to 18v full sun, drops maybe to 6-9v in semi-cloud but still usable current
01:26 katsmeow-afk Triffid, afaik, buck are still 5% or more efficient over any boost/buck
01:26 furrywolf that's an odd panel. amorphous?
01:27 Triffid_Hunter furrywolf: no idea, found on side of road, apparently works fine, no idea why it was chucked
01:27 furrywolf is it all grey, or blue and crystally, or seperate rounded square cells?
01:28 katsmeow-afk mine : http://designerthinking.com/images/solar/IMG_0560.JPG
01:29 furrywolf all grey with lines all the way across is amorphous. blue crystally squares is polycystaline. rounded square cells are monocrystalline.
01:29 katsmeow-afk ~12 yrs old, haven't been outside except for that pic
01:29 furrywolf those are amorphous.
01:29 tsmeow-afk
01:29 katsmeow-afk and only 12w per panel
01:29 furrywolf optimisticly.
01:29 katsmeow-afk i measured
01:30 furrywolf amorphorous panels tend to have ratings similar to craftsman horsepower.
01:30 katsmeow-afk they ere advertised at 15w
01:30 furrywolf yeah. :P
01:30 furrywolf and if you leave them in the sun a year, then they're 10w.
01:30 katsmeow-afk ouch
01:30 furrywolf unlike poly and mono panels, which are >80% after 25 years.
01:31 Triffid_Hunter furrywolf: polycrystalline then
01:31 Triffid_Hunter got all different shades of blue in randomly oriented polygons, the cells seem to be square
01:31 furrywolf Triffid_Hunter: yep, that's polycrystalline.
01:31 katsmeow-afk either way, my plans was to use them a yr while gathering data and accessories for them, then sell them, till i found out it was ok to asault me for using them
01:31 furrywolf it may be damaged. usually the current drops well before the open circuit voltage does.
01:32 furrywolf check for blown bypass diodes.
01:32 Triffid_Hunter furrywolf: not particularly familiar with normal behaviour for panels of this size, so it may well be damaged.. has a few scratches in the back
01:32 Triffid_Hunter haven't spotted any diodes
01:32 furrywolf people hook them up backwards and blow the diodes, then they do weird things. :)
01:32 furrywolf how large is it?
01:33 Triffid_Hunter at a guess (it's buried in the storage somewhere) 70cm by 1.2m or so
01:33 furrywolf that's big enough it should have diodes...
01:33 Triffid_Hunter and judging by the voltage and current in full sun it's probably 50w
01:34 furrywolf should be double that for that size
01:34 katsmeow-afk "An empty zombie mind with a forlorn barely readable weatherbeaten 'For Rent' sign still vainly flapping outside on the weed encrusted pole - in celebration of what could have been, but wasn't and is not to be now either."
01:37 furrywolf .7m by 1.2m would put it squarely at 100W.
01:37 furrywolf this may be why it was dumped. :)
01:38 Triffid_Hunter furrywolf: right, good to know :)
01:38 furrywolf you'd need to do some measurements of the IV curve to determine what's wrong with it, if it's not physically cracked. blown diodes are quite common, and can make a 12V panel behave like a 6V panel.
01:39 furrywolf people hook them up backwards, and as always, the diodes blow way before the fuse does.
01:39 furrywolf they should make fuses than have diodes in them. they'd be much better at protecting things. :)
01:40 katsmeow-afk that is why i used 25amp diode blocks in this psu
01:41 furrywolf I've gotten pretty good at fixing panels, even when I have to perform surgery.
01:41 katsmeow-afk furry, whacha think of http://www.ebay.com/itm/200625634263 ?
01:42 furrywolf http://fw.bushytails.net/cellrepair03.jpg panel surgery. :)
01:42 katsmeow-afk and is it true that the potting plastic costs as much as the solar cells in the panel?
01:43 furrywolf for an individual, yes. for a factory, no.
01:43 katsmeow-afk :-/
01:43 furrywolf the potting silicone is absurdly expensive in small quantities.
01:44 furrywolf I've been tempted test how thinning lexel caulk or shoe goo with acetone does.
01:44 furrywolf I think those DIY kits are a horrible deal.
01:44 katsmeow-afk heck with the caulk, what about latex roof paint?
01:44 furrywolf clear?
01:44 katsmeow-afk white :-(
01:45 katsmeow-afk but would be fine for the back, wehre the dark shines on the cells?
