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Monday, February 28, 2022

Digging an Underground Speakeasy. Eccentrics with Power Tools.

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!







Friday, February 25, 2022

The Times (well, not the New York Times, but still) They are a' changin'

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.  


There is a mood of change in the air, one I can't recall sensing since my days in high school back in the very early 1970's.  Change is not always good.  Or always bad.  It is usually a mixture.  And there are lots of opinions on where it should go.  The driver of this pickup truck has her, or his, or their sentiments on unapologetic display.



Cheers! Christmas in February

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 big sign advertises Leinenkugel's beer.  Quite apt as this is a tavern.  The smaller sign points you to Christmas trees for sale out back.  Hmmmm.  I guess they have the market to themselves.  At first I thought this was an accident, maybe a sign that was buried under snow and is just now peeking out.  But here is the front of said tavern.


Full on Christmas décor.  Peeking through the window there is even a nice green Christmas tree inside.  I suppose it is likely plastic.

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.

Wednesday, February 23, 2022

The Flying Saucer - Il Disco Volante

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?


Here's a clip I found on Youtube.  It does contain the hypnotic marching music so I suggest you mute it unless you want your brain to also retain it for the next fifty years!


As I said I've done a bit of research now.  The movie was made in 1964.  The original running time was 94 minutes so I don't think what I saw had been weirdly edited down.  It features an Italian comedic actor named Alberto Sordi who actually - a la Peter Sellers - played four different roles.  It was made in the same year as the most famous example of this cinematic form, Dr. Strangelove.  Sellers incidentally made something of a career of doing this.  He certainly did not swipe the idea from the Italians.

The Flying Saucer was meant to be a satire of contemporary Italian society.  The four roles played by Sordi were a dim witted policeman, a miserly accountant, an alcoholic priest, and a decadent nobleman.  Other than the first this all went way over my head.  Even viewing the clip above and now knowing rudimentary Italian it makes no sense.

And I like that.  Despite understanding what the director was going for here I still understand almost nothing else and that is just as it should be.  

Il disco Volante came to my attention after all this time when I learned that Monica Vitti who played the depraved Contessa,  passed away on February 2nd at age 90. She died of Alzheimers and I sincerely hope that the soundtrack of Il Disco Volante was not one of her last persisting memories.




Monday, February 21, 2022

Robotics. Almost There.

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.


Observant viewers will note that the protective bumpers are not on.  There was a bit of rubbing between them and the intake paddles.  This made the robot a bit more dangerous.  I got a bit of a bump on the shin while the controls were being worked out.

Star of the day was our really outstanding robot transport cart.  Topper designed by the team and laser cut by a sponsor.  Lookin' good.


The real icing on the cake would be getting that second "monkey bar" climb to work.  After many, many days of dithering the anchor for this was placed at the end of the session.  And a very simple way of positioning it was finally arrived at.  We don't have much time left, but this might actually work.

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....

Friday, February 18, 2022

Endurance - 2

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:


A weed of some sort growing straight out of a brick wall.  Remarkably it has a faint greenish tinge to it.  Somehow just enough photosynthesis is going on to keep it from going entirely dormant.  I'll circle back and take a picture in a few weeks.  The world will be different then.

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.  

FIRST Robotics - Home Stretch

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:


This new "C-grabber" means we put the balance point three inches further forward.  And the result?


Looks better.  Note the front of the elevator is on now.  Aluminum hoop below with polycarbonate sleeve above.  Oh, lets do a bit of actual engineering.


The hang now reads about 4 degrees nose up, and we can get it to +6 with ballast.  This should suffice to bring the second hang within reach - but still far from easy.  And the team found ways to make this happen without major frame surgery.

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.


Down on the software side of the team a bulletin board with cryptic messages.  Some relate to intake flippers.  Some relate to love.


Wednesday/Thursday

There was a special wiring and coding session on Wednesday.  I stopped by to mooch some pizza but mostly stayed out of the way.  Systems became operational one after another, albeit still with very vulnerable wiring and tubing all over the place.

Thursday was busy on a level that kept me from taking a single picture.  We did get through most of my Get it Done List but a good part of the team is wearing out.  

It looks as if we will get most things running in time, but how well?  One critical component seemed wobbly.  I was not quite sure why.  Turns out the kids making these were using the wrong size bolts.  "Why did you use those?" I asked.  "We couldn't find the right size", they said.  "Oh, sez I, you mean these here?"   

They need to switch from slop it together over to make it precise, tight and worthy of admiration.  We are not there yet.  I'm not sure we'll get there this season.


Wednesday, February 16, 2022

Endurance

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.


And not just little trees either.  This sizable specimen is clutching at the rocks as if to say, "Sure I'll go down some day.  But I'm takin' some of you with me".


Further down the road there is a natural spring.  These trees are effectively growing straight up through a glacier.


This last photo does not exactly do this tree justice.  What kind of strain must it be under to grown down, then up again?  My own ups and downs are trivial in comparison.


I guess if mere plant life can stand up to this sort of stress and strain then I should not complain about the vexing but certainly not life and death things I have to wrestle with of late....

Monday, February 14, 2022

FIRST Robotics 5.2 - Crunch Time

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.


That little dial on the top.  Lets take a closer look.


This measures how far off level the robot is when it hangs.  We initially anticipated a "nose up" reading of perhaps plus 3 degrees.  Turns out it is nose down at minus 4 or so.  That meant the robot actually started to slide off its initial hang just a little, hence the small wedge.  Our CAD guru says we can pull this off IF we get the angle to a slightly nose down minus 2 degrees.  Here's my idea of high level engineering, and what I think will be the defining picture of the 2022 build season:

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.

Saturday.  The crucial day of the crucial week.

The wiring is mostly done.  We should be able to drive the competition machine in another session or two.


The hard flippers are being replaced with soft ones.  These are 3D printed and seem like a better option.  They do need to be bigger.  Each one takes a long time to print.  


And we have the blue bumper "over covers" ready.  The bumpers this year are only OK, but that will likely be true of the project in general.


We are still struggling with the geometry of our second climb.  The total weight of the robot is still fine but its center of gravity keeps shifting.  When we put it on the hang bar today and saw it read 9 degrees nose down I almost despaired.  How can it keep doing this?  Well we knew this would be the last system finished and think we might have one more trick up our sleeves.  So the jury is still out on this project.

But not for long.  In three weeks we will have finished our event and our season.  

Not much time left. 

Friday, February 11, 2022

Carpe Diem

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.


Wednesday, February 9, 2022

Monday, February 7, 2022

FIRST Robotics Report 5.1 - A Game of Inches

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:


At least on weight we are looking good.  A max allowed of 125 and we are just under 90 with all the stuff on board.  That number will become important in a bit....

One of our last needed components is in hand.  A spring loaded bar catching hook.  Nice design by our CAD team.


We have started to clear out junk we now know we won't need.  There's a lot of it.  Some things are in the uncertain category and only going as far as my car.  There is a lot of rattling going on in the back when I drive down the highway.

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.





Friday, February 4, 2022

FIRST Robotics Report 4.2 - The Von Frankenstein Moment

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.


It's always exciting when a robot first comes to life and works.  I call it the Von Frankenstein moment.  I must admit I always say, sometimes aloud sometimes under my breath, "It's Alive!"


There is more good news as well.  The first lift is pretty much level, so when as a test we had kids pull towards the second bar - which our next pneumatic system will do - it was as my grandkids say "Easy Peasy, Stinky Cheesy".  Actual engineering meets empiric testing.

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?


It's not all about the robot.  Here's meal time.  A young lady who has stepped up as Team Captain encourages the troops.  One of the adult coaches shovels in spaghetti.


And so it goes.  Hopefully we get another solid Saturday in.  We need a couple of custom parts lasered, some electronics are stuck in the supply chain somewhere, but unless/until we get blizzards and the rest of the team goes down with Covid....we might pull this off.

Wednesday, February 2, 2022

Lizard Beer

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:


Something struck me as odd right away.  It took me a while to process it.  Let's see....black bulbous eyes.  No visible nose.  Fixed grinning expression.  Where have I seen that before?


Is President Biden a Lizard Person?  I'll admit the odds are small, but it would explain much.

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!