#robotics Logs
Jul 13 2017
#robotics Calendar
09:17 AM mrdata__ is now known as mrdata
04:22 PM rue_shop3: hmm, this idea I had in the shower didn't work out too well
04:31 PM theBear: lol, you sound just like a teenager buddy <grin>
04:39 PM rue_shop3: big ass 3rd hand
04:39 PM rue_shop3: 4'
04:39 PM rue_shop3: but I cant find balls
04:40 PM theBear: yeah, that's the kinda thing they always sayin' when they just had a shower
04:40 PM * theBear smiles
04:40 PM rue_shop3: the prototype with what I could find shows that the string/ball/pipe chain isn't strong enough
04:41 PM rue_shop3: so
04:41 PM rue_shop3: I could do servos, or hydraulics
04:41 PM rue_shop3: and I'd like to go hydraulic
04:41 PM rue_shop3: but
04:41 PM rue_shop3: dont have cylinders
04:41 PM rue_shop3: and I'm not sure how to make a seal for the rod
04:41 PM rue_shop3: :)
04:44 PM theBear: that reminds me... remember that slightly-offset bearings not-screw screw thing rif was playing with a while back ? does that work o.k with only 2 bearings/contact points, or it needs at least 3 to get enough grip or pressure or somethin like that ?
04:44 PM rue_shop3: the threaded rod linear drive?
04:44 PM rue_shop3: ooh
04:44 PM rue_shop3: no, the threadless linear drive
04:45 PM rue_shop3: I'd think 3 is min.
04:45 PM rue_shop3: you want some good pressure on them
04:46 PM rue_shop3: https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:112718
04:46 PM rue_shop3: I have to go grocery shopping, I'll be an hour out and back
04:47 PM rue_shop3: if I can find my list
04:53 PM theBear: yeah, 2nd one
04:53 PM theBear: mmmm,. forget why i was thinking bout it (with less than 3) just recently anyway... probly something about not needing nearly as accurate alignment betweeen the bearings
06:36 PM patr0clus is now known as s3nd1v0g1us
06:36 PM rue_shop3: the problem is that its not perfect tracking
06:37 PM rue_shop3: going back and forth (like on a 3d printer) will not come out repeatable
06:38 PM Tom_itx: how's the rewrite coming?
06:43 PM theBear: trains run on perfect tracking... maybe you need some sleepers, and err, giant bendy nailey spring clip thingers probably
06:44 PM theBear: train locomotives tend to run on fairly perfect track... maybe you just need <ed: Tom_itx, yeah, nobbad, getting close to happy with the line now <grin> > some sleepers, and err, giant bendy nailey spring clip thingers probably
06:44 PM * theBear smiles as he wanders off
07:00 PM rue_shop3: rewire
07:00 PM rue_shop3: what was I rewiring?
07:00 PM Tom_itx: rewrite
07:00 PM Tom_itx: trajectory lib
07:01 PM rue_shop3: oh, I'm cathing up with all the things that require me to drive back and forth all over the place 50 times
07:01 PM rue_shop3: er, I was
07:01 PM rue_shop3: everyone is closed now
07:01 PM rue_shop3: I'll chip away on it over the next few weeks
07:01 PM rue_shop3: I'm really having a hard time with the math
07:26 PM zhanx: wish i had time to drive back and forth all over the place 50 times
07:33 PM Tom_itx is now known as Tom_L
07:33 PM anniepoo: hey rue - your 'track' has a series of holes in it. Put photointerrupter going thru holes, you now have an absolute mark to correct agains
07:34 PM rue_shop3: kinda
09:13 PM anniepoo: kinda?
09:13 PM anniepoo: and what's your math issue?
09:23 PM theBear: do i hear yet ANOTHER good use for vero-style boards and never ever using breadboards (they kinda irrelevant, but i never miss an opportunity)
09:24 PM anniepoo: bear, what's a vero style board?
09:24 PM anniepoo: I don't understand that
09:24 PM theBear: ask the g image machine fer pictures of "veroboard" and you know real quick
09:25 PM anniepoo: ok
09:25 PM theBear: kinda like a less annoying and not-wiggly and stupid alternative to breadboards, with option of being kinda permanent, if yer plan and make it nice and neat
09:25 PM * theBear don't like breadboards much.... bitter memories from a time when he knew nothing, and they were making learning stuff way more confusing than it shoulda been
09:26 PM anniepoo: yes, in fact, next task on the dancing robot is to make a permanent board to mate some servos to an arduino using veroboard.
09:26 PM anniepoo: why did breadboards make it confusing?
09:27 PM anniepoo: I agree that anything that reduces reliability is NOT your friend when breadboarding
09:29 PM anniepoo: Was told many, many years ago that developing the skills to physically assemble a circuit reliably was an absolute requirement before really learning electronics
09:32 PM theBear: cos the holes get stretched by slightly larger than normal anythings that go in 'em, then they wiggley and onney offey contacts in the future, and the stupid wires and things and all fiddly to grab and pull out when yer bump em trying to get another one in/out, and it's hassley to probe at em and they generally just bug me (general consensus is that more than most-basic/cheap available at ratshack in late 80s are probly a bit better, but i hold some
09:32 PM theBear: grudges personally....)
09:34 PM anniepoo: yes, BAD breadboards are aweful - and if you abuse them, they're a royal PITA
09:36 PM theBear: i was just learning, by the time i had the experience to notice or identify these things i no longer needed them more than occasionally if at all (and personally i do enjoy veroboard style prototyping even if it is very much non-permanent stuff, now i got a bit of method going (it's like old line-number programming, you gotta leave gaps when you first write stuff, like 1, 5 , 10, 20, 30for yer line no's othewise when you go back to fix a mistake or
09:36 PM theBear: add something there's no room, and back then you couldn't just hit enter or ctrl-something something and magically insert a blank line and move everything up one, no sir !) heh)
09:37 PM theBear: spose effective breadboarding is kinda the same tho, just you don't get punished as much if you got it a bit messy, and it easier to fix
09:38 PM anniepoo: you call veroboard 'non permanent'
09:38 PM anniepoo: what are you doing for permanent?
09:40 PM theBear: it CAN be non-permanent, it pretty quick to make a gap or bridge something or do a solder joint or 8 when yer got the iron hot and sitting next to you on the bench there, just ya know, non-wiggly guaranteed if you good at soldering/seeing
09:41 PM theBear: and i do have stuff at least 18 y.old i made on them still working here and there, ain't made any useful pcbs personally/at home since before toner transfer was thought-up
09:41 PM anniepoo: yes
09:41 PM anniepoo: my attempts at making boards have always been disasters
09:42 PM anniepoo: LOL - one in particular. I was going to etch a board. Living in a tiny student apartment, I did it on my tiny back porch
09:42 PM anniepoo: really just a landing to the stairs down.
09:42 PM theBear: worth doing some attemp at coating the tracks if you gonna have anything like that (including normal and/or diy pcbs in general) for a long time...tracks far from corroded enough to influence anything but crazy rf kinda circuits after this long, but very obviously tarnishing/degrading with time, and take a LOTTA cleanup if yer wanna get solder sticking/wetting now
09:43 PM anniepoo: I decided to use a disposable aluminum cake pan thingy to etch in. Oooops.
09:43 PM theBear: mmm, i was like that in my teen years, was given a little photo-resist kit by a neighbor/family friend, basically just a glass frame/clamp thing that made exposure with ohp style transparent art relatively easy, but had no photographic or chemical experience as a kid, and no access to proper darkroom or buglight (safe for pre-developed photographic stuffs) etc
09:44 PM anniepoo: 8cD Hazmat came!
09:44 PM theBear: got barely usable results a bunch of times, but was just a hassle, and that was before most kinds of computers had guis, and cad was young and no pcb/electronic artwork software around
09:44 PM anniepoo: ferric chloride reacts vigorously with ferric chloride
09:46 PM anniepoo: yes - if I use veroboard, I almost always coat it with glyptal or liquid electrical tape
09:47 PM theBear: it err what ?