01:46 katsmeow-afk set the cells on the glass in clear, let it dry, then pour the roof latex on the backside?
01:46 katsmeow-afk latex not being 100% moisture resistant
01:47 katsmeow-afk but getting baked in the sun every day should help it be dry
01:48 furrywolf that's ~200w, for $125, you do all the work, and lots of extra costs. http://www.ebay.com/itm/Three-Solar-Panels-160-watt-BP-SX3160S-/280885932900?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item41661b3364 is 480W for $520, ready to bolt on the roof. used panels are only $1/watt these days.
01:48 furrywolf also, brand new panels are only $1.20/watt.
01:49 katsmeow-afk but $125 for the first one is NOT $520 for the 2nd one
01:49 furrywolf ?
01:49 katsmeow-afk i'm broke
01:50 furrywolf http://www.affordable-solar.com/store/solar-panels/CSI-CS6P-235PX-235W-Solar-Panel 235W panel, $285...
01:50 katsmeow-afk partly because i cannot use my property
01:50 furrywolf sure, it's twice as much as those bare cells, but it's complete ready to use panels, not bare cells. the bare cells will end up costing just as much once you actually make panels out of them.
01:50 katsmeow-afk and i may might haveto turn the power off again, like a couple winters ago
01:52 furrywolf I consider bare cells unuseful these days, as the cost of complete panels keeps falling.
01:54 furrywolf used panels can be had for $1/watt pretty regularly now... $0.65/watt for bare cells is just a bad idea.
01:55 tsmeow-afk
01:56 furrywolf pisses me off too, as last year I paid $1.50/watt for my used panels. :)
01:57 furrywolf http://www.ebay.com/itm/Kyocera-KC120-1-120W-Watt-Solar-Panel-Photovaoltaic-Module-Used-Cracked-Item-/120919477649?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item1c275ccd91 geee, that one is $0.99 with 0 bids... :P
01:58 katsmeow-afk think how i feel, i paid $65 for each 12w panel, and have not used them once
01:58 furrywolf "We do not know if crack affects performance of this item". lol
02:00 furrywolf I actually had that same panel, with about the same level of damage... a friend got it free. fell off someone's roof. made about 20W...
02:00 furrywolf I gave it away.
02:03 tsmeow-afk s
02:03 furrywolf I got my last 100W panel for $100, and it included a 12A charge controller, so the actual panel was probably $90.
02:04 furrywolf there's a guy near here selling 80W panels for $75 if I wanted more.
02:04 furrywolf but right now I need more batteries not more panels. panels do less good with no ability to store the energy they're making.
02:07 rrywolf curls up on kat's lap for bed
02:07 katsmeow-afk did you get those iron batteries?
02:07 furrywolf not yet.
02:09 katsmeow-afk i am convinced in winter, when "waste" heat is welcome here, a real small (maybe 500w) thermo electric or steam or anything not an engine, would save lots on the power bill
02:10 katsmeow-afk since a bbq tank of propane will make enough heat to keep half the downstairs warm, maybe it can make "waste" electricity too
02:10 katsmeow-afk i mean a tank lasts 3 weeks
02:10 furrywolf heh
02:10 furrywolf time for me to get to bed... you've kept me up again.
02:10 rrywolf needs to stop letting kat do
02:10 katsmeow-afk Triffid_Hunter helped me!
02:11 katsmeow-afk yeas, it's 2am again, gnites
02:11 rrywolf tucks kat in
02:11 tsmeow-afk pets and falls as
02:11 furrywolf :)
02:12 furrywolf http://humboldt.craigslist.org/grq/3015304857.html
10:30 rrywolf stretches out next to katsmeow-afk and y
10:39 furrywolf katsmeow-afk: did you see the craigslist link last night? I realized I could use two of the mono panels... emailing him now.
10:44 furrywolf I have 10 of those exact panels; making it a round 12 would give me more options for series combinations...
11:11 tsmeow-afk l
11:13 katsmeow-afk but why are they *used*? if they are *useable* then why aren't they being used?
11:14 furrywolf the 80w mono panels were used as part of a big installation in southern california that folded, if I recall right.
11:14 furrywolf they turn up pretty cheaply pretty often.
11:15 katsmeow-afk so making free electricity after the initial capital investment ,,, is a bad idea?
11:15 katsmeow-afk once they are installed, how are they losing money to leave them in place, making electricity?
