Well, this is embarrassing. But also, every other blog in the world at one point or another.
Things have been happening, but it’s very very slow, and I want a bit more progress before I publish the page I have simmering.
I’ve got what I need to relocate the bike’s batteries to a better location, so that’ll be done soon. Also need to clean the storage as part of the bike thing to make it much more useful all around.
I think that’s it for now. I’m not dead, just very quiet and trying to push several boulders uphill…
Greetings and Salutations! Happy Gregorian New Year, 2023!
I hope your new year started on a positive note. Not so much here, but this is how it goes sometimes. I thought in order to both update the blog on what’s going on as well as help me get some things straight, I’d write an update/status on several of the front-burner projects.
The “Wearable”
It’s no secret I’m working on a wearable, even if I haven’t confirmed many of the specifics on here lately. One of the things I’m customizing for this device is the connection between the computer and the wearable device itself, which cleans up the wiring and allows greater features in the future.
However, I’ve never done pcb design before, so I’ve made a lot of mistakes, none of them particularly cheap. I think I’ve found all the bugs in the most recent version, I’ve taken out an unnecessary feature and it’s associated complexity, I just need to save up the $100+ to get them finished. With the first device-side board finished, that will also allow me to continue the software development.
To continue testing on the computer-side board I can use this last? failed board, so that’s a happy accident. It’s also going to be about $100+ per version, but hopefully I’ve done most of the necessary learning for this round and it’ll only be one or two attempts.
BOM for the Wearable Project
Manufacturing Cost
$92USD
Customs
$32CAD
Saving Target
~$150CAD+tax
EbikeE
V1 of the EbikeE is working just fine, but it is showing it’s age. I know I just finished it, but it was started well over a decade ago from parts off the cheap shelf. One of which had to be replaced to get this far (the controller).
But the batteries don’t have the range or juice they used to. And they take up all my storage space, which also puts their massive mass in the wrong place. And their chargers are very old and weren’t the best when I bought them. One of them has broken down completely, the other seems to be OK now that it’s fan is fixed, so fingers crossed.
The motor has been upgraded, and the new version is better in every single way. It’s shaped properly for bicycles, so I can use all my gears! It’s got proper gear mounts, so I can make the gearing work smoothly again and not be the terrible old-school hack it is now. It can be filled with statorade so it will handle the heat better. It’s stronger and more efficient. It will also probably require an update to the derailleur and shifters.
And finally even the cycle-analyst (CA) computer brain has been upgraded. The new version not only has many features, it will make everything so much neater! It minimizes the necessary wiring to the controller, so I can move the controller near the motor and batteries, and connect it back to the CA with a single wire! Right now it is 2 bundles, one 2 thick wires for the batteries, one 3 thick and 5 thin wires for the motor.
OOPS! I had originally posted without mentioning a fairing, which I’m also looking for!
I decided a while ago to try and collect all my various LEGO and other building block stuff in a single place. I looked around on the interwebs for inspiration at how other folx have stored and presented their collections, and then decided what I wanted to try.
So for the last while I’ve been using 3 black Ikea Lack side-tables, stacked together, to store bags and boxes of blocks, as I saved for and worked on various parts. I’ve 3d printed some pieces that help to hold the tables together when they are stacked. I’ve got some castors and a bottom board ready to install to make it easily moveable. And I’ve got the first 6 of the base plates, green and blue, which I’ll be putting on the middle table to imitate ground and water. For the top plate, I’m thinking about grey for “space”, and the bottom I’m thinking about some of the various weird colours like the orange for lava and stuff like that.
I’ve also got a light mounted to one side to make building/playing easier, some hooks to hang various and sundry other “stuff”, and when I figure out how, I have a lot of various building-block tools that I’ll have mounted on the side somehow that are easy for folx to use while playing.
OOPS! I forgot that I need at least one Ikea Trofast storage container to hold the instructions! I’ve got 3d printed brackets printed and installed already even! I’ll probably need more than one give how many instructions I have, so I may just get 3 and hang one under every top.
BOM for Lack LEGO Tower
6 32×32 Light Grey Building Block Plates
$34CAD
3 32×32 Deep Yellow/Orange Building Block Plates
$17CAD
3 32×32 Red Building Block Plates
$17CAD
3 Ikea Trofast thin storage bins
$15CAD
Saving Target
$83CAD+tax
Other Projects…
Those are probably the 3 projects that are on the front burners these days. The Lack LEGO Tower, when finished, will help keep the space clean as well as showcase some of the cool-ass builds. The Wearable has been a target for decades, as has the bike.
I’ve also been doing some maintenance on the various 3d printers. Our OG, the Flashforge Creator Pro 2016 version, is working very very well after it’s most recent tune-up and all-metal hot-end installation. We’re finialising next steps on that one, and planning for the next maintenance cycle on the other 2.
My workbench at home is going to undergo some upgrades and changes soon, but I think I have most of those parts (except for the Raspberry Pi Compute Module!), it’s just a question of shutting everything down and doing the work. There are several soldering projects building up, still getting over the anxiety for that. No idea why that still happens.
There are also plans to add some security cameras to the house, as well as fix and neaten up the wires. They’re mostly OK through the rest of the house, but down here in the basement they are rather a mess. We’ll need a new switch that provides POE for the cameras and existing infrastructure, but right now I think I’m the only one that cares so it’s probably gonna be a while.
Lots of other bits-and-pieces: The chiller vest (a vest with frozen water plates to both cool your body and provide drinking water through the day) just needs to have the sewing of the straps finished and possibly some buckles printed. The new-to-me PC needs a new 5.25-3.5 bay adapter designed and printed.
And I still haven’t found the parts to start fixing up and putting-back-together my RC Truck!
Given Melon Husk setting twitter on fire, Zuckerface supporting fascism, and the other general social media nonsense, I figured this may be the simplist way to dip my toe into the Fediverse!
So hopefully this is a Hello World post, testing the ActivityPub plugin.
So, I’ve been following Professor Steve Mann for ages, but somehow missed the heyday of the OpenEyeTap project! Professor Mann’s EyeTap is the result of his decades-long experimentation with wearable computing.
Below [hopefully on first attempt], is a 3d printed “Amerac” frame. The amerac is the display, anti-camera, part of the system. The frame also holds the two-way 70T/30R mirror that the display is projecting onto the back of. The front is pointed towards a camera, which is centered on the amerac and equidistant from the mirror, as well as it’s reflection being centered on in the mirror onto your eye when looking straight ahead.
OpenEyeTap Amerac 3D Printed Frame
This means that the camera and display are both in the same plane and also line up, so when the display sends it’s modified image to the back of the mirror, that will perfectly overlap what you see with the display changes over top.
I haven’t figured out a way to cut the mirrors yet, other than painfully by hand. The sizes lend themselves to sample sizes from various vendors, which is a handy coincidence. I also haven’t figured out a way to buy one of the displays from TaoBao yet, which is rather frustrating!
I’ve also slowly picked up another little toy that I was thinking about. We have a nice silver PLA in the Prusa I3Mk3SMMU2S which triggered me to it for some reason…. for now I’ll just leave this teaser:
