My friend Gabe is at least 25% less conventional than I am, and if you know me beyond the casual internet level you know that's saying something. Here is his latest update on building a subterranean speakeasy 100 feet inside a limestone cliff. Because....well because he can.
Bonus feature, a brief but officially confirmed sighting of Badger Trowelsworthy!
Morning walk photo 2/25/2022. I should mention that my fairly average town in a fairly average state is an eight hour drive from the Canadian border.
To stay in shape for England and to burn off nervous energy, I go for a brisk walk every morning. This being winter sometimes it is very brisk indeed. But there is always something interesting to see. On 17 February I came to a halt when I encountered this:
The guy I walk with in the morning suggested that the establishment went out of business. Possible I suppose, but when I got home and checked facebook they are still selling suds.
No idea really why they have all the Christmas stuff still up. Just never got around to taking it down I suppose.
I am a fan of Bad Movies. But only of a certain type. I have little tolerance for hackneyed plot lines, cardboard characters and so forth. No, for a movie to really capture my imagination it has to be Inexplicably Bad. So Bad it is surreal, leaving you to wonder if the film makers were totally clueless or were playing some 3 dimensional chess and going full meta with a message far beyond the peculiar things happening on screen.
Bad Movie fandom is pretty common. In the old days (forget the modern revival version) Mystery Science Theater 3000 stood at the forefront of this entertainment subculture. Now the best place to enjoy it is Red Letter Media, although they do indulge in the vulgarity of modern culture just a bit too much for my tastes.
This is all by way of introducing you to what I have always considered the Worst Movie I have ever seen, a strange creation called Il Disco Volante....The Flying Saucer in the original Italian. Recently I had an unexpected reminder of it and in the process of following up on it I learned some things that now - disappointingly? - help make sense of it.
It was some time in the late 1960's or at most early 70's. There was still this thing called "television" where you had multiple channels. You switched between them using a device you grasped with your hand and turned. For you young kids this was called a "dial". Then as now various channels had their formats. One liked to run B or C grade movies in the early afternoons on Saturdays. My guess is that it was in a programming sense a dead spot that had to be filled with anything that could be acquired on the cheap. Just cue it up. The station is being run by Bud, he's in the back keeping an eye on the gauges and needles, answering the phone when it rings on rare occasions. Everyone else was home on the weekends. Bud had a lonely job, but sat there all day doing it. In the evening he handed things off to an even lower functionary. This guy probably drank bourbon during his shift and nobody cared.
One afternoon the offering was an odd black and white movie called The Flying Saucer. It is the soundtrack that sticks with me. The most powerful "earworm" my nervous system has yet encountered, roughly half the auditory output of this.....thing...was a repetitive bit of music that sounded like a vaguely Spanish, bull fighting vibe of a march. It played all the time especially when the troop of Italian policemen tramped about the countryside trying to find people who had seen the reported "flying saucer". As to the actual plot I can remember only a few details. The police chief seemed very perplexed. There was an oversexed Contessa who had one of the aliens at her villa for a while then had her servants throw him down a well just as she had done with the Resistance fighters back in the war years. The alien was humanoid, dressed up in what would be a poor Halloween robot costume and capable, despite clearly advanced technology, of only feebly waving its arms and legs. I got the sense that something else was going on......................but what?
Lots happens on Saturdays. Most of it was good stuff. The robot can pick up balls. The elevator works. It launches them better than expected. There is no reason to doubt that the first, straight up pneumatic climber will work.
We fussed around with many things that were kludged together. These semi successful versions usually show us what actually has to happen. We'd hoped to get several hours of driving in but had to settle for about 30 minutes before enough things needed fixing....and the people having a spaghetti dinner in the same space turned up an hour early!
But for what it is worth here's the robot with intake arms extended. Improvised raised target goal in back ground.
Star of the day was our really outstanding robot transport cart. Topper designed by the team and laser cut by a sponsor. Lookin' good.
Snow on the way. We can't afford to lose time, but if school is cancelled so is robotics for that day. Ugh. Should have sacrificed a few more chickens....
February 18th, 2022. There is a wicked north wind blowing. It is going to get way below zero tonight. On Monday six inches of wet, heavy snow is predicted. And yet, on my morning walk today I saw this:
Thinking of better days. Got my passport in the mail recently and will be spending a good part of the spring in that greenest of places, England in April/May.
Monday
On Saturday we discovered that the center of gravity of the robot was too far back. This gave us a disastrous 9 degree forward tilt. The robot was in danger of sliding off the first bar. The nose was 5 inches down and that made grabbing the next bar nearly impossible. Solution time:
Other things happened on Monday as well. The intake paddles need work, but mostly we need the competition robot to get everything connected so we can do dynamic testing as opposed to static. It is not great when both hardware and software are running behind, but at least one side is not waiting on the other!
Tuesday
Robot Surgery. Well sometimes you have to move a bracket even after all the delicate electronics are on board. Since aluminum shavings are Death to Electronics some elaborate measures are called for. Just as in real surgery. Multiple layers of protective drapes. Suction, here in the form of a shop vac. the surgery was a success. We'll have to do it again on Thursday when instead of drilling out rivets we'll be drilling holes for new ones.
Still experimenting with intake paddles. We have the robot driving now, and these are much more effective in dynamic testing than static. These simple polycarb strips are cut up parts of old robots. I expect we'll tweak the design a bit before we expend new material. It will take good driving to use this system.
Last week I posted some thoughts on Carpe Diem, the desirability of seizing the day. This certainly makes life a great deal more interesting but not always easier. When I need a bit of encouragement during a tough patch I can always find it along the back road of our city park.
You think humans live in a tough world, just think about trees. Each and every one of your neighbors is trying to get the same light and water that you need to survive. And survive they do under the most extreme conditions.
Trees growing straight out of a cliff face. There must be just enough dirt in that crevice for them to hang on.
Further down the road there is a natural spring. These trees are effectively growing straight up through a glacier.
I skipped last Friday's post on robots. It was effectively Make or Break week. The phrase does not quite fit. It's actually quite positive when you make something, test it to breakage and remake it better. But as a time period when things Must Happen for the project to succeed, well last week was it.
Collectively the Monday, Tuesday and Thursday sessions were OK. Things got made. Nothing got broken. By late Thursday the robot in its final form could be seen. Of course the second set of pneumatics is just loosely positioned and the electronics board is not on. But basically this is it. The team has named it HANK.
Get the robot onto the first bar. Stack water bottles on the back bumper. That tells us how much weight we need to bolt on back there. About 7 pounds of "something" should do it. I have not been without error in this build season but my fanaticism in pursuit of weight management will now give us this option.
Carpe Diem. Seize the day. When you get older this ancient saying becomes more important.
Young people mostly live in the moment. They have much less to look back on, and at the same time lack the life experience to really see into the future.
And the Old? I guess it varies among my fellow members of Geezer Nation. Some are sadly still trying to live in past glory times or have a present that looks grim for reasons real or imagined. But I'm OK with how things have gone for six and a half decades. I see my past as an ever lengthening archive. And while I have no aversion to momentary Fun I am more interested in adding interesting chapters that I can look back on fondly when I hit a level of age/infirmity that will keep me on a short leash.
I recently booked tickets for a journey to Vindolanda. I'd been excavating at the Roman Fort site there for over a decade when Covid slammed the door. For two long years. Things are still a bit dodgy over there but I'm just gonna go for it. In fact, I'm going for four weeks instead of two. Will there still be masks and travel inconveniences and fears? Sure. But Carpe Diem, who knows how many more years I'll be able to walk up and down hills two miles to and from, with a long day of wielding tools ranging from a fine brush to a pick axe.
Robotics is a similar situation. There is no physical work involved. I and the other coaches keep hands off tools and apart from hauling supplies in and out once in a while its all the student's project. But it does create other strains. For weeks leading up to Build Season then worse after Kick Off, I worry and fret. Will this darn project even be possible? So far it has always worked, albeit some years better than others. But what is it about my personality that can only fully enjoy something of this scale if there is a significant possibility of disastrous, public failure? Not sure really. But it is another example of do it while you can. At least for robotics I am working towards an exit plan where things will go on without me. I've been in Year Two of the Four Year Stand Down plan for about three years now.
On a whim I looked back at my progress report for the last robot Team 5826 built. January and February of 2020 as rumors of Covid started to radiate outward from Wuhan China. Interestingly one of our coaches actually had to take a business trip to Taiwan at this point in time.
My posts have a similar sort of Quiet Desperation to them. Major mechanisms did not work properly. We were overweight and yet needed to add additional structural supports. We were building something peculiar that would be unlike anything else in the competitive field. In various fashion the problems we face in Build Season are always the same. Oh, some years we also have most of the software kids disappear on a Band Trip for a week.
But a few things are different. We compete one week earlier. That's not good. But at least the challenges all teams face are equal. The Duluth tournament features lots of small town teams. Everyone is operating on the same calendar, has been hit by Covid, and by the failure of the usual system of passing off expertise from graduating seniors to wide eyed newbies. Our policy of calling up talented 8th graders when we find them has had few glitches.....and has given us a core group of now sophomore leaders.
Saturday.
You start out by checking the numbers that would be really bad if they were wrong. Max allowable height is under by a half inch. We are allowed a perimeter of 120 inches. And we have:
One of our last needed components is in hand. A spring loaded bar catching hook. Nice design by our CAD team.
Here's a nice housekeeping touch.
Ah yes you wonder. But does the robot work? Well that's complicated. The center of gravity is not exactly where we thought it would be so the angle of the various hooks and gizmos needs to be changed. Right now we are a half inch off on the more difficult hook grab. We might actually have to add ballast to the back of the robot. This is not without precedent, we had to do this in Year One. That's one area where being underweight helps a lot.
One of the kids has been lobbying for a hefty 2000 cc air tank. This plus a couple of smaller ones will give us plenty of lift. I told him sure, if we can make weight. Now it appears I have to let him go for it. I really hope we don't have to bring back the monster 5000 cc tank from 2020, that was ridiculous. But heavy, so there's that....
I won't lie this season has been tough on me. I showed up early to get things organized. The area we work in is used by an architecture/building class during the school day. There are all these neat little house models done in CAD and laser cut. I looked at them and had visions of Mecha-Robo-Godzilla stomping them all flat.
The robot is starting to come together. Weekday sessions are always a bit less productive than our long Saturday sessions.
Monday's unhappy surprise: the maximum allowable pneumatic pressure is 60 psi not 65. Again, the kids should learn not to trust my facts! This means we have less margin of error regards weight and really should bring the robot in at 100, maybe 105. We think we can. Oh, then you have to add a 12.5 pound battery and about 9 pounds of protective bumper. Total weight: 126.5. Calculated lift ability: 147 pounds. So this should work.
We also tested the pneumatic ball "spanker". It is fun and has sufficient range.
Tuesday started slow. Assorted fussing about with the wrong rivets, and additional time spent unproductively on considering alternatives to our "pinball flipper" ball acquisition system. But eventually we got things assembled sufficiently to power up the pneumatics and attempt the first and most critical of our two climbs. As I said, it should work....
And it does.
Thursday We turned over the calendar. Now it is February. That seems to put more time pressure on. In fact we will be competing four weeks from when today's update posts. I worry about several big things. Big Things are best tackled on Saturdays so we filled in with some Medium Things.
Battery holder secured.
There will be intake grabber arms attached to these little stubs. Pinball flippers I call them. Ready to mount and not too far from being under software control. I mean, in the movies nothing bad every happens with robot arms, right?
I'm fairly easy going about my politics. And if I'm enjoying a beer I become even more so. Over pints I have had many enjoyable chats about the state of the world with those who see it differently. So please don't take what follows as a partisan screed.
There is a microbrewery over on the other side of the state that is run by people with very outspoken progressive views. That's fine although I do see them taking a few chances by actually insulting conservatives, many of whom enjoy their beer. But it is their business to run. I think they went a bit too far when they started their own PAC and in its name sued school districts around the state that did not "follow CDC guidelines". It is a free country, they broke no laws, and on some level I respect people who are so passionate about their beliefs that they take actual risks.
As it happens I think they were wrong, and their actions just made a bad situation worse, so I don't think I'll support them by buying their products. Free country for me also.
But that is beside the point. The other day I ran across their wares on one of my essential supply runs. Since I won't be sampling the taste I can only judge a can by its cover. This is important in the modern beer marketplace. Have a catchy name and a visually pleasing container and it might set you apart from others on the crowded shelf. This is a golden age for beer and there are lots of great options. So what to make of this:
Best of luck to the brewery involved anyway. The world needs more good beer and more people willing to put their money on the line for what they believe in. Cheers. Also Hissssssssss!