11:16 furrywolf the inverters failed, I think. it was the power company's experiment in putting panels on people's houses for distributed generation, but the inverters failed, customers bitched about the looks, etc.
11:16 katsmeow-afk ah, the gridtie interfaces, yep, i can see those going bust
11:17 katsmeow-afk direct connections to the powerco grid is really dirty stuff
11:17 katsmeow-afk electrically and politically speaking
11:18 furrywolf heh
11:19 katsmeow-afk ~1982, the cost of grid intertie was set so high by "the southern companies" that no one could have ever broken even financially,,, even a measly kw 120vac intertie was priced higher than the 40 acres i had back then
11:20 furrywolf http://www.geni.org/globalenergy/library/technical-articles/links/green-power-network/ases-solar-1996/sacramento-municipal-utility-district/utility-grid-connected-distributed-power-systems/index.shtml
11:20 furrywolf the picture of the residential system about 1/4 of the way down shows one of the racks of 7 being loaded onto a roof - the same racks shown in the picture on that craigslist post.
11:21 katsmeow-afk and the powerline was so glitchy, and semiconductor power devices so iffy, the only reasonable interface would have been a constant freq m-g set
11:21 furrywolf so that pretty definitively shoes where they came from.
11:21 furrywolf shows
11:22 katsmeow-afk so the panels are 15 yrs old, how badly are they degraded?
11:22 furrywolf better pictures at http://redding.craigslist.org/hsd/3015737823.html
11:22 furrywolf I can't tell mine apart from new...
11:22 furrywolf I got a few mud-grade ones from a csp test, and they still make ~80% of their power.
11:23 katsmeow-afk As part of this effort SMUD installed in 1993 <<== 20 yrs old
11:24 furrywolf I have ten of them already...
11:24 furrywolf I can't tell them apart from new, except for the mud-grade csp ones I got, and even they still work...
11:25 katsmeow-afk so the roof under the roof-mounted pv needed replacing, and no one had financial packages to re-mount the panels once the roof shingles were replaced,, and the roof damage by thru-the-roof mounting turned people off
11:25 furrywolf and I've read the grid-tie inverters they used are all failing by now.
11:26 katsmeow-afk or, putting them back up called for a whole new building inspector cert program
11:26 katsmeow-afk that too
11:26 furrywolf so people need a new roof, and there's a bunch of unsightly panels, which don't even work because the inverter is fried and costs several thousand to replace...
11:26 tsmeow-afk nods s
11:27 katsmeow-afk by Siemens Solar Industries (SSI) for $7.70/W AC
11:27 furrywolf new panels are more efficient and look better. the monocrystalline panels waste space compared to poly ones (the diamond areas between the round cells), and people like the flat color of poly panels better.
11:27 katsmeow-afk pv was always too pricey for me, but they'd enabled bootstrapping up a tracking thermal system at sunup
11:28 furrywolf these are the solec ones... The 1994 PV Pioneer systems were supplied by Solec International, Inc. as 109 3.7 kW systems with Omnion invertors at a turn-key cost of $6.23/W.
11:28 katsmeow-afk csp system
11:31 furrywolf http://www1.eere.energy.gov/solar/pdfs/pvmrw2011_p47_csi_mccabe.pdf
11:32 katsmeow-afk remember how enthusiastic some of us were back in the 80's about the promice of solar becoming widespread and feasable in the 90's?
11:32 tsmeow-afk s
11:33 furrywolf heh
11:34 furrywolf I have ones with the browning that lowers value, mentioned in that pdf... but they still seem to work just fine. I also have some mud-grade ones from a CSP plant, which don't work as fine, but do still work...
11:34 katsmeow-afk Carter putting cells on the WhiteHouse, a csp installed at the Pentagon, 1000 megawatt systems planned in Calif and Nev, etc etc
11:37 katsmeow-afk Winning bids ranged from $0.04 to $1.26 / watt. <<== man did i miss out on that
11:37 furrywolf the $0.04 were the stacks of smashed ones, so it's not quite as good of a deal as it sounds.
11:38 furrywolf but, yeah, if I had enough money to buy several truckloads of panels, I'd head down there too.
11:38 furrywolf sadly, I don't.
11:38 katsmeow-afk it really chaps my ass that almost 100% of the panels installed in the usa, including 100% of the csp systems, were NOT made in the usa, and i have been unemployed the entire time and willing to work making this happen
11:38 furrywolf you can be pretty sure that's what the guy on craigslist did.
11:41 furrywolf as always, not having money makes everything cost more...
11:41 furrywolf since I can't afford to get a good deal, I instead have to try to afford a worse deal.
11:41 tsmeow-afk nods , coming from the same p
11:48 katsmeow-afk you know how my brain won't shut off? i woke last night while trying to climb out of a quandry
11:48 katsmeow-afk i cannot have a high freq voltage or current control of the floating psu because of the isolation issue
11:49 katsmeow-afk if the - on the psu is grounded, then the input signal should be gnd referenced, this is the normal situation
11:50 furrywolf optos
11:50 katsmeow-afk if the + is grounded, making it a minus supply, then the input being hardwired - referenced to the - is barely useable
11:50 furrywolf you can get highly linear optoisolaters for tasks like this
11:50 katsmeow-afk if two psu are in series, the one most off gnd is in even worse shape
11:50 furrywolf completely isolate the remote inputs
11:51 katsmeow-afk yeas, i have some, but they are slow, and they require power to interface to and drive them
11:51 katsmeow-afk same with sending the anlong via opto/transformer pwm
11:51 katsmeow-afk analog
11:51 furrywolf slow? you can get ones good for 100s of khz...
11:52 katsmeow-afk 100khs != microsec turnoff
11:54 furrywolf are you building a power supply or an AM transmitter? :)
11:54 furrywolf power supplies are generally slow, and big output caps make sure of that...
11:55 tsmeow-afk
11:56 katsmeow-afk i made a audio power amp once that did a fine job of trashing all the 100Mhz fm reception in the area
11:57 furrywolf heh
11:58 katsmeow-afk i was using a 100Mhz oscope to debug, and the input was so overloaded by the speed of the signal, it collapsed the scope psu and the hsweep would go backwards
11:58 katsmeow-afk it drew circls on the screen, using only the normal vertical input
11:59 furrywolf that sounds... broken.
12:00 furrywolf and, damnit, it's pouring rain. not going to get much done on the sculpture.
12:01 katsmeow-afk there was a sculpture?
12:02 Steffanx !seen SolarNRG
12:02 tobbor SolarNRG was last seen in #robotics on May 20 07:24 2012
12:03 furrywolf katsmeow-afk: http://kineticgrandchampionship.com/
12:04 katsmeow-afk i see no scupture
12:05 furrywolf bleh, it's raining hard enough to kill my wifi.
12:05 furrywolf google kinetic sculpture racing
12:06 Steffanx rain .. wifi ?!
12:06 Steffanx You are outside?
12:06 Steffanx or your wifi is?
12:07 Steffanx *accesspoint
12:07 katsmeow-afk ah, the transportation device is the scupture
12:07 katsmeow-afk [ChanServ PING reply]: 0 secs
12:07 katsmeow-afk [furrywolf PING reply]: 1 sec
12:07 furrywolf my wifi is a very long link through the woods.
12:07 furrywolf katsmeow-afk: yes. however, my packet loss has increased from 2% to 35%.
12:08 tsmeow-afk
12:08 furrywolf which means everything but irc is now dead.
12:08 furrywolf and irc will probably die at some point too.
12:09 Steffanx Time for a cable furrywolf
12:10 katsmeow-afk praps if you ran some ethernet wire to the edge of the property, and put your wifi unit out closer to the pos?
12:10 rrywolf thinks kats would enjoy building a kinetic sculp
12:10 furrywolf edge of the property is ~15ft from the edge of the house, with the antenna on the roof.
12:11 katsmeow-afk well, i mean closer to the ,, nevermind
12:12 furrywolf at most I could move it 15ft closer.
12:12 furrywolf this wouldn't help much.
12:12 katsmeow-afk right
12:12 katsmeow-afk solar powered relay up in a tree?
12:12 furrywolf would need to be on someone else's property.
12:12 katsmeow-afk details, sheesh
12:12 furrywolf I've heard I can get a landline phone out here if I bug the phone company... might end up with dsl.
12:13 furrywolf can't afford it, though.
12:13 furrywolf and it would only be 1mbit due to distance.
12:15 tsmeow-afk
12:15 Steffanx What do you now have furrywolf ?!
12:15 furrywolf Steffanx: <furrywolf> my wifi is a very long link through the woods.
12:15 katsmeow-afk can you have it installed one place, then covertly share the bandwidth and cost?
