I teach the eight and nine year olds in Sunday school now. Today was my first Sunday, and I have to say it was pretty awesome. I thought I didn’t like strange little kids. Turns out they’re all strange but I do like them anyway. There was a time when all the little kids are together, from ages 5-11 (or something like that). The leader announced the topic for today was the atonement of Jesus, and asked if anyone knows why we need Jesus. The little kid in the row behind me, he was probably seven, said “so that we can be forgiven of our sins and be resurrected.” The teacher called him to the front and made him say it louder. On the way back to his seat the teacher said “Very good! Somebody has been listening to their parents and Sunday school teachers!” He said very casually “That’s all I have to do in life.” I might have been the only one to hear his comment, he sat right behind me and said it quietly.
Well, that kids on the right path I’d say. He sounded like he decided on that himself, which is inspiring.
I don’t think children are so wise that we can learn from them. I think we can learn from them because they are ignorant of almost everything in the world. They’re very basic humans, and mature humans can forget some of the basics. If you lose hope in the goodness of humanity you can turn to this group. At least the ones in church on Sunday.
You’ll see a couple instances of these model-fabrication visuals throughout the blog and site. I like seeing designs come to life - especially if I’m the one fabricating. So, v1.5 does away with a lot of electrical tape, and is a more engineered chassis.
I put a few Antennae on with a double servo gimbal so they move around, this freaked Holly out. I took it off. Had to introduce an external 5V regulator which could output more amperage to the radio to power the servos. The TrexJr motor controller board has a 5V out to power the radio, but it is limited to 50mA, enough to drive the radio receiver, but not servos.
Here is the chassis design, followed by the fabricated piece.
Here is a picture of my use of zip-ties to mount the motors. The rounded plastic pieces constrain the motors vertical freedom, and the zip ties hold the motors in place. Like so:
Tankbot 1.0 incorporates a lot of electrical tape to hold it together. But, it is pretty resilient. This is the result of a 1-day build. I think I’ll have a more engineered iteration soon using the electronics and hardware I already have. Tankbot 1.2 will have a light and wireless cam. Here is Holly behind the controls.
I interrupted her homework but it was worth it.
Here is Holly’s fine controller abilities demonstrating Tankbot’s maneuverability.
I can put a 5V regulator between the battery and receiver, and hook up some servos to the receiver. The motor controller board outputs power to the radio receiver but only about about 50 mA of juice, so not enough to power servos. That’s a pretty easy upgrade. But eventually, when I get some more tank tread, and make a legitimate chassis, I can put more electronics in there. The following diagram shows a tankbot version I have in mind. So, the only thing I’m not sure about is the serial data line out of the micro-controller. Can I just split it and send to the servo controller and motor controller? Do I daisy-chain the servo controller and the motor controller? Will the two boards getting commands from the microprocessor get confused about whom should be receiving which commands? Plus, how do I program? I took like one java programming class like 4 years ago. Also, will the micro-controller allow a mixture of programmed operation and real-time control from the radio?
This document frame was a christmas gift from my cousin Laura, and will soon house different 8.5×11 than the one below. But until then, it is home to a Christmas gift from Dave, Holly’s dad.
I redeemed this gift certificate about a week ago and something magical happened. I found a reason to put a lot of pictures into my blog post. The box arrived today while I was out, so Holly opened it and this is what she found:
Any guesses? It should be noted here that I have searched the internet for parts just like this for a couple years now. All the ones that have been offered were either too weak/small/cheap, or too large/expensive. I’ve tried to think of a way to make them myself, all to no avail. And then, on my favorite robot supply website, I saw a little flashing red “NEW” next to an icon depicting these bad boys. got ‘em.
It gets better…. see the plastic parts go together in like so manner:
And then, when you least expect it…
they go together some more.
YUP! Tank tread. And when you add a pinch of misc. robot parts you get the the makings for a cool toy.
The bulk of the gift was this dual channel motor controller circuit board. This takes several control signal inputs and translates that to motor power output. It can take an analogue input (potentiometer, 0-5V, pictured), PWM signal (square wave from an RC reciever), or commands through a serial data line (micro-processor or computer). It can mix channels for differential drive output, so basically controlling a tank-style drive system, and it also has a bonus motor output, and a few other bells and whistles. It is pretty much the absolute minimum needed to control the motors on a tank-bot. I’ve built a tank style robot before (The Claw) but due to its rubber tread, it gets derailed on carpet which is no fun. These plastic tank tread are great on carpet. I will experiment with studding them with hex bolts for better traction. I also realized after assembling the tread that I will need more. They are too small, and I would like to give them geometry similar to The Claw, in order to climb obstacles. I’ve got all the electronics for a very fabulous robot, and now I’ve got a key piece of hardware. I will figure out how to make aluminum hubs for the tank so I don’t have to keep buying plastic ones, and I can use them for idler wheels.
Two things just occurred to me. First, I haven’t heard anything about the war lately. I don’t have cable, and am fine with being out of “the know,” and this has been my situation for the last two years. During the first of those two years, wherever there was media (inescapable) I was reminded of what a horrible war we’re waging, the constant death tally, and horror stories of individuals involved in the war, and reports of negative public opinions of the war and the president. I was eating Apple Cinnamon Cheerios just now and thought to myself “are we still at war?” This is a ridiculous question, of course, but then I realized I haven’t heard anything about it in like forever. Has anything changed? I know Tiger Woods is a big deal, and something about health care reform… but um…. war still bad, right? Are we still sending more troops over there? But its ok now cuz Barack is sending them not Bush? I don’t even pretend to know what I’m talking about here, but I feel like there is some value in this perspective.