09:48 PM theBear: you following the old rules, like err, add acid to dilutey-fluid, or err, other way around maybe, very strictly only one way is standard chemistry practice, fer safety (you wanna go from tiny to desired % as you mix, not MASSIVE to desired, if ya know what i mean)
09:48 PM theBear: glyptal ? and whatever you doing, electrical tape is designed for SHORTTERM use only, and in all situations goes goopy and stiff and generally useless in a few years at most
09:50 PM anniepoo: that's good to know
09:52 PM anniepoo: glyptal's a varnish stuff - widely used in physics to seal vacuum components,
09:52 PM theBear: mmm... also generally cleaning any gold/copper contacts for electrical/electronic stuff, white (not gritty grey) pencil eraser like you had in school is amazing for it and soft enough for guaranteed no damage, tho a little iso or hexane or generally nearest alkyhol you got on hand helps a lot
09:53 PM anniepoo: I have a fiberglass scratch brush
09:53 PM theBear: ahh, things like cheap spraypaint fer fairly finished/perm stuff works, and of course cheap clear-varnish in spray cans from hw stores, much easier and cheaper than the proper fancy stuff (ie that green commercial style stuff is hard to apply evenly, and needs things like uv-cure etc) pretty much anything that protects it from moisture and atmospheric nasty oxy stuffs, kidna like making a car not-rust if you done that ever
09:54 PM anniepoo: and yes, ethanol is a good solvent for rosin solder or water soluble solder
09:54 PM theBear: hmmm, incase you get itchy ? oh, i know them, fancy lah-de-dah eh .. i only seen one up close once, but that probly covers it
09:54 PM anniepoo: yes - fingernail polish can be pretty good for encapsulation
09:55 PM theBear: also grumpy pc/lappies can become like new again by cleaning up any card and ram edge-connectey thingers like that, and of course wiggley jiggling them a little on the way back in to help cleanup the things poking into them
09:56 PM theBear: also a TINY coating of non-cheap/stupid contact cleaner or similar protectey juicey stuff (various bases are common like silicone/oil/etc but they all tend to coat and thinly stick to contactey stuff) can make em last decades longer without further hiccups
09:59 PM theBear: i'm offski, bad back sat at the desk long enough today... don't build anything i wouldn't build ;-)
10:13 PM rue_house: made storage boxes today
10:13 PM rue_house: :)
10:18 PM * rue_shop3 staggers a little
10:18 PM rue_shop3: there was just enough contact cement left to redo the disc sander
10:18 PM Snert: sounds like not enuff beer.
11:08 PM Anniepoo_: endoobletification
11:10 PM Snert: a dooblet...hmmm..new word :)
11:11 PM Snert: it's kinda like my neighbor's doglet.
11:11 PM * Anniepoo_ gives Snert a dooblet
11:11 PM * Anniepoo_ has endoobletified Snert
11:11 PM * Anniepoo_ believes in endoobletification
11:12 PM Snert: not being sure what it means, I have to say that I live in a state where it's prolly legal.
11:12 PM Snert: whatever it is, ya ain't breaking any laws.
11:13 PM * Anniepoo_ digs through uniform code of criminal justice.... nope, nope, nope...
11:13 PM Anniepoo_: doesn't seem to be illegal to endoobletify a Snert
11:14 PM Snert: if kids are Snertlets.
11:14 PM Snert: my kids, that is :)
11:16 PM * Anniepoo_ passes out sugar coated dooblets to Snert's children
11:18 PM Snert: apparently dooblet is a real word.
11:18 PM Anniepoo_: it is?
11:19 PM Anniepoo_: I've been using dooblet since long before the web existed
11:22 PM Snert: urban dictionary and google knows about dooblets
11:23 PM Snert: http://dooblet.com
11:24 PM Anniepoo_: yup
11:25 PM Anniepoo_: ok, apparently I shouldn't give dooblets to the kids
11:25 PM Anniepoo_: or other people, depending on the state
11:25 PM Anniepoo_: 8cD
11:26 PM Snert: the avalanche will happen soon, now that 4 states have totally legal goods.
11:26 PM Snert: soon as they get a whiff of the tax $.
11:27 PM Snert: right now, they're just trying to figger out how to fund the schools with drug money without looking like theyre funding the schools with drug money.
11:33 PM Anniepoo_: 8cD
11:33 PM * Anniepoo_ is on school district budget committee
11:34 PM Snert: here, this is how they fund the schools with drug $.
11:34 PM Snert: http://imgur.com/hbErxMC
11:36 PM Snert: plenty much it's just the same old thing as funding using any other sin tax.
11:50 PM * rue_shop3 scratches his head
11:50 PM rue_shop3: the more I clean up, the less room I have
11:54 PM Anniepoo_: 8cD i'm gaining room!
11:54 PM Anniepoo_: moved into apt in winter, its been chaos, cleaning up now
11:55 PM Anniepoo_: i've got half the kitchen sparkling, half grungy