12:16 Steffanx Oh, why you want a separate line to that 'house'?
12:16 furrywolf cost... I can't afford $50/month these days.
12:16 Steffanx landline
12:16 katsmeow-afk cost... shared
12:17 furrywolf unfortunately, thanks to the idiot neighbor, I'm now associated with "that property with the hippies that steal shit", and no one will even wave back to me if I wave at them, much less talk or enter a business arrangement.
12:17 Steffanx Yeah, but what kind of internet.. no DSL?
12:17 katsmeow-afk share, on the property
12:18 furrywolf with who? the idiot neighbor who steals stuff?
12:18 katsmeow-afk is there no one else? the landlord?
12:19 furrywolf correct
12:19 furrywolf there's two houses, mine and hers.
12:19 katsmeow-afk oh
12:20 furrywolf and thanks to her, and all the idiot hippies who lived here before, the neighbors think I must be one of them too.
12:21 furrywolf last time I talked to one, it was because he came over screaming that I was putting my garbage in his garbage can. which was, of course, false. he wouldn't believe me, and stomped off.
12:21 furrywolf I'm sure it was her, of course.
12:21 furrywolf (the insane neighbor)
12:21 katsmeow-afk (video camera)
12:22 furrywolf she only leaves the property once-twice a month, and I've yet to see her making a dump run, so it's the logical conclusion... plus that's exactly the type of thing she'd do.
12:23 Steffanx lol, furrywolf lives in the same country as katsmeow-afk ?
12:24 Steffanx You two could be neighbours
12:24 katsmeow-afk apparently, tho i have never seen furry
12:29 furrywolf even though there's only one useless hippie left, this property is known as the property with the useless hippies... hopefully once she's gone, I can claim the property is entirely hippie-free, and normalize relations with the neighbors.
12:29 furrywolf her constantly stealing stuff pisses all of them off, for good reason...
12:33 furrywolf brb, microwaving food-like substances
12:34 katsmeow-afk which remonds me i didn't eat yet
12:36 katsmeow-afk does anyone make display screens witht he resolution of a modern lcd monitor, but with leds?
12:37 furrywolf they make small oled displays like that, I think.
12:38 tsmeow-afk pon
18:44 zhanx evening
19:00 rue_mohr ping
19:00 katsmeow-afk try !ping
19:00 katsmeow-afk need to use those bang-tags
19:16 rue_mohr http://hackaday.com/2012/05/23/robotic-falconry-winged-unit-lands-on-you/
19:16 rue_mohr das pretty good!
19:37 atom1 steppers are hummin good
19:37 atom1 near zero heat at idle
19:37 rue_mohr yep
19:37 Skwint that is pretty good rue, yes :)
19:48 rue_mohr SWEET the controller code for buddy is close to someting that should work
19:48 rue_mohr I think I just have to add to ascii art
19:48 rue_mohr maybe I should see if it works first
19:48 rue_mohr naa I'm gonna go try to power up a dangerous robot
20:10 rue_mohr no joy
20:10 rue_mohr buddys servos will NOT talk to me
20:16 Tom_itx talk nicer
20:17 Skwint you gotta charm 'em.
20:17 Skwint not enough to have pwm - you gotta have the right rythm
20:22 rue_mohr interesting, I init the uart, but dosnt assign the fn that recieves the bytes
20:22 rue_mohr oh I polled it
20:27 rue_mohr I need to load the new code that has a baud rate confirmaton on it
20:43 Tom_itx pendant still works
21:13 furrywolf my dual tds sensor finally left the sort center in ny, three days after it got there. bleh.
21:22 zhanx fyi getting married
21:24 rrywolf has yet to find the right w
21:24 zhanx keep looking
21:26 ace4016 it's ok furrywolf...they'll just get bored and move on, leaving you in a space for two all alone
21:26 rue_mohr aha
21:26 rue_mohr well I still have 50% odds
21:27 rue_mohr does rue_mohr really sound like a female name?
21:27 rue_mohr :/
21:27 rue_mohr my servos carry the 2 stop bit bug, so I need to reflash them
21:27 ace4016 you're real name isn'r rue mohr though :P
21:27 Tom_itx one can never tell
21:27 ace4016 and rue is really one of those unisex names
21:28 rue_mohr ace4016, I have a lot of names, I dont really listen to someone calling a name as much as who their calling to
21:28 rue_mohr rue is short, its ruediger
21:28 rue_mohr Ruediger Nahc Mohr
21:28 Tom_itx pfft
21:28 rue_mohr whatever
21:29 ace4016 it's all gibberish to me; you must he an icelandic hot princess
21:29 Tom_itx want the truth?
21:29 ace4016 be*
21:29 rue_mohr truth?
21:30 rue_mohr is there such a thing as truth or just acceptance of a mostly plausable story?
21:30 rue_mohr I'm not asking
21:30 Tom_itx i'm not tell ing
21:31 e_mohr stret
21:31 rue_mohr names are only as important as people agreeing on the meaning of a particular word
21:31 rue_mohr these things called language
21:32 ace4016 communication is important
21:32 rue_mohr it prevents war and encourages technology
21:34 rue_mohr unless you give the same name to all the tenonds in one hand, and the other hand and the feet
21:34 rue_mohr thats just being stupid
21:35 rue_mohr ok, hum
21:36 rrywolf notes language doesn't help when certain people invent expressions then refuse to explain t
21:36 rue_mohr I have to recompile all the servo software and reload all the servo
21:36 rue_mohr yea, people who do that are totally the moons pond reflection
21:37 rue_mohr I suppose I should flash one and see if it works
21:38 rue_mohr if not, I have to do a lot more groundwork than I thought to get buddy going
21:39 rue_mohr hmm wonder if I can reflash them from here
21:40 rue_mohr yay the new firmware compiled, this is good
21:41 rue_mohr the new firmware has a) a test input that I can short to make it print ascii on the serial port
21:42 rue_mohr b) a test led that I can turn on and off without having to power up the servos
21:42 rue_mohr c) fixed stop bit count on the serial library
21:42 rue_mohr all the old serial code I have uses 2 stops bits, copy and paste problem from the datasheet
21:43 rue_mohr I'm having an energy problem tho
21:43 rue_mohr if i made a teleprescence robot I wouldn't have to leave my seat to meke supper
21:45 rue_mohr hmm, spagetti, yea
22:31 rue_mohr o I have some avrs to reprogram
22:31 rue_mohr k
22:37 rue_shop ok where is my avr programmer
22:38 m_itx looks at his pile o
22:43 rue_shop rifs programmer uses a linear 6
22:43 rue_shop huh
22:43 rue_shop o I'm chip swappin for now
22:44 Tom_itx i got one of his too
22:53 rue_shop damn I didn't use my board I used yours, I dont know where port B0 is
22:55 rue_shop found it
22:56 rue_shop ok arg, this still isn't workig
22:59 rue_shop ok every setflags call should toggle the debug led
23:00 rue_shop ok its not working
23:00 rue_shop interesting
23:01 rue_shop that means its not recieving the serial data
23:07 rue_shop according to my hex capture program my control software is only sending half the packer
23:08 rue_shop packet
23:12 Tom_itx well sweep the rest of it up and shove it out the door
23:15 rue_shop I changed every packet to "hi" and guess what I'm not getting back ont eh other end?
23:19 rue_shop aha
23:19 rue_shop my super hacked baud rate function dosn't work on usb ports
23:20 rue_shop I wonder how long thats been my problem
23:21 rue_shop YES!
23:25 rue_shop ok one board is upgraded to v3 of the firmware, but they are all working
23:25 rue_shop I can tell them to load their current position to their target position and turn them all on, they all stay (kinda) put
23:26 rue_shop now I need to mod the software to be abel to read the servos replies so I can query position and current from them
23:30 Tom_itx you do that and i'll sleep for both of us
23:54 rue_mohr I wonder what happens on linux if you move a directory thats your in into the directory your in
23:55 rue_mohr zippo:/files/Projects/Buddy/servoControl# mv ../../Buddy ./Buddy3
23:57 Triffid_Hunter rue_mohr: it works fine actually
23:57 rue_mohr but once you leave the directory you can never re-enter it
23:57 Triffid_Hunter rue_mohr: oh I see, to a subdir of itself, no it won't let you do that
23:57 rue_mohr cause its not in a directory off the root anymore
23:57 Triffid_Hunter but you can certainly move a dir that you're in
23:57 rue_mohr yea
23:58 rue_mohr I know that
23:58 rue_mohr so, in theroy, you cant move a partent directory your in to a child directory your in
23:58 rue_mohr it should be part of the dumbass checks