Second, I wonder if anyone would read a blog post even though I haven’t posted in like nine months.
about midnight I was patrolling the facility because it is THE crazy party night of the year. about 50 feet down the road I saw a car pulled over with a kid barfing on the sidewalk. Now, I’m listening to the scanner as three ambulances and a police car respond to an incident at the apartments next door. we saw one dude go in the ambulance in handcuffs. I’m hearing a continuous stream of call ins.. right now… Robert Collins, 23, no warrants, disorderly conduct…. somebody throwing bear bottles at a frat house… a 5 person fight in the street, the police arrived, everybody ran… another disorderly….somebody fell through a sliding glass door, 6 inch gash into shoulder… somebody hit by a car (oh, that’s by our old place)…
Nothing I am witnessing around me right now looks like fun. I’ve never understood it, and if my kids are ever like this I don’t think I will understand it then, either. What is the appeal?
I would like to make a better web-presents for the two builds I was involved with recently, but for now, for the sake of having pictures available, here is one of them.
Mars Rocks competition, the Claw. It won the “Shock and Awe” award. I just made that up. It woulda won first overall if ___________! But that’s what all the losers say. Achiles, our other build, did win first overall. Those pictures are soon to come.
Shows motor controller board and ugly welded piece
Side shot
That welded metal piece towards the front was added for ballast. It had to go over obstacles, and in order for it to lean forward and go over them, it needed some weight up front. It is the only part on the build that doesn’t fall within 10/1000 inch specifications. and its ugly. We took it off after finishing the competition, works fine without it. The point of the bot is to grab rocks, put them in the hopper, transport them to a target area, and drop them there. video soon.
I just read my friend Joal’s blog, and now I am inspired. I often find myself jealous of some people’s ability to be happy without requiring tons of gadgetry and stuff. I mean, I am happy without stuff, but I’m happier with it. What I’m looking forward to after graduating from college is having kids, and having more stuff. I plan to buy stuff with my money. Yeah, we’ll save some and invest some more, and pay off student loans, but I’m more excited about the things I’ll get to have. I want an xbox360, a nice lcd tv, a cool cell phone, some more RC toys, and tools in the garage (and I mean tools - lathe, mill, waterjet, welding stuff, presses, punches, dies, casting and forging equipment, EVERYTHING). I want a nice car and a big house.
Joal’s blog is mainly about time spent with his kids and Elizabeth, memorable moments, deep and gushy stuff. Its great! I get a sense of his value system, and an appreciation of relationships and community. I do love the outdoors, and I love camping and hiking with Holly. Maybe instead of totally repenting of my materialism I can just sort of morph it into something more family oriented instead of self oriented. Yes, instead I’ll covet all the coolest baby-monitoring electronics, the most high tech car-seat, and stuff like rafting, boating, hiking, and camping equipment.
Being around college guys in the ME school has had positive and negative influences on me. For some reason, the people here are so much more foul and crude than students at the community college I left two yeas ago. Here, I try to associate more closely with people I can be comfortable conversing with, but the rest are inescapable. Recently I have caught myself thinking things I wouldn’t have two years ago. Keeping my mind pure and positive is an increasingly difficult challenge.
On Wednesday it came to a point, I said a silent prayer and resolved to change. The next day I had a song repeating in my mind. I had forgotten about my resolve, the only thing that cropped up in my mind yesterday was this little tune from a Marley song. I sang it in my head all day, or quietly as one does while walking through an empty hallway or in the car, without thinking about it at all. it wasn’t until last night probably in the early hours of this morning as I was doing homework at the kitchen table and mouthing the words to the song, that I stopped what I was doing and recognized what was going on. I had been singing it mindlessly all day but I stopped and thought about the words for the first time, I was shocked.
“Let the words of my mouth, and the meditation of my heart be acceptible in thy sight, oh Verai!”
It took the group effort of God and Bob Marley to get this verse from Psalm 19 into my head. What a blessing! It reminded me immediately of the “Footprints in the Sand” story. I didn’t know God was helping me all day, but he truly was. I remembered that God is mindful of me and my little daily challenges. Also that I am not left on my own in the struggle to progress in purity and all else. Prayers are answered and anyone can call upon God to add strength to their efforts.
I started listening to Regae on my mission in Baltimore. I had a companion who insisted and I came to like it a lot. A lot of current regae offerings are more like crap I mean rap. But the old-school stuff is almost all spiritual in nature, or political. Anyway, I like it. Matisyahu is a relatively new face in the scene of traditional style regae. I like him, too.
Its official. They’re gone. Well, they’re in the bathroom. Dr. Morrison gave them back to me in a high-tech little baggy that probably cost $250. I thought of making a charm necklace from the bones, but to work it would take a matching death or wicca themed wardrobe which I sadly lack. And I’m not ready for that arena of social interactions. We tried throwing the bones on the ground to see what they could tell us. Nothing. So they’re in the fancy baggy in the bathroom. Maybe I could make a christmas nut-cracker and use the teeth for the nut-cracking mechanism. Maybe a thumb ring with a wisdom-tooth center peice. OOH, if I had a lip ring I could put the wisdom tooth as a charm on the ring. Then, some other exccentric types would extrapolate some kind of deeper meaning from the thing. Any other ideas?
From the few witnesses of my coming-to stages after the surgery, I’ve heard that I was a bit loopy. I don’t think I was as loopy as this kid, though. Wow.
